46 REVIEWS — REPORT OE THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



01 popular lecturing. However, wlien we consider that tlie Insti- 

 tution is yet in its infancy, having barely existed for ten years, 

 and contemplate what has already been effected by it, we are 

 justiiied in lioping brightly for its future progress ; and we would here 

 record our grateful sense of the exertions of its noble Secretary, 

 Professor Joseph Henr}'-, to whom mainly all these results are due. 

 He has fought the battle almost single-handed on behalf of science 

 against narrow nationalism and political greed ; he has met with 

 obloquy and persecution, but may now look back with pride on the 

 work he has done, and forward with hope on that which is before 

 him, secure that he possesses the sympathy aiid gratitude of his 

 brethren in science, whose interest he has so well served while at the 

 saDie time saving the honor of his country. 



"We may briefly mention that the total amount of the bequest 

 received into the Ti'easury of the United States was $515,169 ; of 

 the interest that accumulated on this before the Institution went into 

 operation, a portion amounting to $325,000 was devoted to building 

 purposes, and the remainder of about $125,000 |has been added to 

 the principal, so that the annual revenue is now about $40,000, of 

 which nearly the whole is expended in the manner above described. 



The title at the head of this article is that of the Tenth Annual 

 S.eport of the Regents to Congress, containing, in addition to the 

 business matter of the Institution, an appendix, the contents of which 

 are of a varied but generally useful character. Among these we may 

 notice an abstract of lectures on architecture in connection with 

 ventilation, &c., by Dr. Keid, whose disputes with the architect of 

 the New Houses of Parliament will be fam-iliar to all the readers of 

 PimcJi, Professor Henry's very excellent article on " Acoustics 

 apDlied to public buildings," (already given in this Journal, Vol. II. 

 page 130,) and his report on the testing of building materials, are 

 here : there is also by the same gentleman a syllabus of a course of 

 lectures on Physics, which, starting from the ultimate properties of 

 matter, carries us forward through the whole range of Natural Phi- 

 losophy along a track which, although well laid cut, seems to us less 

 truly philosophical and less in accordance with the history of science 

 than the one pursued by Comte. Thqre is also a propo'^ition for a 

 work by the illustrious author of the ninth Eridgewater treatise, 

 the magnitude of which is of startling dimensions : its suggested title is 

 " The Constants of Nature and Art," and, in the words of the pro- 

 poser, it " ought to contain all those facts which can be expressed by 

 numbers, in the various sciences and arts." "We are glad to observe 



