Miscellanies. 211 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
l. This Journal. rates Sarmarded to the Editor Jrom a Boent city 
in the South—Remark: Were not this Journal principally the production 
of others, it might oe improper for the editor to publish the following 
communication, which was wholly unlooked for. The writer, who is not 
a New England man, is a gentleman well and advantageously known in 
the literary world, and of a profession in no way connected with the di- 
rect cultivation of the sciences which the Journal sustains, 
It is his particular request that the notice may appear, and we aod 
not that we are precluded by considerations of delicacy. The writer of 
the notice possesses a complete copy of the Journal in all its volumes.— 
Eprror.—April 3, 1838. 
To the Editor yon te Sir,—Having some leisure, in the evenings, 
during the past year, I took upthe American Journal of Science for read- 
ing, and I soon found it such an interesting and valuable companion that 
Iread it through in course, omitting the articles on mathematics, and oc- 
casionally on some other branches. Praise would be out of place here, 
as I am addressing this note through the Editor himself; but I can, at 
least, say to you that we owe you a debt of gratitude for having persevered 
as you have done for twenty years, with this valuable publication. But 
gratitude alone, though I believe it is widely felt, is a poor recompense for 
such labors as these. The Journal of Science ought to be extensively 
taken throughout our country. This publication is as large as most of 
our own “quarterly reviews,’ and has a great number of expensivé 
plates, and not a little difficult composition, and yet the price per annum 
is only a dollar more than other quarterly journals of popular litera- 
ture. When bound, it makes a handsome and creditable addition to any 
library: and a more valuable mass of matter than its 33 or 34 volumes 
contains, I have never met with in the same number of pages. A great 
portion of itis readable, or may easily be made so, in a family circle, and 
certainly it would be a more profitable kind of reading than is often se- 
lected for such occasions. Toscientific men, or to one who like myself is 
only a lagging inquirer in the ways of science, it is truly useful not only 
as condensing a valuable portion of the successful scientific labors of other 
countries, but also as affording a clear exhibition of much that is doing 
in our own; and to our adventurers in the scrutiny into nature, it is 
a happy sa valuable stimulus as well as guide and assistant. 
What a change has occurred in our country, since a few individuals, 
who were then the solitary collectors of minerals, could find no one even 
to give their specimens names. Now almost every principal town (not 
to mention smaller ones,) has its Lyceum with a good cabinet: private 
cabinets are to be met with every where ; and many of the states have sent 
forth their public geologists to explore their territories and to search out the 
