reader, it is equally valuable, for in the case of conflicting statements it enables him at least to form some opinion as to which are most likely to be reliable, and as to the necessity of further investigation.

The book is indispensable to the chemical student. We feel the want of the third part, for the sulphates, phosphates and tartrates, etc., and shall welcome its appearance.

M. C. L.

2. Chambers' Encyclopedia: a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers. 1861-1863. Vols. I-V, royal 8vo, pp. 828 each. We have in a previous volume of this Journal noticed the commencement of this valuable publication. It has now reached the completion of the fifth volume, bringing the alphabet down to the letter L. It is constructed on the general plan of the Conversations-Lexicon of Brockhaus, and, like its great prototype, is characterized by variety, conciseness, and accuracy. The articles on scientific topics are numerous and remarkable for exactness and brevity. The error is nowhere committed of extending such notices beyond the proper limits of a dictionary of knowledge to the dimensions and scope of elaborate treatises. The spirit of the original Cyclopedia' of Ephraim Chambers -now more than a century old-has been revived by his namesakes in the present work, his original plan-very like that of the German Conversations-Lexicon-having been widely departed from in many similar works of subsequent date. By a liberal use of wood-cuts in the text the value of this Encyclopedia has been much increased. Such illustrations are used whenever the subject demands them, and they are generally of excellent quality. The work is printed from the English plates, and is published in cloth at $2.80, sheep $3.20, half turkey $3.60, and will be completed in seven or eight volumes.

3. A Practical Handbook of Medical Chemistry; by JOHN E. BowMAN, F.C.S. Edited by CHAS. L. BLOXHAM, Prof. of Practical Chemistry in Kings College, London. Third American from the fourth London edition. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea.-Important additions have been made to the present edition, especially in the examination of urine by the volumetric methods, and for poisons in organic mixtures by a general systematic course of detection. Prof. Graham's methods by dialysis are also introduced, and the electrolytic detection of metals is revived.

4. Dana's Manual of Geology.-A revised edition of Dana's Manual of Geology has just been issued by the publishers (T. Bliss & Co., Philadelphia), containing, besides some other additions, a woodcut of the long-tailed Bird of Solenhofen, copied from the last December number of the Intellectual Observer (illustrating in that Journal an article by Mr. H. Woodward), and another of a new Insect from the Carboniferous rocks of Illinois.

OBITUARY.

Al

EDWARD HITCHCOCK.-Professor Edward Hitchcock died at Amherst, Massachusetts, Feb. 27th, at six in the morning, aged seventy years and nine months. He was born at Deerfield, Mass., May 24th, 1793. though enjoying limited advantages of early education he had the posi tion of Principal of the Academy in his native town, from 1815 to 1818, during which time he also edited an almanac. In 1811, when only 18 years of age, he made observations on the comet and solar eclipse of that

year. His first geological paper, and in fact his first important contribution to science, was his "Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of a section of Massachusetts on Connecticut River," published with a map in the first volume of this Journal, and dated at Deerfield, Oct. 1817. From 1818 to 1825 he was the Pastor of a church in Conway, Mass., still pursuing his scientific studies as is evident from his papers, chiefly on mineralogy and geology, published in the first ten volumes of this Journal. He gave also, during this period, an account of Bailey's new method of longitude, immediately on its appearance, in a manner which shows him to have been master of the subject.' From 1825 to 1845 he filled the chair of Chemistry and Natural History in Amherst College, with whose history and prosperity his name is inseparably connected. In 1845 he was chosen to the Presidency of Amherst, retaining the duties of instructor in geology and natural theology. In 1854 he resigned the presidency, having during his discharge of its duties conferred the most substantial benefits upon the institution, rescued it from a state of depression and insolvency to one of comparative abundance and substantial endowment, and doubled the number of attending students. He retained until his death his favorite duties of the geological chair, as well as those of natural theology.

In the history of the Governmental Geological Surveys, Prof. Hitchcock's name must always hold a prominent place. It was by his suggestion that, in 1830, the State of Massachusetts added a geological surveyor to the corps charged with the preparation of a trigonometrical survey of that State. His first report on the Economical Geology of the State was published in a pamphlet of 70 pages, in 1832, with a geological map. In 1833 he made a full report on the whole subject, in a volume of about 700 pages, with an atlas of plates and a geological map. In 1837, under the governorship of Mr. Everett, he was commissioned anew to reexamine the geology of the State, which resulted at last, in 1841, in a final report in two quarto volumes of 840 pages, with 56 plates and 82 wood-cuts. This was independent of the separate reports on zoology and botany made by the able naturalists who were associated with him. Several other reports followed, on Surface geology, on the Hematite of Berkshire, &c., and lastly the final report on the Ichnology of New England, the result of more than twenty years of study of an intensely interesting but difficult subject. This report was published by the State at an expense of about $5000. In 1856, when borne down by severe infirmity, he had still the courage to undertake, with his two sons, the geological survey of Vermont, which was brought to a successful issue notwithstanding that, as he says in his "Reminiscences," the Legislature "starved them out," the final report of about a thousand pages having appeared in 1862. His last paper, "New facts and conclusions respecting the Fossil Footmarks of the Connecticut Valley," was published in July of 1863, (our last volume, p. 46,) and we well remember the conviction he then expressed, that it was his last production-although it was so much his habit to despond and still labor on, that we felt it not unlikely we should again welcome his well known signature to our pages. Fortunately his strength held out for the completion of his "Reminiscences," the preface of which bears date Sept. 1st, 1863. In that personal narrative, while dealing primarily with Amherst College and his labors in her

1 This Journal, vol. ix, p. 107.

behalf, we find a mirror of his scientific life and labors. How much he was the servant of all work, in his position of President, appears from the following passage:

"My epistolary correspondence in the Presidency was peculiarly onerous. I had previously been so much of a jack at all trades that I had laid myself open to inquiries and assaults from all classes. The same mail (and I hardly exaggerate the literal fact,) might bring inquiries about some point in the theory of temperance-how to employ garnet in making sand-paper-how to reconcile the imputation of Adam's sin with our sense of justice-where to find the best beds of sulphate of baryta— whether I would like to exchange or buy shells, minerals and fossils-how cheaply an indigent young man can go through the college and with what helps-whether I know of any one who will make a good teacher of a common school, an academy, or a professor in a college-or any one to supply a pulpit-what I think of a new theory of drift, or of latent heat-or new views of the relations of geology to Moses-or a new poem-or a new work-all of which are sent and an answer requested, if possible, by return mail."

We can do no justice to such a life as Prof. Hitchcock's in a brief notice. Earnest, simple, and sagacious, indefatigable under all discouragements, his clear, firm grasp of truth sustained and raised him above all difficulties, and has secured him an honored name in science. And this is not all, for science with him was ever made tributary to Christian truth and effort.

PLANA. Baron GIOVANNI PLANA, the most renowned of Italian astronomers and mathematicians, died at Turin, on the 20th of January last, in his eighty-third year. Few men have left more enduring monuments of industry and power in the difficult branches to which he devoted his life, than Plana. The very last volume of the Transactions of the Turin Academy received here contain no less than seven elaborate memoirs from his pen. His theory of the moon is perhaps his most celebra ted memoir. At the last session of the Turin Academy-the same which received the news of his death-a second paper was presented from him on the cooling of the heavenly bodies and an analytical expression of the

sun's heat.

HEINRICH ROSE, the illustrious chemist, died at Berlin, on the 28th of January, at the age of 69 years, having filled the chair of Chemistry in the University of Berlin for more than forty years, He was a pupil of Berzelius, at Stockholm, in 1819. His treatise on Analytical Chemistry has been translated into French and English, and for a long time was almost our sole authority. Poggendorff's Annalen contained nearly all his papers, and scarcely a volume of that important journal for forty years past is without contributions from his pen. Rose was in private life one of the most gentle and excellent of men. Thus in two months has the University of Berlin lost two of her most illustrious men, Mitscherlich and H. Rose.

CAPPOCCI-the learned director of the Observatory of Capodimonte (Naples), died on the 6th of January, of an affection of the heart, at the age of sixty-six years.

Notices of new publications received are necessarily deferred for want of space.

THE

AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS.

[SECOND SERIES.]

ART. XXVII.-On the Diptera or two-winged Insects of the Amberfauna. (Ueber die Diptern-fauna des Bernsteins): a lecture by Director Law, at the meeting of the German Naturalists in Koenigsberg, in 1861.'

Of all the organic remains of former geological periods, those enclosed in amber are the most remarkable for their state of preservation, which is such that they admit of the most complete investigation. While under other conditions smaller and more delicate animal organisms have either almost or quite disappeared, in this case it is the very reverse, and hence the amber-fauna has an extraordinary richness in species, so that both for its beauty and abundance it invites to an investigation which promises the most interesting results. The objects for such investigation however are so various, that a division of labor is required. Induced by my deceased friend, Behrendt, I commenced the study of the Diptera preserved in amber nearly seventeen years since, and have continued it, not without unavoidable interruptions, up to the present time. A rich supply of material for this study has been supplied from various sources, and with a liberality which remained undiminished, in spite of the unexpected length of time required by the investigation. The principal por

1 We owe this translation of Director Law's interesting Lecture on the Amberfauna Diptera to Baron OSTEN SACKEN, so well known for his important contributions to the study of American entomology. The many points of interest which this lecture affords to American naturalists will render the translation peculiarly acceptable to English readers who have not access to the original. The author himself has kindly furnished the notes, containing lists of species common to Europe and North America, and which, not being found in the original, are here published for the first time.-(Note by the Editor.)

AM. JOUR. SCI.-SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXXVII, No. 111.-MAY, 1864.

tion of this supply is the entire Behrendt collection of Diptera in amber, to which that of Aycke has been added; also rich contributions from the collection of H. Menge, of Danzig, from that of the Physico-economical Society of Koenigsberg, as well as from the Thomas collection in the Royal Mineralogical Museum at Berlin, without special mention of valuable contributions from individual collectors, who have with praiseworthy liberality sought to advance the aims of science.

The investigation of this rich supply of material has, up to this time, made known about 850 species of Diptera in amber, and these all belong to the division of the Diptera proboscidea, while, so far, not a single species of the Diptera eproboscidea has been found to occur. Of these 850 species, however, there are only 656 in so complete a state of preservation that their specific characters can be determined with absolute certainty. These are distributed over 101 genera, of which 50, with 395 species, belong to the Diptera nemocera, and 51, with 261 species, to the Diptera brachycera.

In the case of the latter, the chemical decomposition of their larger bodies, the more vigorous resistance which they have made to their entombment in the yet soft resin, the slighter development of their antennæ and legs, (organs which furnish such important characters for the ready distinction of the Diptera nemocera,) and still more, the few characteristic points in the neuration. of the wings in most of them, for the distinction of species, of genera, and even of families, all conspire to render the proportion of fragments quite useless for exact determination much greater among the Diptera brachycera than among the Diptera nemocera. If such specimens could be turned to account, the above mentioned proportion of species would be greatly increased on the side of the Diptera brachycera.

The 50 genera of Diptera nemocera are distributed over all the families which have been formed for the living species, with the single exception of the small family of the Blepharoceride, if this is not united with that of the Simulide. The family of the Mycetophilidae is the richest of all the others, both in species and in numbers; the family of the Culicidae is the poorest.

From what has been said above, as to the frequently imperfect preservation of the Diptera brachycera, it can easily be understood that for many of the species found in amber, a definite place in the systematic arrangement can be assigned only with great difficulty. This is true especially for those families which have generally been included under the name of Muscaria, that is, all of the families and genera which Meigen, in his arrangement, places after the genus Myopa. For this reason, it is absolutely necessary to distinguish those fainilies of the Diptera brachycera whose occurrence in amber is beyond a doubt, from those which are more or less doubtful. The families which are