24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
equilibrium of a liquid mass withdrawn from the action of gravity; 
an account of the history of discovery relative to magnetism; recent 
researches relative to the nebule, by Professor Gautier; an article 
from the annals of the Observatory at Madrid, by Miguel Merino, on 
the investigations made to determine the form and volume of the 
earth; Arago’s account of aeronautic voyages performed with a view 
to the advancement of science, to which is added from an English 
publication Mr. Glaisher’s account of his recent ascensions in Eng- 
land; the first part of an interesting and valuable account of the ab- 
original inhabitants of the Californian peninsula, by Baegert, a Jesuit 
missionary who lived there seventeen years during the second half 
of the last century; and an article from a German scientific periodical 
on purple and azure dyeing in ancient and modern times. At the end 
of the volume a few of the more important tables of weights and 
measures, especially needed for reference in some of the preceding 
articles, have been added. 
Ethnology.—The publications of the Institution relative to eth- 
nology during the past year are those given in the appendix to the 
last report, the most important of which isa translation by Professor 
Rau, of an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Californian 
peninsula, by Baegert, a German Jesuit missionary. The book from 
which this translation was made was published in Germany in 1773, 
and is now very scarce and almost unknown in this country. It will be 
considered, we doubt not, at this time, an interesting contribution to 
the ethnology as wellas the early history of a part of the world which 
has of late years occupied so much of the public attention. Mr. Rau 
has not given a translation in the strict sense of the word, but a re- 
production of the work only so far as it relates to ethnological matters, 
his object being to rescue from oblivion facts relating to the history 
of a portion of the American race. The second part of this work will 
be published in the appendix to the present report. 
There is a growing taste for the study of ethnology in this country, 
and consequently a desire to form collections illustrating the condition 
of the American aborigines in different parts of the continent. In 
order to encourage this tendency, and to bring together for critical 
study and comparison the scattered specimens which exist in this 
country, the Institution has requested, either as a gift or a loan, 
specimens of the arts and other remains found in mounds, excavations, 
or on the surface of the ground; and with the assistance of Professor 
Matile, formerly of the University of Neufchatel, commenced in 1863 
