5 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



expected that the tables will all be completed during the present 

 summer, and that the printing of the work will be commenced next 

 autumn. 



In reviewing what may be called the extra labors of Prof. Coffin, 

 we cannot refrain from endeavoring to impress upon the mind of the 

 general public that men of his character, who do honor to humanity, 

 ought not to be suffered to expend their energies in the drilling of 

 youth in the mere elements of knowledge, and with a compensation 

 not more than sufficient to secure the necessaries of life ; that they 

 should be consecrated as officiating priests in the temple of knowledge, 

 be furnished with all the appliances and assistance necessary to the 

 accomplishment of their objects, namely, the extension of the bounds 

 of human thought and of human power. 



The premature death of Prof. Coffin is a loss to the world, and, in 

 regard to him, we have to deplore that so much of his valuable life 

 was expended in the drudgery of teaching, which ought to have been 

 devolved upon inferior minds. 



-*- 



Dr. John W. Foster, the distinguished geologist and ethnologist, 

 of Chicago, died June 29th. He was born at Petersham, Mass., March 

 4, 1815, and graduated at the Wesleyan University, of Middletown, 

 Conn. He subsequently moved to Ohio, and connected himself with 

 the geological survey of that State. In 1849 he entered upon a geo- 

 logical examination of the Northwest, in company with Messrs. Jack- 

 son and Whitney ; and the observations they made are embraced in 

 two volumes, entitled " Report on the Geology and Topography of the 

 Lake Superior Land District" (1850-'52). Dr. Foster published an 

 elaborate volume, " The Mississippi Valley," which gave an account of 

 the physical geography, topography, botany, climate, geology, and 

 mineral resources, of that vast and important region of the continent. 

 He was President of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at its meeting in Salem, in 1869, and has contributed numer- 

 ous papers to the proceedings of that body and to the Chicago Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. He has been long engaged in the preparation of a 

 work on the "Prehistoric Races of the United States," which was 

 completed and printed, but not yet published, at the time of his 

 death. It is an elegant volume, and a valuable contribution to the 

 subject. 



