August 10, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



probable on the whole that the ultimate 

 explanation of this, as of all after-images 

 of motion, will be somehow formulated in 

 terms of impulses to movement aroused by 

 the particular stimulation that precedes. 

 Perhaps the experiments here recorded may 

 contribute their mite towards this final ex- 

 planation, if that ever comes. 



A. H. PiBECE. 



Amheest Colleqb. 



BAFINESQUE'S WESTERN 3IINEBVA, OR 



AMERICAN ANNALS OF KNOWLEDGE 



AND LITERATURE. 



It has been the writer's good fortune to 

 discover in the library of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia a copy of 

 Kafinesque's Western Minerva, or American 

 Annals of Knowledge and Literature, of which 

 the only information possessed had been 

 taken from the prospectus published as an 

 advertisement in the Kentucky Reporter of 

 1820. The great rarity of the work is ex- 

 plained by its author in his ' A Life of 

 Travel ' (1836), page 66, as follows : ' ' Ever 

 since 1821 I had proposed to publish a 

 literary and learned journal, the Western 

 Minerva; subscribers were procured, the 

 printer had also made a contract with me, 

 and the first number was printed ; when he 

 dared to suppress it, at the request of 

 some secret foes of mine, who probably paid 

 him for it. I only saved three copies 

 of it * * *." 



The copy now under observation is a 

 small quarto, with a page measurement of 

 113x183 millimeters (exclusive of margins). 

 The matter is printed in two columns to the 

 page, and consists of vi + 82 pages, of 

 which the preface and dedication are not 

 double-columned, and pages 81-88 are with- 

 out doubt original proof sheets, as they are 

 printed on one side only, and bear cor- 

 rections in ink of typographical and other 

 errors, with such notes as "I must see 

 another proof," etc. 



Aside from the rarity of the work, it; 

 contains several articles of extreme interest 

 to naturalists, as new names for plants are 

 proposed which have not as yet been noted 

 in synonymy, or else have not been given 

 such an early date in scientific nomencla- 

 ture. In bringing these matters to the at- 

 tention of those interested it has seemed 

 advisable to describe the work from the 

 beginning, referring to the non-scientific 

 articles, or the apparently least interesting 

 of these, by title only. 



Western Minerva, \ or | American Annals \ 

 of Knotoledge and Literature, | Un peu de 

 tout, I Food for the Mind, | first volume, | 

 for 1821, I Lexington, Kentucky. | Pub- 

 lished for the editors, by Thomas Smith, 

 in quarterly num- | bers, four of which 

 form a volume, at $2 per annum. | 1821. 



Page ii. Blank. 



Pageiii. Dedication, " To the Trustees, 

 President, Professors and Tutors of Tran- 

 sylvania University * * *. " 



Page iv. Blank. 



Pages v,vi. Preface [Dated Lexington, 

 January, 1821]. 



Page 7. Headed with the title as on 

 title-page to the word literature, with the 

 addition of the following : Containing orig- 

 inal essays upon Science, the Arts, Litera- 

 ture, and subjects connected with the Civil 

 and Natural history of the "Western States. 

 Vol. I. Lexington (Ky.), January, 1820. 

 No. 1. 



Pages 7-11. Under the heading Legis- 

 lation, is Principles of Political Wisdom, 

 * * * Translated from the Greek by Ben- 

 jamin Franklin. 



Pages 11-18. Ethics, or Moral Philoso- 

 phy. The Moral Decameron ^ * * Trans- 

 lated from the Greek * * * by Benjamin 

 Franklin . 



Pages 18-22. Metaphysics. Theory of 

 the Creation or Emanation of Beings, etc. 

 [Signed, Leibnitz and dated Lexington, 

 October, 1820] . 



