32 Dana — American Journal of Science, 1818-1918. 



One feature that is especially noticeable is the frequent 

 publication of articles planned to place before the read- 

 ers of the Journal in full detail subjects to which they 

 might not otherwise have access. These are sometimes 

 translations ; sometimes republications of articles that 

 had already appeared in English periodicals; again, 

 they are exhaustive and critical reviews of important 

 memoirs or books. The value of this feature in the early 

 history of the Journal, when the distribution of scientific 

 literature had nothing of the thoroughness characteristic 

 of recent years, is sufficiently obvious. 



It is also interesting to note the long articles of geo- 

 logical description and others giving lists of mineral or 

 botanical localities. Noteworthy, too, is the attempt to 

 keep abreast of occurring phenomena as in the many 

 notes on tornadoes and storms by Eedfield, Loomis, etc. ; 

 on auroras at different localities ; on shooting stars by 

 Herrick, Olmstead and others. 



The wide range of topics treated of is quite in accord- 

 ance with the plan of the editor as given on an earlier 

 page. Some notes, taken more or less at random, may 

 serve to illustrate this point. An extended and quite 

 technical discussion of "Musical Temperament" opens 

 the first number (1, pp. 9-35) and is concluded in the same 

 volume (pp. 176-199). An article on " Mystery' ' is given 

 by Mark Hopkins A.M., "late a tutor of "Williams Col- 

 lege'' (13, 217, 1828). There is an essay on "Gypsies" 

 by J. Griscom (from the Revue Encyclopedique) in vol- 

 ume 24 (pp. 342-345, 1833), while some notes on American 

 gypsies are added in vol. 26 (p. 189, 1834). The "divin- 

 ing rod" is described at length in vol. 11 (pp. 201-212, 

 1826), but without giving any comfort to the credulous; 

 on the contrary the last paragraph states that "the pre- 

 tensions of diviners are worthless, etc." A long article 

 by J. Finch on the forts of Boston harbour appeared 

 in 1824 (8, 338-348) ; the concluding paragraph seems 

 worthy of quotation. 



"Many centuries hence, if despotism without, or anarchy 

 within, should cause the republican institutions of America to 

 fade, then these fortresses ought to be destroyed, because they 

 would be a constant reproach to the people; but until that 

 period, they should be preserved as the noblest monuments of 

 liberty." 



