THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 17 



printing and to bring it down to 1851. This they have done at the 

 expense of much time and labor, and have thereby added materially to 

 the usefulness of the catalogue. 



10. A second edition of the report on recent improvements in the 

 chemical arts has been printed, and in due time an additional volume 

 on this subject will be prepared. 



11. The general interest which has been awakened by the recent 

 application of electricity to purposes in the useful arts, and its recog- 

 nised connexion with many important and mysterious phenomena of 

 nature, led to the conclusion that an account of the recent discoveries 

 in this branch of science would be highly prized by a large class of 

 readers. In accordance with this view, a report by M. Muller, of Ber- 

 lin, has been translated, and will be published as soon as the funds 

 will allow of the expenditure. Stereotype copies of the original wood- 

 cuts have been obtained from the author. 



It will be especially interesting to the English reader, because it 

 gives more particularly the researches which have been made in Ger- 

 many, and which are consequently not readily accessible to the inhab- 

 itants of this country and Great Britain. 



12. Catalogue of North American reptiles in the museum of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. Part 1. — Serpents. — By S. F. Baird & C. Gi- 

 rard, pp. 188. — This work is intended to exhibit the nature and extent 

 of the collection of North American reptiles in the museum of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. According to the statement of Professor 

 Baird, it contains full and original descriptions from authentic speci- 

 mens of 119 species of serpents, of which sixt} r have been first de- 

 scribed by the authors, and from specimens in the Smithsonian col- 

 lection. All the well ascertained species of North American serpents 

 are included in this catalogue, which thus serves as a complete manual 

 on the subject. The great work by Dr. Holbrook on the reptiles of 

 North America, published in 1S42, enumerates 49 species, as being all 

 that were known to him ; a numberless than half of those in the posses- 

 sion of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The 'phenomena of magnetism, which a few years ago were only rec- 

 ognised as existing in iron, and in a slight degree in a few other metals, 

 are now known to belong to all matter ; and with those of electricity, 

 with which they are intimately connected, either in the relation of effect 

 and cause, or the concomitant effects of a more general principle, are 

 probably displayed in every part of the material universe. Recent 

 researches render it probable that the sun and moon exert a magnetic 

 influence upon our earth. Were the study of this mysterious principle 

 immediately connected with none of the physical wants of man, or with 

 the arts of life, it would in itself be an object of high interest ; but 

 when we reflect how dependent upon it is the art of navigation, and 

 how extensively it is employed in this country in tracing the divisions 

 and boundaries of land, we are, from utilitarian considerations, induced 

 to give it the most minute and laborious investigation. 



It is now known that the magnetic needle is never at rest ; that it is 

 the subject of various changes, some depending upon the hour of the 

 2 



