92 



Report' on Elementary Public Instruction in Europe, made to the 



thirty-sixth General Assembly of the State of Ohio, December 



19, 1837. By C. E. Stowe. Reprinted by order of the House 



of Representatives of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, 1838. — From 



the same. 

 Berichten iiber die Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 



in Basel, vom August, 1834, bis Juli, 1838. Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 



Basel, 1835 to 1838.— From L. de Wette. 

 Annual Report of the Geologist of Maryland, 1838. Annapolis, 



1839. — Fromthe Author. 

 A Further Report on the Survey of a Rail Road from Chambersburg 



to Pittsburg. By Charles De Hass, Engineer. Harrisburg, 



1838. — From Mr. R. Conyngham. 

 Geology of Upper Illinois. By Charles U. Shepard, M. D. New 



Haven, 1838. — From Mr. E. Whittlesey. 

 First Report of Edward Miller, Engineer in Chief of the Sunbury 



and Erie Rail Road. Philadelphia, 1839.— From Mr. F. 



Fraley. 



The Committee of Publication, reported the publication of 

 Part Second, Vol. VI., of the Society's Transactions. 



Professor Bache communicated at the request of the Com- 

 mittee on the Observatory, the following translation of a 

 letter addressed to him by Professor Encke, Director of the 

 Observatory of Berlin. 



The nature of the operations of an Observatory must depend 

 more upon the individual taste and qualifications of the Director than 

 those of any other scientific establishment. There is still so much to 

 be done in every department of Astronomy, in any one of which 

 there is sufficient employment, that if the Director shows a particular 

 disposition for certain lines of research, it would be most profitable for 

 science that he should be allowed to follow them, and not be tied 

 down to other observations. It would be best, therefore, that the 

 Director should be allowed to regulate his own establishment. 



Large Observatories, like those of Greenwich, Konigsberg, and 

 Dorpat, require, in the present state of science, large telescopes, the 

 art of dividing having been carried so far, that small instruments will 

 not answer. The necessity for large telescopes for the meridian 

 instruments, as well as for other uses, renders such an establishment 

 very costly, and requires that it shall be independent of others. It 



