X NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



M. D. de L'Huys, its Vice-President, it has succeded in procuring 

 from the slopes of the Cordilleras numerous tubercles of potatoe, in 

 order to renew in Europe this so valuable species, which, through 

 exaggerated culture and long-continued disease, has lost a part of its 

 qualities. 



The report of the Meteorological Department of the English Board 

 of Trade, published June, 1858, states that much information relative 

 to winds and currents has been recently collected from various seas, 

 from many foreign stations on land, and from the Pacific and Atlantic 

 oceans. By very numerous trials, the specific gravity of nearly all the 

 oceanic surface has been ascertained ; and it is believed that these re- 

 sults will render further observations of the kind unnecessary, except 

 in peculiar and limited localities, for some special object. Distilled 

 water being taken as 1-000, the specific gravity of oceanic water is 

 found to be nearly 1-027. The lowest temperature hitherto recorded 

 (between 2-300 and 2-500 fathoms below the surface) has been 35 

 deg. in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian oceans, and 86 

 deg. the highest temperature anywhere at sea on the surface. The 

 total pressure of the barometer varies so little throughout the year 

 within certain limits of latitude near the equator, or rather at about 

 5 deg. of north latitude in the Atlantic, that (allowing for the six- 

 hourly change) any ship crossing that part of the sea may actually 

 compare her barometer with a natural standard, invariable within 

 those small limits of 2-100ths to 3-100ths of an inch. Hygrometric in- 

 quiries are steadily, though slowly, proceeding. Magnetism has not 

 occupied much thought, because it is zealously attended to in other 

 departments of the Government. The report rather gives a general 

 idea of what is being done, than the actual results of the labors of the 

 department. 



The managers of the Royal Institution, London, intrusted with the 

 award of the Actonian prize for the best essay "On the wisdom and 

 goodness of the Creator as displayed in the Radiation of Heat," have 

 reported that, in their judgment, no essay had been received by them 

 within the period of seven years since the last award in 1851, of suf- 

 ficient merit to entitle the author thereof to the prize of 105 ; that, 

 consequently, no prize was awarded this year; and that the 105 

 intended to have been awarded, would, pursuant to the trust-deed, be 

 retained, and awarded, with another sum of 105, in 1865, of which 

 due notice would be given. 



The present Emperor of the French, in 1852, decreed that a prize 

 of 2,000 should be awarded to the person who, in the course of the 

 ensuing five years, should make the most useful application of the 

 Voltaic pile, and he charged a commission, consisting of M. Dumas, 

 M. Becquerel, M. Pelouze, and M. Despretz, of the Institute, and of 

 other eminent scientific men, to select the recipient of the prize. This 

 commission has recently reported to his Majesty, that, after carefully 



