1879. ] Recent Literature. | 35 
The work after having had, as the English pübtishovi claim, an 
“ enormous circulation ” in France, and two very large editions in 
England, is republished in England in eighteen parts, “ at about 
half the original cost.” It is divided into seven books, treating 
of gravity and attraction, sound, light and color, heat, magnetism 
and electricity, the rainbow, the rise of clouds and fogs, and 
atmospheric meteors, with a full index. A brief appendix con- 
tains the reprint of a paper by Prof. Henry Draper on the dis- 
covery of oxygen in the sun by photography, and a new theory 
of the solar spectrum. 
LETTER FROM O. C. MARSH, ETC., TRANSMITTING THE REPORT ON 
“THE SCIENTIFIC SURVEYS OF THE TERRITORIES, ETC.!—We have 
received a copy of this document, which consists of the report of 
a committee which was appointed by Prof. arsh under 
the following circumstances: Certain persons, not friendly to 
some cf the U.5. Geological Surveys as at present constituted, 
succeeded in having included in the Sundry Civil Appropriation 
Bill, of June 30, 1878, the following clause: 
“And the National Academy of Sciences is hereby required, 
at their next meeting, to take into consideration the methods and 
expenses of conducting all surveys of a scientific character under 
the War or Interior Department, and the surveys of the J.and 
Office, and to report to Congress as soon thereafter as may be 
practicable, a plan for surveying and mapping the Territories of 
the United States on such general system as will, in their judg- 
ment, secure the best results at the least possible cost; and also 
to recommend to Congress a suitable plan for the publication and 
distribution of the reports, maps and documents, and other results 
of said surveys.” 
In pursuance of this act, Prof. Marsh, who is acting president 
of the Academy, pending the appointment of Prof. Henry’s suc- 
cessor, selected a committee consisting of six gentlemen who — 
were not personally connected with the surveys. Of the seven 
members of the committee, four were geologists, of whom the 
with the constitution of the National Academy, a committee may 
be appointed in the interval of the meetings, in response to a 
request of Congress, and such committee is not required to refer _ 
to the Academy for advice and assistance, but reports its conclu- 
sions to Congress direct, and its proceedings to the next meeting _ 
of the Academy. It is evident that reports made in this way lose 
much of their authority as utterances of the Academy, especially _ 
when, as in the present instance it has just been deprived of ` 
its president and has not yet secured the services of a suc- oe 
cess oe 
1 Letter from O. C. Marsh, vice Lips raat: president of the National Acad. oi 
emy of Sciences, transmitting, in obedience tolaw, the Report onthe 
of the Territories made by the Nat. Academy of Sciences. Senate Mis. Doc., No. % o 
