3U4 Thi> Aiiiei'ican (jieolotjisf. Kovcmi.i'r, i892 
of luitural liislory, owing to tluMr hick of applk-iihilily to indus- 
trial use. Though deeply interested in botany, Prof. Porter did 
not think his knowledge profound, and in fact a determination of 
a species by the subject of the sketch was promptly shown to l)e 
fallacious and corrected by a lady at Bar Harbor. Though deeply 
interested in mineralogy from l)03'hood he was more than once 
taken in by dealers in minerals who wished to test his knowledge. 
His head was small and his brain-weight below the average, 
which deficienc}^ he probabh' compensated by good digestive ap- 
paratus. He called poetry '-rhyming stuff.' and adopted the 
ethics of John Fiske. One attribute of geuius he shared with 
it — /'. c, sterility. No student of natural history was ever more 
assisted. After his death, representatives of his imiversit}' solic- 
ited an immedtate contribution of $5(1,0(10 as an endowment fund, 
first to his widow and ultimately to revert to his university, but 
it is probalile from the failure of the effort that the pul)lic has 
not judged the endowment urgent. * * * * 
The reader will naturally ask of whom this gloomy account is 
given. Was he Prof. Webster the murderer of Parkman ? On 
what stage did this evidently overvalued person perform ? Above 
i\\\, did he come to a good end ? for with the natural perversity 
which his biographer pictures it is to be feared that he did not. 
In answer let it be said that this singularly severe eulogy or 
friendly cacology is entitled. "A sketch of the life of Joseph 
Leidy, M. D. . LL. D. , V)y W. S. W. lluschenberger. M. ]). . " and from 
the fact that its author has much experience and un([uestioned 
success in preparing sketches of this kind (for which his indefati- 
gable industry in the bibliograph}' of his subject tits him), it is an 
example of the kind of history which one man can write of an- 
other who is his opposite in character and attributes ; even when 
that writer is prepared hy long service in a Philoso-Necrological 
Societ}'. Tt is like a photograph of a l»right landscape in mono- 
chromatic light: still, only for those few who are ilistinguished 
enough to invite the danger does it add a new terror to death. 
TllK Toi'OORAPHICAL MAI' <>K I'llK rMTKl) STATES. 
The subject of the proper adjustment of the scientific surveys 
•of the territories was submitted by C'ongress to the National 
Academy of Sciences in 187S. The Academy was recpiested to 
-"ta-ke under consideration the methods and expenses of conduct- 
