1. Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Serie 2, vols. 1, 2, 3. 4to, 1873-1876. Roma, 1875, 1876.-The "Accademia dei Lincei" held its first meeting near the beginning of the seventeenth century, and hence it is the oldest of existing scientific academies. It has had, however, an intermittent existence, owing to the stifling conditions about it.

*

Founded by Federico Cesi, of the Roman nobility, in 1603, avowedly to promote the progress of truth, its members, and especially their leader, encountered almost immediate persecution; and in 1606 they were forced to suspend their sessions in order to escape greater evils. The Academy was at work again in 1609, and soon after, Galileo (then 45 years old), Baptista Porta and Colonna were among its members. The Academy adopted as its insignia the figure of a lynx-the piercing sight attributed from

*It was preceded in Italy, by the Academia Secretorum Naturæ, which was established by Baptista Porta, in 1560, and suppressed after a few years of existence by Pope Paul III.

ancient time to the lynx making it a fit emblem of the searching spirit of Science, of which Galileo was already an illustrious exponent. The members were "Lincei." They required that a candidate for membership should not be younger than 22 years or older than 30; and he must be devoted to the sciences of experiment or observation. Discussions in jurisprudence, modern history, theology, politics and poetry were excluded, because not properly within their range. The Academy had, in part, in conformity to the spirit of the place and times, the form of a religious order; for St. John the Evangelist was recognized as its protector, and the members were required to recite daily "l'officio della Beata Vergine." This, however, was not enough to save the "Lincei " from suspicion.

In 1630, Federico Cesi, the founder and patron of the Academy, died, to the grief and great loss of its members. The Academy had already come into disfavor, because Federico in 1625 had denied that the sky was solid, and Galileo had asserted that the earth moved; and, soon after Federico's decease, its sessions were for the second time, suspended. Some private meetings were occasionally held, under the protection of Cardinal Barberini, nephew of the pope, Urban VIII, at the house of Cassiano del Pozzo, where there was a rich museum. But in 1651, on the death of this Cardinal, the suspension became complete, and the Academy was for the second time dead; and so it remained for nearly a century.

Its revivification-the second-did not take place until 1740, when the learned and liberal Pope Benedict XIV, Lambertini, reinstated it and gave it the name of the "Accademia de' nuovi Lincei." But in 1758, on the death of this pope, it became for the third time extinct.

In 1795, a society of young men which had held meetings for scientific purposes since 1786 at the "Collegeis Umbro-Fuccioli " and which embraced among its members Feliciano Scarpellini, took the form of an academy, called the "Accademia Umbro-Fuccioli," which was in effect a revival-the third-of the old Academy. Owing to the political disturbances of 1801, the Academy was again suppressed. But in July, Pius VII, a patron of science and art, succeeded to the papal chair, and the meetings were resumed, Scarpellini having the full confidence and support of the pope. This was the fourth return to active life. It took at first the title of "Accademia Gaetani ;" but in 1802 it adopted that of "Accademia de' nuovi Lincei," and in 1804, returned to the original name, dropping the nuovi.

The Academy continued in activity for forty years, sustained largely through the influence and labors of Scarpellini. With Scarpellini's death, in 1840, it became once more defunct, having been closed by Gregory XVI, against earnest solicitations. This pope finally gone, Pius IX succeeded; and being eminently liberal in his views when he took the pontificate, the Academy, a year

afterward, in 1847, was reëstablished for the fifth time, the Pope giving it the modified title "Accademia Pontificia de' nuovi Lincei."*

Finally, Rome having emerged from the dynasty of the popes, and become the Capitol of United Italy, under Victor Emmanuel, an extraordinary session was held in January, 1874, for the revision of the constitution. Among the changes, there was, first, the restoration of the original name "Accademia dei Lincei" with the addition of the prefix "Reale," recognizing the new government under which it existed. Next, the Academy was divided into two sections; one, of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Science, and the other of Moral, Historical and Philological Science; the former to consist of forty National Associates, ten Foreign Associates, and sixty Correspondents; and the latter of the same, excepting that the number of National Associates was made thirty. Eight foreign associates of the first section have been since elected; three residing in Great Britain, three in Germany, one in France, and one in the United States.

Of the Atti of the Academy, a second series was commenced in 1873, and three volumes have been published; vol. I. for 18731874; II. for 1874-1875, and III. for 1875-1876. They contain papers on Mathematical or Mathematico-physical subjects, by Volpicelli, Bataglini, Betti, Dini, Conti, Favero, Ascoli, Valentino, Cremona, Menabrea, Tonelli; in Solar Astronomy and Spectroscopy, by Respighi and Volpicelli; in Electricity by Govi, Ricco, and Volpicelli; in Chemistry by Cannizaro and Paternò; in Zoology, by Cadet, Maggiorani, Boll, Colasanti, De Sanctis, Moriggia, and Todaro, (the paper of the last an elaborate discussion of the anatomy of the Salpa with 10 4to plates; in Paleontology by Gastaldi, Capellini, Meneghini and G. Ponzi; on Volcanoes of Lazio, by G. Ponzi; on some Fungi Uredinei, by C. Bagnis Calor; in Meteorology, at the observatory of Campidoglio, by L. Respighi, and on the climate of Rome, by R. Paveto; Archæological discoveries about Rome by R. Canevari and others. Many of the articles are illustrated by plates.

Signor Cav. QUINTINO SELLA is now President of the Academy. 2. Statistics of Mines and Mining in the States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains; being the Seventh Annual Report of ROSSITER W. RAYMOND, U. S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics. 540 pp. 8vo. Washington, 1875.-This volume brings the subject down to the close of the year 1874. The condition of mining industry in California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah, Colorado and Arizona, is given in about 400 pages, forming Part I, full of interesting details and accurate information gleaned with care from many sources, and states with great condensation often in tabular form, and arranged for easy reference. Part II is devoted to metallurgical processes-its Progress in the west

*The preceding historical facts are taken from an address to the Academy deliv. ered in March, 1848, by Volpicelli, on the occasion of this last reinstatement. Only two preliminary meetings had been held in 1847.

during 1874; the distillation of zinc-silver alloy; silver-lead smelting at the Winnamuck Smelting Works; the Germania Refining and desilverization works, Utah; the construction and operation of a slag hearth; the Rocky Mountain Coal and Coke, condensed from a paper by Mr. Blodgett Britton; separation of gray copper ore from barytes; the Patchen process. Part III treats of the geology of the Sierra Nevada in its relation to vein mining, by Amos Bowman, and his detailed observations will be read with profit by all who are interested in the genesis of veins however they may differ from some of the theoretical views of the author. This is followed by a history of the relative values of gold and silver, by R. W. Raymond, and another on improvements in mining and milling machinery in the Pacific States, by William P. Blake, with a description of the remarkable Silver Mill of the Consolidated Virginia on the "Big Bonanza" of the Comstock Lode in Nevada, and miscellaneous statistics.

We regret to state that unless some new action is had on the part of the General Government this is the last of the valuable series of Reports on the mineral resources of the United States which will appear.

3. The National Academy of Sciences held its regular annual meeting on April 18 to 21, at Washington City. The following are the titles of the papers read:

On the precise determination of the number of vibrations of tuning-forks, and on the effect of temperature and of amplitude of vibration on the vibratory periods of forks; by A. M. Mayer.

On a method of exploring the acoustic condition of the atmosphere, leading to the invention of an instrument for determining the direction of a source of sound; by A. M. Mayer.

On the sensations produced by concurrent sounds, and by sounds quickly succeeding one another; by A. M. Mayer.

On the theory of simultaneous ignition of many mines; by H. L. Abbot.

On Maxima and Minima in Algebra, by the late Gen'l D. P. Woodbury, with a biographical notice of the author; by J. G. Barnard.

The Character of the Eocene Fauna of New Mexico; by E. D. Cope.

Contributions to Meteorology; by E. Loomis.

A conjectural restoration of a pueblo of the Mound Builders; by L. H. Morgan. The Geological evidence on the question of the cause of the cold of the Ice Period; by J. S. Newberry.

On the history of the Problem of the Tangencies; by B. Alvord.

On the theory of Magic Squares; by F. A. P. Barnard.

On the progress of a Magnetic Survey of the United States, at the charge of the Bache Fund of the Academy; by J. E. Hilgard.

Results of Experiments on Contact-resistance; by Wm. A. Norton.

On the imperfections of the present system of Chemical Nomenclature; by R. E. Rogers.

The Age of Mountains as determined by degradation; by J. W. Powell. Biographical Memoir of Joseph Winlock, late Director of the Harvard Observatory, Member of the Academy; by Joseph Lovering.

On the Geological and Physical structure of the Black Hills; by Henry Newton. 4. Memoir of Caroline Herschel, by Mrs. JOHN HERSCHEL, with portraits. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 355.-The scientific life of Caroline Herschel as an observer and investigator in astronomy closed in 1822 with the death of her illustrious brother, William Herschel, with whom she was so

closely identified as to make the two lives almost one. She was already 72 years of age when she returned to Hanover, as she then believed soon to die. Her memoir is intensely individual. During her twenty-six years of exile in Hanover (1822 to 1848) from all those most loved in England, she maintained an active correspondence with her nephew, Sir John F. W. Herschel and his wife, and exchanged frequent letters with most of the eminent astronomers of the time in Europe. These letters, as well as parts of her diary and personal recollections, are excellent reading. We find in them much to compensate us for the want of productiveness, which Miss Herschel constantly laments as the great mistake of her life in not continuing in England; for if she had remained there this correspondence, so full of vitality and varied interest, would not have existed. While she was minding the heavens" with her beloved "Sweeper," as of old, she would have found no time to record her recollections of her fifty years activity in her brother's service, to honor whom she was so willing to obscure her own real merits. But she will not be forgotten while scientific literature endures. We are led to hope that from the materials accumulated by her assiduity and other sources in the possession of the family of Sir John Herschel, we may yet have a satisfactory biography of Sir William Herschel-a work still wanting. B. S.

5. The depth of the Pacific, and the nature of its bed.-We take the following facts from a recent report by Prof. Wyville

Thomson.

Between Hawaii and Tahiti, the depth, with one exception of 1,525 fathoms, ranged between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms and has a mean of 2,600; the bottom, except near the islands, mainly red clay, with much oxide of manganese in small concretions, and many foraminifers; and over two patches, there were siliceous shells of Radolarians, making a "Radolarian ooze." The fauna of the bottom was very meager.

Between Tahiti and Valparaiso (reached on the 19th of October), 5,000 miles in distance, the course taken was southward to latitude 40° S., and then on that parallel to Valparaiso. The mean depth was 2,139 fathoms; the bottom was of red clay with nodules of manganese, with Globigerina ooze in the shallower parts. Life was very sparse, except between Juan Vernandez and Valparaiso, where, although the depth was 2,225 fathoms, it was abundant; the bottom was a bluish mud with very little manganese.

Notices of the following works are deferred to another number.

Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ, Part xvii, the closing part of the work. Williams & Norgate, London.

Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. Historical sketch of Geological explorations and other States, by J. P. Lesley. pp. 200 and xxvi, 8vo.

Mines and Mineral Statistics of N. S. Wales, 1875. 246 pp. with maps and

sections.

Revue de Géologie pour les Années, 1873 et 1874, par M. Delesse et M. de Lapparent. Paris, 1876.

Geology for Students and General Readers. Part I, Physical Geography, by A. H. Green, M.A., F.G.S. 552 pp. 8vo. London. (Daldy, Isbister & Co.) Second Annual Report of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas, by S. B. Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., State Geologist. 96 pp. 8vo. Houston, Texas, 1876.