ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XV 



knots an hour. In Great Britain there are now 9,500 miles of rail- 

 way ; and taking, at a rough calculation, one locomotive engine with a 

 force of 200 horses power to every three miles of railway, and assum- 

 ing each to run 120 miles per day, we might thence calculate the dis- 

 tance travelled over by trains to be equal to 380,000 miles per day, or 

 138,000,000 miles per annum. To transport these trains required 

 a force equivalent to 200,000 horses in constant operation thoughout 

 the year. In the locomotive engine there has been no improve- 

 ment of consequence during the last two years, excepting only its 

 adaptation to burning coal instead of coke ; but in the formation of the 

 permanent way, considerable improvements had been effected, especi- 

 ally in the jointing of the rails by the process known as fish-jointing. 



Admiral Moorson in alluding to the lack of progress in some 

 departments of Naval Architecture, and especially as regards the ca- 

 pabilities of marine steamers, expressed his opinion that if experiments 

 were conducted at sea under a vast variety of conditions as to form, 

 size, and circumstances, rules might be established which would serve 

 to determine much of what was now the subject of controversy, and go 

 far to remove the reproach on the great maritime nations of the world, 

 which was contained in the following passage of a work by Mr. Scott 

 Russell : " It is admitted that out of every three steam-vessels that are 

 built, two fall very far short of fulfilling the intention with which they 

 were constructed." 



During the past year the publication of an American Mathematical 

 Journal, edited by Mr. J. D. Runkle, of Cambridge, has been com- 

 menced, under the endorsement of the American Association for the 

 Promotion of Science, and the best mathematical talent of the country. 

 It proposes to include in its pages solutions, demonstrations, and 

 discussions, in all branches of the science, as well as in all its various 

 applications ; also notes and queries, with notices and reviews of all the 

 principal mathematical works issued in this country or in Europe. 



A gallery of portraits of distinguished scientific men is now in the 

 course of publication at Vienna, and will consist, when complete, of a 

 folio volume of one hundred lithographic plates, executed in the highes 

 style of art, each portrait being accompanied with a 'leaf of text. 

 The gallery commences with Hurnboldt, and following him there are three 

 or more in each of the departments, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, 

 Astronomy, Meteorology, Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, Bctany, 

 Zoology, Anatomy, and Physiology. The physicists included are : 

 Amici, Baumgartner, Biot, Brewster, Ettingshausen, Faraday, Han- 

 steen, Herschel, Jacobi, Magnus, Miiller, Neumann, Plucker, Pog- 

 gendorff, Pouillett, Weber, and Zantedeschi. 



A portion of the report of the Canadian Geological Survey on the 

 organic remains of Canada, has been recently published by Mr. Bil- 

 lings, Palaeontologist of the survey, and treats of the Cystideas, Star- 

 fishes, and bivalve Crustaceans. It is a work of great merit, enlarging 



