9. Delesse's Lithologie des Mers.-Besides the European chart, noticed in a recent volume of this Journal, Delesse has issued one of North America. It is a beautifully colored chart, and illustrates the lithology of the bottoms of the seas as far as known to him, together with the hydrographic basins. His chartist has not been as careful as is desirable for such work. He has joined the head of the Hudson river above Albany to the Chesapeake; while the Hudson River itself he has dwindled to a little stream rising in western Connecticut. The errors probably crept in through carelessness in tracing off from another chart. But there is other want of exactness, showing that the chart needs careful revision. No text for it has yet been issued.

III. ASTRONOMY.

1. On the Mass of Asteroids between Mars and Jupiter; by Prof. DANIEL KIRKWOOD, Bloomington, Indiana.-According to Leverrier, the total mass of the ring of minor planets does not exceed one-fourth of the earth's mass, or Tooth of that of Jupiter. So great a disproportion between two adjacent planets is without a parallel. Is the fact susceptible of a probable explanation?

Were the sun transformed into a gaseous spheroid with an equatorial radius equal to the diameter of the earth's orbit, a large number of the known asteriods would, in perihelio, plunge into the solar mass and be reunited with it. Now this, in all probability, is precisely what occurred soon after the abandonment of the asteroid zone, while the solar nebula was in process of condensation. The powerful mass of Jupiter would produce great eccentricity in parts, at least, of the primitive ring. Large portions of its matter, or a considerable number of minor planets in a state of vapor, may thus have been precipitated upon the sun before the latter had contracted within their perihelion distance. The small mass of Mars may perhaps be accounted for on the same hypothesis.-Proc. Phil. Soc. Philad

2. Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made at the United States Naval Observatory during the year 1867; published by authority of the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, Commodore B. F. SANDS, Superintendent. Washington, Gov. Printing Office, 1870. The Astronomical observations of the year 1867 at the Naval Observatory, together with the computed positions of the objects observed, fill over 400 closely printed quarto pages in this volume, and the meteorological observations about 50 pages.

To these results of routine work are added four important reports as appendices.

App. 1. Difference of Longitude between Washington and Ha vana; by Prof. W. Harkness, U. S. N. App. 2. Observations of the total eclipse of the Sun of Aug. 7th, 1869. App. 3. Positions of the Fundamental Stars, deduced from Washington observations made between the years 1862 and 1867 inclusive; by Prof. S. Newcomb, U. S. N. App. 4. Catalogue of 151 stars in Præsepe, by Prof. A. Hall, U. S. Ñ.

Prof. Harkness gives for the position of Morro Light, lat. 23°

9′ 21′′-0 North, lon. Oh 21m 138-43 West, or 82° 21' 20"-4 W. of Greenwich. The latest edition of the Admirality list of lights in the West Indies, gives 82° 22' 12" for the longitude, nearly a mile in error.

The second appendix has been noticed in this Journal, (II, vol. xlix, p. 134).

We cannot too highly commend in the management of the Naval Observatory, this practice of publishing memoirs prepared by the Assistant Professors under the name of the authors. The personal interest in the careful elaboration of the subjects which is thus secured is of great value to science. This practice has been most injuriously and unjustly departed from in more than one observatory in times past.

IV. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

1. Solar Eclipse of Dec. 22, 1870.-Congress having appropriated $29,000 to enable the Superintendent of the Coast Survey to observe the total eclipse of the sun, which will be visible on the shores of the Mediterranean on the 22nd of Dec. next, Professor Peirce has organized two parties, one which, under his own lead, will occupy several points in Sicily, while the other, under the direction of Prof. Joseph Winlock, director of the Harvard observatory, will occupy points near the line of totality in Spain.

Prof. Peirce is accompanied by Messrs. C. A. Schott, J. H. Lane and Chas. S. Peirce of the Coast Survey, Major H. L. Abbott and Capt. O. H. Ernst of the U. S. Engineers, Prof. J. C. Watson of the University of Michigan, Dr. C. H. F. Peters of Hamilton College, Prof. W. Eimbeck of St. Louis, and Messrs. H. G. Fitz and D. C. Chapman of New York, the two latter having been provided with outfit and instructions for photographic observations by Mr. Lewis M. Rutherfurd of New York.

Prof. Winlock's party consists of G. W. Dean, assistant in the Coast Survey, Professors C. A. Young of Dartmouth College, E. P. Pickering of the Mass. Inst. of Technology, S. P. Langley of the Western University of Penn. at Alleghany, Mr. Alvan G. Clark of Cambridge, and Mr. O. H Willard, photographer of Philadelphia, together with four aids.

On the part of the U. S. Naval Observatory four observers have also been sent out, viz: Professors S. Newcomb, A. Hall, W. Harkness and J. R. Eastman.

J. E. H.

Four parties have left England under the auspices of the British Government, one to Cadiz in charge of Rev. S. J. Perry; one to Gibraltar under Captain Noble; a third to Oran (Algiers) under Mr. Huggins; and a fourth to Sicily, under Mr. Lockyer. "Nature" of Nov. 24 states that "Professors Young, Pickering, Newcomb, Peters, Watson, Harkness, and others are at present in London, and are daily affording most valuable information to the Organizing Committee and the various observers." While the British Government were hesitating with regard to sending expeditions for observations Prof. Peirce extended an invitation to the English astronomers to join his parties.

2. A Topographical Survey of the Hawaian Islands has been ordered by the Legislature of the Islands, and an appropriation of $5000 made for procuring instruments and meeting the expenses of the first year. Prof. W. D. Alexander of Oahu has been appointed Surveyor General, and is making arrangements for commencing the work. He proposes to measure a base line on the sandy isthmus between East and West Maui, which is six or seven miles wide, and to carry forward the survey as nearly as possible after the methods of the U. S. Coast Survey. Geological and Botanical collections and observations will be made in connection with the survey.

3. A Central Observatory.-Prof. H. A. Newton has suggested that an excellent position for the great central observatory of the continent is a few miles east of St. Louis, on the 90th meridian from Greenwich. American time reckoned from such an observatory would differ from Greenwich time just six hours, and American longitudes from standard longitude from Greenwich by ninety degrees. It is believed that there are good locations, as regards atmospheric and other conditions, on that meridian not far from St. Louis.

4. Telescopes.-Messrs. Alvan Clark & Sons have received recently two orders for telescopes of about 25-inch object glass; one from Mr. McCormick, and the other from the National Government.

5. Auroral Belt of Oct. 24-25th.-An account of the remarkable crimson belt, in the great auroral display of Oct. 24-25th, by Prof. A. C. Twining, is deferred to the next number for want of space.

OBITUARY.

DR. MATTHIESSEN.--The death of Dr. Augustus Matthiessen will be learned with sorrow by those of our countrymen who knew him in Heidelberg, in the years of his student-life; or who received from him afterward in London, the attentions which his kindness of heart made him ready to bestow.

Dr. Matthiessen's mind was peculiarly fitted for scientific research. The acuteness which leads to the perception of truth, detects as well the sources of error and suggests the means by which they may be avoided. With the most persevering industry he had a fondness for experimental enquiry; and as his mind moved easily, he was capable of long continued exertion.

The work which first brought him into notice, was a memoir upon the "Preparation and Properties of the Metals of alkaline Earths," made while yet a student in the laboratory at Heidelberg. Prof. Bunsen had himself obtained the metals lithium and magnesium; to them Dr. Matthiessen now added strontium and calcium. After his return to London he began an investigation of the conducting powers of the metals and their alloys for electricity, which occupied him several years, and was afterwards extended to their conducting powers for heat. He subsequently examined the chemical properties of the alloys of zinc with bismuth and with lead; and an alloy of tin and gold which he had obtained in crystalline form. Upon these subjects he delivered in 1867, a lecture before the Chemical Society of London, which was repeated

before the Royal Society in the following year. He also investigated the chemical constitution of the opium bases and their products of decomposition, and made elaborate determinations of the expansion by heat of mercury and water. For his various researches the Royal Society, of which he was early chosen a fellow, awarded him in 1869, its gold medal.

In the fifteen years which comprise his scientific life Dr. Matthiessen published at least twenty-eight memoirs. That he was able to accomplish so much was owing in great part to a judicious economy of time, not the penuriousness which refuses hours of relaxation to days of labor, but to a right choice, of subjects which would repay investigation, and of the most direct means by which the investigation could be carried out. He had also the faculty of availing himself of the powers of others by associating them with his work.

With remarkable acuteness of mind, or shrewdness, Dr. Matthiessen had a sincere and affectionate disposition. Resolved from the first to make his own way, he was always ready to help on others. He was a kind, a firm, a generous friend; generous of his thoughts, his means, and his influence. At the time of his death, no man of his age in England stood in a higher position in science; nor was there one from whose future, judging from his past, more might with reason have been expected.

D.

Mr. EDWARD HARTLEY, Mining Engineer of the Geological Survey of Canada, died in Pictou, Nova Scotia, on the 10th of November last, aged twenty-three years. Mr. Hartley was the eldest son of Mr. William M. B. Hartley of New York, and grandson of Mr. Philos Blake of New Haven. He early showed a special aptitude for the study of the natural and physical sciences, and for mechanics. At the age of fifteen he became a student in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College. On leaving the school, though still very young, he was at once charged with the examination and surveying of mineral lands in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and subsequently with the erection of machinery for working gold in North Carolina. His abilities attracted the attention of the officers of the Geological Survey of Canada under Sir W. E. Logan, and in July, 1868, he joined the Survey as a geological assistant. The following year he was appointed Mining Engineer to the Geological Survey. His duties from this time confined him to the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, where in 1868 he worked conjointly with Sir W. E. Logan, and in 1869, alone, completing a careful and detailed Survey of the Pictou coal-basin, of which an elaborate report by Sir William and another by himself was printed and privately distributed before his death. It will be published with a map in the forthcoming volume of the Geological Survey.

During 1870, Mr. Hartley was engaged with an assistant in the Survey of the Cumberland coal-basin in Nova Scotia, and of the Cape Breton collieries, and had nearly completed his labors for the season when he died after an illness of but six days duration, brought on, probably, by labors beyond his physical strength.

T. S. H.

EDWIN W. ROOT, Prof. of Chemistry in Hamilton College, died Nov. 15, in the 30th year of his age. On returning to this country in 1865, after his studies in Germany, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the School of Mines of Columbia College. Afterward, in 1868, he became Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, and the next year of General Chemistry, in Hamilton College. Prof. Root was highly esteemed for his scientific and literary attainments, integrity of character, and tested ability.

V. MISCELLANEOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Storer's (Frank H.) Cyclopædia of Quantitative Analysis; Part I, 112 pp. 8vo, with an appendix of 8 pages. Boston and Cambridge, 1870. Sever, Francis & Co.-Prof. Storer states in his preface that his object in preparing this book has been not only to provide the student and working chemist with a comprehensive dictionary of quantitative processes, but to show also the possibility of presenting this branch of chemical art in a more serviceable and manageable form than has been customary hitherto : and he adds, the experiment is certainly worth trying whether a definite system of classifying substances in alphabetical order, and of referring each and every process to the fundamental fact or principle upon which it depends, will not greatly facilitate both the study and the practice of Analysis.' An examination of this first part of Prof. Storer's "Cyclopædia " reveals at once the hand of a master as distinguished from the work of the compiler. The alphabetical order by no means hampers the author's philosophical treatment of subjects. This is particularly well illustrated in the articles "CARBON " and " CARBONIC ACID," where the originality of the method of treatment is surpassed only by the thoroughness of the detail given of all methods, of any value, known to chemists, for the determination of carbon whether as such as in the analysis of cast-iron and steel-or by its oxidation to carbonic acid and estimation in any mixture or compound. The author's entire familiarity with the whole field of chemical literature has enabled him to render a justice to American researches in analytical chemistry which has never been awarded by any foreign author.

2. The Story of the Rocks. A Fourteen Weeks' Course in Popular Geology; by J. DORMAN STEELE, A.M., Ph.D., Principal of Elmira Free Academy, author of a Fourteen Weeks' Course in Chemistry, etc. 280 pp. 12mo. 1871. New York and Chicago. (A. S. Barnes & Co.).-This small geological text-book will be read with interest by those that are not critical, and are satisfied with so brief a presentation of the science. While in many respects well arranged for instruction, and clear in its descriptions, its statements are often wanting in exactness, and its explanations unsatisfactory. The following are a few examples. "Rocks are composed in general of only three common minerals, Quartz, Clay and Lime." But clay is not a mineral; lime should be limestone; and granite and all the crystalline rocks have no place under such a definition.