V! NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



tenance and lodging and clothing of himself and his family, upon the 

 active and constant exercise of his bodily powers." 



Among the grants of money made at the last meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association was one of $500 to Mr. Robert Mallet, in aid of what 

 may be called volcanic experiments. Mr. Mallet has recently made 

 public, in two portly illustrated octavos, a report on the last great 

 earthquake in the Neapolitan territory, and on seismology in general ; 

 and, by way of supplementing those researches, he proposes to de- 

 scend into the crater of Vesuvius, and ascertain by instrumental 

 means the temperature of the active vents, and the quantity of 

 aqueous vapor thrown out. From the quantity of vapor it will be 

 possible to infer the quantity of water which has infiltrated down to 

 the focus of the volcanic action, and from this and other data conclu- 

 sions may be drawn of great importance to physical science. 



The great work which has been progressing for four years past, 

 under the direction and at the expense of the Royal Society (G. B.), 

 namely, the cataloguing of the titles of all the papers and reports 

 published in " The Transactions and Proceedings of Scientific Socie- 

 ties," and in scientific periodicals from all parts of the civilized 

 world, from 1800 to 1860, inclusive, is so nearly complete that it will 

 probably be finished during the year 1863. The work is at present 

 in manuscript, and sixty-two volumes are already accessible for refer- 

 ence in the Society's library. The titles are copied in quadruplicate. 

 When complete, the enterprise will be as meritorious to the Royal So- 

 ciety as it will be useful to all engaged in scientific pursuits. Many 

 a student wastes time and labor through ignorance of what has been 

 already achieved in the several departments of science ; and none but 

 those who have endeavored to explore the accumulated mass of sci- 

 entific periodicals can judge of the weariness and hopelessness of 

 the search. For the sake of all concerned we hope that the Royal 

 Society will not remit their efforts until their great catalogue shall 

 be printed and published at a reasonable price. 



An important addition to astronomical literature has been made 

 during the past year, in the publication of a very full and detailed 

 "Account of the Great Comet of 1858," by Prof. G. P. Bond; the 

 whole forming Vol. iv. of the Annals of the Observatory of Harvard 

 College. The work a large quarto contains fifty-one engrav- 

 ings, many of large size, in which the comet is represented under 

 every aspect during the whole period of its visibility, two hundred 

 and seventy-five days. In twenty-two of these the comet is shown as 

 it appeared to the naked eye, and in twenty others as observed by 



