EDITORIAL. 
89 
Table  C  indicates  medicines  which  are  not  to  be  dispensed  except  by 
prescription  or  permission,  and  which  are  kept  separate. 
Table  D  enumerates  the  medicines  which  are  not  required  to  be  kept 
unless  previously  prescribed  by  a  physician. 
The  names  of  all  poisons  are  written  with  a  sign,  to  indicate  their 
nature. 
Some  of  these  tables  are  worthy  of  adoption  here,  and  the  whole  work 
shows  a  care  and  precision  in  details  regarding  poisons  that  must  go  far 
to  prevent  accidents  in  Sweden. 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
showing  the  operations,  expenditures,  and  condition  of  the  Institution 
for  the  year  1868.  Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1869  ; 
pp.  473,  octavo. 
The  policy  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  has  greatly  changed  within  a 
few  years  past,  and  from  being  destined  to  become  a  vast  accumulation 
of  books,  and  a  museum  of  scientific  objects  and  natural  history  collections, 
requiring  all  its  income  to  keep  them  in  order,  now  seems  likely  to  carry  out 
the  design  of  its  founder,  by  using  its  income  to  increase  and  diffuse 
knowledge  in  accordance  with  the  views  of  Prof.  Henry  and  some  others. 
The  original  bequest  was  $541,379.63,  which,  by  careful  management  df 
the  interest,  is  now  a  capital  of  $697,000,  giving  an  income  of  $40,820, 
The  Library  of  the  Institution  was  last  year  incorporated  with  that  of 
Congress,  in  the  Capitol.  During  the  present  year  the  herbarium,  em- 
bracing between  15,000  and  20,000  specimens,  has  been  transferred  to  the 
care  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  This  collection,  on  which  Pro- 
fessors Torrey  and  Gray  have  spent  much  time,  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  be 
properly  cared  for  and  increased.  The  conditions  of  the  transfer  are 
that  the  botanist  in  charge  shall  be  approved  by  the  Institution,  that  it 
shall  be  accessible  to  the  public  for  practical  or  educational  purposes, 
and  to  the  Institution  for  scientific  investigation  or  for  supplying  informa- 
tion to  correspondents. 
A  recent  arrangement  with  the  Surgeon  General  transfers  the  large 
collection  of  human  crania  belonging  to  the  Institution  to  the  museum 
under  his  charge,  whilst  it  receives  in  return  the  ethnological  collection 
of  the  medical  museum. 
The  collections  of  type  specimens  of  insects  belonging  to  the  Institu- 
tion have  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  entomologists  for  arrangement  and 
study,  to  be  reclaimed  when  required  ;  thus  carrying  out  the  same  line 
of  policy  above  alluded  to. 
The  general  appendix,  comprising  four-fifths  of  the  book,  includes  Flou- 
ren's  memoir  of  Cuvier,  translated  by  C.  A.  Alexander;  Elie  de  Beau- 
mont's memoir  of  Oersted,  translated  by  the  same  ;  Hagen's  memoir  of 
Encke,  and  Rawson's  memoir  of  Eaton  Hodgkinson.  Besides  these,  re- 
cent information  in  relation  to  the  mechanical  theory  of  heat,  radiation, 
