Captain Hughes communicated also, as appears in the bulletin, a spir- 
ited sketch of the meeting of the British Association which he attended 
at Glasgow, in the autumn of 1840, with the views of many of its aon 
men in scientific and practical geology. ~~ 
On the whole, we are very favorably. ieieanitendh t Seis eS and first 
inception of the National Institution at Washington, and we cordially wish: 
it success. We trust that the government will respond to, and fulfill their 
high obligations in regard to the munificent half million bequest of Mr. 
Smithson, and will bring it to bear either in aid of this Institution; or in 
some other form, without delay, as neglect and procrastination which 
would be as Jittle to our honor as to our advanage. 
~The frequent changes among our public men connected with the sail 
government, creates no small anxiety as to the fate of any efforts to pro-. 
mote good knowledge:and liberal arts, so far as a local institution at Wash- 
ington may depend upon those who are oppressed with political duties, and 
whose action is so liable to receive a disastrous bias from the malign at- 
mosphere of party. Liberal: institutions at Washington, under the influ- 
ence of enlightened and truly patriotic minds, could not fail to exalt the 
character, both of the government and of the oe manins vite such in- 
— we would peletoasinnss esto i ag fet 
ASE an Poe bans fans a Bt acet 
“1s Fossil Turtle Dr. Mantell has discovered 2 all fossil turt 
the chalk of Kent—a sey eal hing anh. prepared a me- 
moir omit for ~ Royal Society. te, acute: aq er gerd ty apag ats 
13. Fossil acca ies Mantell has ‘commpnicated 40 the Roy. 
Society an elaborate memoir upon the iguanodon, baleen a 
reptiles of Tilgate Forest, Sains all our ce ohh 
of these. squrians, derived chiefly from his own resear 
4, Mi icroscopical + Observations and Microscopes. —Dr. aaiei under 
of London, March 29, 1841, writes to the senior editor of this Journal : 
: * Microscopical observations are now all the rage in | every. department 
of science... _If you got to the Royal Society, you are sure of the micro- 
scopical investigation of the embryo—at | the Medico-Chirargical, micro- 
scopical observations on the blood corpuscules—at the Geological, micro~ 
scopical observations on fossil teeth, and at the Linnean, mic 
observations on vegetable organization. At the soiree of the president OF 
the Royal. Society, (the Marquis of Northampton,) microscopes Ls Ls 
great subject of attention, and then we have a microscopical society an | 
@ micr I 
; vfsp y been very. busy with his mic croscope in examining 
some American water from ‘West. Point, sent by Dr. Bailey, and we have 
seen some of your infusoria alive and as active as if they had not had a 
