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Miscellaneous Intelligence. 447 



8. United States Japan Exjmlitwn ; by Commodore M. C. Perkv 

 U.S.N.^ Vol. [I, 420 pp., 4to, with many maps and plates.— The first 

 and third volumes of the Reports upon this expedition appeared some time 

 since, and now the second is added. It is devoted to the aa-riculture, 

 mineral and other resources, natural history, geological characteristics, 

 etc., of the places visited by the squadron, especially of Lewchew, Peel 

 Island, Formosa, Japan and China. Although there was no naturalist on 



board the vessels, many vahiable facts were collected. Under natural 

 history, there is an important paper by Mr. John Cassin, of Philadelplna, 

 on the birds of Japan, with colored plates; notes on some colored figures 

 of Japan Fishes, by J. Carson Brevoort; a list of shells collected in 

 Japan, with 5 plates, by John C.Jay; Notes on the plants, by Asa 

 Gray; on the Ferns, by Daniel C. Eaton; exploration of Lewchew and 

 other places, by Rev. Gkorge Jones, 



9. Fossils of South Carolina ; by M. Tuomey and F. S, Holmes. 

 Nos. 11 and 12. Charleston, S. C, 1856. pp. 79-104, 4to, with 4 

 plates. — These numbers (in one) of this fine work continue the descrip- 

 tions and plates of the South Carolina Pleiocene fossils, and include spe- 

 cies of Venus, Petricola, Tellina, Psanimocola, Lavignon, Sinodcsmia, 

 Amphidesma, Donax, Mactra, Gnathodon, Solecurtus, Panopoea, Phola- 

 domya, Solen, and Pholas. The plates, as heretofore, are excellent, and 

 the work should have a place in every geological library. 



10. Specimen Tables Colcidated and Stereomoidded hj the Sivedish 

 t Calculating Machine, xviii and 50 pp., large 8vo, with a ])late of the 

 I machine, London, J 857. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts. 



— This calculating machine, by George and Edward Scheutz, is the most 



wonderful work of meclianical and mathematical skill combined which 



has been constructed. One of the specimen tables is a table of logarithms 



I of nunjbers from 1 to 10,000, "calculated, steromoulded, and printed 



, by machinery," a method which prechides error in the tables. It is 



stated moreover that "in the next machine, the rate of working may 

 easily be increased ten-fold so that twenty pages ma}' be quietly cal- 

 culaled and stereomoulded whilst a compositor was merely "setting up" 

 a single page. Various other specimens of mathematical calculations 



are given. 



11. On Fichtelite, a fossil Hydro-carhon, found in the Fichtelgehirge of 



North Bavaria. Inaugural dissertation, prepared for promotion to the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and addressed to the Philosophical Fac- 

 ulty of the Georgia Augusta University at Goettingen, by T. Edwards 

 Clark, B.S., of Cambridge, Mass. 3:2 pp., 8vo. Ueidelberg, 1857. 

 This memoir, which adds to our knowledge of the species Fichtelite, 

 both as to its crystallization and composition, we propose to cite fxom 



at another time. 



12. Astronomical ohservations, made under the direction of M. F. Maury, 

 Lieut. U. S. Navy, during the year 1848, at the U. S. N. Observatory, 

 Washinc^ton. Vol IV. Published by authority of the Secretary of the 



Navy. 308 pp., 4to. Vi^ashington, 1856.— This vohime of tables con- 

 tains the results of observations with the transit instruments, mural and 

 meridian circles and equatorial instrument; and also the mean right as- 

 cension of stars observed with ^e^o instruments, mean declination^ mean 



