of the United States of America. 15 



ff t ' 



This institution, supported and endowed by the general go* 

 vernment, is a most prominent object of public attention. Fur- 

 nishing the executive with a powerful patronage, and supplying 

 well-instructed and capable officers, it has been a favourite of 

 every successive administration. It has hence become, in many 

 instances, the mark and rallying point of opposition ; and has, on 

 more than one occasion, been exposed to the danger of destruction 

 by a refusal of the annual appropriation. That policy, however, 

 which strikes at an object of general and acknowledged utility, 

 because its destruction may weaken an opposing party, is mean 

 and contemptible, and has lately received such a defeat as will 

 probably prevent its being again brought forward, at least in the 

 form of an attack upon this Institution. Its friends may therefore 

 indulge themselves in the hope, that its reputation and usefulness 

 will be every year extended, and that it will finally conduce as 

 much to the prosperity as to the scientific reputation of the 

 American nation. 



ART. II. Further Remarks on the Naturalization of Fishes, 

 by J. Mac Culloch, M.D. F.R.S. 



[In a letter to the Editor.] 

 Dear Sir, 



You will probably not object to my communicating to you, 

 from time to time, any. new matter or observations with respect 

 to this interesting subject, which may chance to come to light, 

 whether the result of my own experience or of that of others. If 

 it was rather from the hopes of calling the public attention to 

 this subject, and, in particular, the attention of those who had the 

 power of making experiments, than from any other motives, that 

 I communicated, originally, the scattered and imperfect facts con- 

 tained in the two former papers, there will not be less use in 

 noting, as they occur, any new facts which may serve to keep the 

 subject alive in the public mind. A periodical journal is, froifi 

 its very nature, transitory in its effects ; and when any subject 



