4G REVIEWS — REPORT OE THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



expose themselves to the lavages of more numerous and destructive 

 creatures, whose numbers, the first, if suffered to live, would have 

 kept within bounds. Speaking of one kind of moth, peculiarly 

 hurtful to the vineyards in Trance, and of what may be done to 

 check the evil if the habits of the creature be understood, he states 

 that in twelve days from twenty to thirty women and children de- 

 stroyed upwards of forty millions of eggs that would have been 

 hatched in a few days. Prom the sketch of this lecture given, we 

 are led greatly to regret that the abstract should not have had a 

 greater space allotted to it than five pages. 



LECTURE ON METEORIC STONES, BY DR. J. L. SMITH. 



The lecturer distinctly maintains the lunar organ of meteoric 

 stones. The discussion which, even in its abridged form, occupies 

 twenty-four pages, is concluded in the following terms : 



" To sum up the theory of the lunar origin of meteorites, it may be stated that 

 " the moon is the only large body in space of which we have any knowledge, 

 " possessing the requisite conditions demanded by the physical and chemical pro- 

 " perties of meteorites ; and that they have been thrown off by volcanic action, 

 " (doubtless long since extinct) or some other disruptive force, and encountering 

 " no gaseous medium of residence, reached such a distance as that the moon es- 

 " ercised no longer a preponderating attraction, the detached fragment possessing 

 " an orbital motion and an orbital velocity, 'which it had in common with all parts of 

 " the moon, but now more or less modified by the projectile force and new condi- 

 " tion of attraction in which it was placed with reference to the earth, acquired 

 " an independent orbit more or less elliptical. This orbit, necessarily subject to 

 " great disturbing influences may sooner or later cross our atmosphere and be 

 " intercepted by the body of the globe." 



The lecture of Professor Snell is an able popular exposition of 

 the subject of planetary disturbances. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Of the matter contained in the present volume, that of the great- 

 est importance on account of its immediate connection with a great 

 scientific movement now in progress in Canada, is the body of direc- 

 tions for the meteorological observations adopted by the Smithsonian 

 Institution. These instructions are well worthy of the study of all 

 persons interested in this class of research. 



Following the directions to observers is an account of a series of 

 observations carried on, chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining the 

 duration of thunder claps. 



The Report of Professor Midler on galvanism, extending as it does 

 through upwards of 100 closely printed pages, puts any attempt at 

 analysis in our limited space utterly out of the question ; we can 



