financial consideration attached. To the habitual cultivator of sci- 

 i'!! )i" other ideal occupation, the devotion of the majority of m an- 

 them would he -till less profitably i mploved. and the race as a whole 

 would degenerate. Nevertheless the numher of men who believe 

 it to be true, that the pursuit of pure science and philosophy are 

 necessary to human development, is increasing. 15ut of this 

 enlightened class a considerable proportion appear to think that 

 human knowledge will grow of itself like grass, and that artificial 

 aid is unnecessary. These remarks are made apropos of a pheno- 

 menon frequently observed in the city where this journal i- pub- 

 lished, and we have no reason to suppose that other localities differ 

 from it in this respect. A dance or a dinner party is a most success- 

 ful rival of an emergency to be met at a meeting of a society devoted 

 to the pursuits of science or philosophy. Where the heels or the stom- 

 ach have the call, the brain has to retire into " innocuous desuetude." 

 The limited revenues of science may he misappropriated or absurdi- 

 ties perpetuated in her name, while her alleged patrons cultivate less 

 important matters. Dinners and dances may be indefinitely •repeated, 

 but action by corporate bodies is only lawful at stated times, and the 

 results of such action are far-reaching, both in scope and time. "W ith 

 a higher civilization we will respect our brains more and our stomachs 

 less, and -till have a mutual understanding between brains and stom- 

 ach which will be beneficial to both parties. 



—General Isaac T. Wistar, President of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, has added his name to the honorable 

 list of those who have given pure science a permanent endowment. 

 He has placed in the hands of trustees for the benefit of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, $100,000 for the erection of a museum with 

 laboratories, to contain the Wistar and Horner Museum of Human 

 and Comparative Anatomy, and has added an endowment om«M)n 

 per year for the maintenance of a curator, whose occupation shall 

 consist largely of original research. Although there are several posi- 

 tions in Philadelphia occupied by distinguished investigators, this is 

 the first permanent endowment distinctively devoted to this purpose 

 which we have. 



