2. Walker Prizes-The founding of prizes by the late Dr. Wm. J. Walker, for memoirs presented to the Boston Society of Natural History, was mentioned in volume xl of this Journal, at page 137.

The following are the subjects for prizes, as recently announced:

Subject for 1866-7. "The fertilization of plants by the agency of insects, in reference both to cases where this agency is absolutely neces sary, and where it is only accessory;" the investigations to be in preference directed to indigenous plants.

Subject of the annual prize for 1867-8. "Adduce and discuss the evidences of the co-existence of man and extinct animals, with the view of determining the limits of his antiquity."

Memoirs offered in competition for the above prizes must be forwarded on or before April first, prepaid and addressed "Boston Society of Natural History, for the Committee on the Walker Prizes, Boston, Mass." Boston, June 1866.

3. Rumford Medal.-The Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was, on the 12th of June last, awarded to Mr. ALVAN CLARK of Cambridge, for his improvements in the making of lenses for the telescope.

4. Prof. Henry A. Ward's Collections of Casts of Fossils, at Rochester, N. Y.-Prof. Ward, in the course of his travels for the formation of his large Cabinet at Rochester, has had occasion to make casts of numerous fossils, large and small, from the skeletons of Elephants, Mastodons, and the Gaudeloupe Man to shells of Rhizopods; and he is consequently enabled to furnish copies of them to other cabinets. He is now issuing an illustrated catalogue of 150 pages or more, which gives some idea of the extent of his collections. His casts have already reached a number of scientific cabinets of the country, among them those of Yale, Amherst, Cambridge, Vassar College, Albany, etc.; and wherever they have gone they are admired for their excellence and perfection of finish. We would recommend to colleges, academies, and other institutions where science is taught in the land, to supply themselves, as far as they are able, with these casts. They enable the instructor to exhibit to students specimens of the rare fossil skeletons and other species of the rocks, many of which are seldom or never to be found in American collections: By means of them, series representing the principal types of different families (as that of Trilobites, or of Ammonites, etc.) may be made complete or nearly so. The casts are light and strong, and thus are well fitted for class purposes. They have been copied from the best specimens to be found in any collections, and are colored to correspond with the originals. They give at comparatively small expense wonderful effectiveness to a cabinet as a meaus of instruction. A gift of a collection of Mr. Ward's casts from any patron of learning to an academy or college would render great service to the instructor, the pupils, and the institution.

OBITUARY.

HENRY DARWIN ROGERS, one of the most widely known and distinguished of American Geologists, died on the 29th of May last, at Glasgow, in Scotland, where since 1857 he has held the chair of Regius Professor of Geology and Natural History. Prof. Rogers was born in

Philadelphia in 1809, being the third of four brothers all of whom have been prominent in various departments of physical science. At the early age of twenty-one years he became Prof. of Chemistry in Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and not long after was appointed to the chair of Geology in the University of Pennsylvania. His duties as an active explorer in geology commenced, officially, with the Survey of the State of New Jersey, the Report and map of which he published in 1835. About a year later he was charged with the responsible duty of exploring and clearing up the geology of the great State of Pennsylvania, to which difficult task he devoted many years of zealous and faithful labor, aided by a large corps of able assistants. His brother, Prof. William B. Rogers, was at the same time charged with the preliminary explorations of the State of Virginia, and the great problems of the structure of the Appalachian chain were thus at the same moment brought under the observation of two of the ablest investigators of structural geology who have ever devoted their talents in that direction. The main features of this research, which for the first time opened up to view the structure of half a continent, were brought before the world in a masterly discussion of the whole subject in a joint memoir, communicated with an eloquence and fascination of style never surpassed, at a meeting of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists held in Boston in the summer of 1842. This remarkable memoir, probably the most important of its class ever produced in America, is published in the volume of memoirs of the Association for that year. But these researches have their full and more perfect exhibition in the volumes of the final Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania, published in 1858, at Edinburgh, with the maps and sections executed in admirable style by A. Keith Johnston. This is the great work of Prof. Rogers's life and is an enduring monument of patient labor, originality and thoroughness of research, especially in the departments of structural and dynamic geology, taking rank with the labors of the best geologists of the time.

For some years previous to his becoming Professor at Glasgow, Prof. Rogers resided at Boston, devoting himself to his favorite studies, and to the public exposition of the departments of science which he cultivated.

His great knowledge on many subjects he was able to impart in a style equally clear and graceful, whether in public speaking or as a writer. Few teachers of science have excelled him in power of illustration of difficult subjects, or in commanding the attention of large audiences to themes not commonly discussed in public lectures. His contributions to scientific literature were numerous, and are found chiefly in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, the Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, the Reports of the British Association and of its American equivalent, the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, in this Journal, and in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, of which he was, for some years before his death, one of the Editors. A full list of all his published Memoirs and Reports fills an important page in American scientific history. So far as we now remember, Prof. Rogers was the only American who has been called to fill a scientific chair in a European University.

Prof. Rogers had for some years been in delicate health, but his AM. JOUR. SCI.-SECOND SERIES, VOL. XLII, No. 124.-JULY, 1866.

decease was unexpected. He passed most of the last winter in Boston with his brother, Prof. William B. Rogers, returning to Scotland only a short time before his death. His amiable manners and remarkable powers as a conversationalist had won for him the same social distinction in Great Britain which he long enjoyed in America, and a numerous body of personal friends deplore his loss on both sides of the Atlantic.

VI. MISCELLANEOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences ; Vol. I, Part I, 248 pp. 8vo, with 3 plates. New Haven, Conn., 1866. ($2.50).-The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was organized and chartered by the State in the year 1799. In 1810 it issued the first part of Vol. I, of the "Memoirs" of the Academy, containing, among its seventeen memoirs, an article on a supposed change in the temperature of winter, by NOAH WEBSTER; on the Mineralogy of New Haven, by B. SILLIMAN; on the quantity of rain which falls on different days of the moon, by JEREMIAH DAY; on an Aurora at Durham, by Rev. ELIZUR GOODRICH; on the Weston Meteorite, by Profs. SILLIMAN and KINGSLEY; on the theories which have been proposed to explain the origin of meteoric stones, by Prof. J. DAY. Part. II of this volume appeared in 1811, Part III in 1813, and IV in 1816. Part III contains Prof. Silliman's paper on the fusion of refractory bodies by the compound blowpipe of Dr. Hare; and Prof. J. Day's on the comet of 1811.

Since 1916, papers read before the Academy have, to a considerable extent, found their way to the public through the American Journal of Science, the first number of which was issued in August, 1818. The Academy has now commenced a second series of publications under the title of Transactions. The volume just issued contains four papers: 1, The register of the Aurora Borealis made at New Haven by E. C. HERRICK, between March 1837 and May 1854, occupying 130 pages, with extracts from a register by FRANCIS BRADLEY; 2, Notices of Auroras, extracted from the Meteorological Journal of Rev. EZRA STILES, S.T.D., President of Yale College, made between Nov. 1763 and Nov. 1794, together with other miscellaneous notices of later date collected by Prof. E. LOOMIS; 3, on Bekker's Digammated text of Homer, by Prof. JAMES HADLEY; 4, on the mean temperature and on the fluctuations of temperature at New Haven, as deduced from 86 years of Observations, by Professors ELIAS LOOMIS and H. A. NEWTON, illustrated by three plates, one showing the mean daily curve of temperature for each month, and the other two giving chrono-isothermal lines between the mean and the highest and lowest temperature.

The Academy solicits exchange of publications from other academies, and announces on the cover of the volume that packages may be addressed to the Librarian of the Academy at New Haven.

2. The American Annual Cyclopædia and Register of important events of the year 1865. vol. v, large 8vo. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 1866. pp. 850.-It is highly creditable alike to the Editors and the great publishing house of Appleton that the interesting and important events of the year 1865 should so early appear in a systematic form, embracing political, civil, military and social affairs, public docu

ments, biography, statistics, commerce, finance, literature, science, agriculture, and mechanical industry.

The chief articles on scientific subjects are treated with a good degree of fullness of detail, and for the most part with excellent judgment. Among the topics of interest to scientific men we notice the articles on astronomy, observatories, and instruments, auroras, meteors, and meteorites, including Prof. Newton's researches, and the height of the atmosphere, chemistry, chemical arts and the new nomenclature and notation of chemistry, geographical explorations and discoveries, magnesium, thallium, and the metals generally; disease of swine, the telegraph, &c. The list of American and foreign obituaries is also quite full and able. It is an important advantage to the reading public to have access to so complete a summary of scientific progress as is offered in these pages. Important omissions might be named, but they are mostly of topics which in a previous or a following year have been or may be discussed in turn.

The subjects of paramount importance in public affairs for the year 1865, such as army operations, naval affairs, and the proceedings of Congress, justly receive in this volume a larger portion of space than any others; larger, probably than they may ever do again,

3. Chambers's Encyclopedia: a Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People, on the basis of the latest edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon. Illustrated by wood-engravings and maps. Philadelphia. (J. B. Lippincott & Co.)-Parts 102-106 of Lippincott's reprint of Chambers's Encyclopedia have recently been issued. No. 106 closes volume viii, and ends with the word Sound. This number contains, among its interesting notices, an account of the recently discovered fossil bird of Solenhofen, with a woodcut. The scientific articles, with their illustrations, are an important part of this Encyclopedia.

4. Annals of the Dudley Observatory, Vol. I. lxvii and 126 pp. 8vo, with an appendix of [126] pages.-This volume from the Dudley Observatory contains a description of the observatory and its instruments. It opens with a landscape view in lithography, and gives full details of the structure within, illustrating its interior arrangements by woodcuts. Along with the descriptions of the instruments there are: a large copperplate engraving of the fine equatorial on a scale of one-twelfth; others of the Olcott meridian circle and its parts; one of the transit instrument made by Pistor & Martius in Berlin in 1860; others of the comet seeker; the chronographic apparatus; declinometer. Various topics are discussed which are of importance to the practical astronomer. The Appendix contains, in addition to other matters, observations of the planet Mars made at the observatory in 1862; of the planet Neptune, made in 1861; and of asteroids.

5. Olmsted's Astronomy: an Introduction to Astronomy, designed as a Text-book for the use of Students in College; by DENISON Olmsted, LL.D., late Prof. Nat. Phil. and Astron. in Yale College. Third edition. Revised by E. S. SNELL, LL.D., Prof. Nat. Phil. in Amherst College. 218 pp. 8vo, with five plates and numerous woodcuts. New York. 1866. (Collins & Brother.)-This popular text-book has undergone a new revision by Prof. Snell, much improving it. The changes consist in condensations, the omission of some historical paragraphs, a few altera

tions in the arrangement, and the introduction largely of new engravings, some as substitutes for old cuts, and others in illustration of points not before discussed. The volume closes with some useful tables. The work is clear, simple, and sufficiently full for ordinary class instruction.

Transactions of the American Institute of the City of New York for 1864, '65. 732 pp. 8vo. Albany, 1865.

The Comstock Lode, its character and the probable mode of its continuance in depth, by F. B. RICHTHOVEN, Dr. Phil. 84 pp. 8vo. San Francisco, 1866.

History of the Chicago Artesian well: by GEO. A. SHUFELDT, Jr. 50 pp. 8vo. Chicago, 1866.

PROCEEDINGS ACAD. NAT. SCI. PHILAD., No. 1. JAN., FEB., MARCH, 1866.-Page 10, A study of the Icterida; J. Cassin.-p. 25, Critical Review of the Procellariadæ, Part iii, embracing the Fulmarea; E. Coues.-p. 33, Twelve new species of Unionide; I. Lea. p. 35, Fasti Ornithologiæ; J. Cassin.-p. 39, List of the Birds of Fort Whipple, Arizona, with brief critical and field notes; E. Coues.

PROCEEDINGS BOSTON SOC. NAT. HIST., Vol. X.- Page 180, On the genus Belemnocrinus; C. A. White.-p. 102, Habits of the Halibut; N. E. Atwood-p. 187, On some Odonata from the Isle of Pines; S. H. Scudder.—p. 200, On the spider Nephila plumipes and its silk as an economical product; B. G. Wilder.—p. 211. On some Odonata from the White Mts., N. H.; S. H. Scudder.-p. 223, On the Trichodina pediculus Ehr.; H J. Clark.—p. 224, Notes on a tour in California and Nevada; C. T. Jackson.-p. 229, Notes on Hawaian volcano; H. Mann.-p. 231, On the vestibular bristle of Vorticellida; H. J. Clark.—p. 236, Earthquake at San Francisco; W. P. Blake. p. 237, Elevation of Continental masses; N. S. Shaler.-p. 241, On the Pleistocene Glacial Climate of Europe; H. D. Rogers.-p. 248, List of Birds from Porto Rico; H. Bryant.-p. 257, New preservative solution for specimens; A. E. Verrill.—p. 259, Note on Geog. Distribution of N. A. birds; A. E. Verrill, -p. 262, Notes on California; C. T. Jackson.-p. 264, List of Vertebrates of Okak, Labrador, observed by Rev. S. Weiz; A. S. Packard, Jr.-p. 279, On the development and position of the Hymenoptera, with notes on the Morphology of Insects; A. S. Packard.

PROCEEDINGS CHICAGO ACAD. Scr., Vol. I.-Page 9, Note on the affinities of the Bellerophontidae; F. B. Meek -p. 11, Description of Paleozoic fossils from the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous of Illinois and other Western States; Meek & Worthen. p. 33, On a new species of the genus Macrorhinus; T. Gill.-p. 46, Descriptions of new Macrurous Crustacea from the coasts of N. America; W. Stimpson. The officers of the Academy are EDMUND ANDREWS, M.D., President, DANIEL THOMPSON and BENJAMIN F. CULVER, Vice Presidents, WM. STIMPSON, M.D., Secretary, G. H. FROST, Librarian.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE, Vol. IV, No. 8. Ocт., Nov., DEC., 1865. Issued June 1, 1866. Salem, Mass.-Page 197, Observations on Polyzoa, suborder Phylactolaemata; A. Hyatt. A very valuable paper, illustrated by 14 plates of unexcelled beauty.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ACAD. SCI. OF ST. LOUIS. Vol. II, No. 2, 1866.-Page 222, also 226, 246, 249, 264, 266, 297, 298, 419, On climate of St. Louis, etc.; Engelmann.--p. 223, Ancient graves in Pike Co., Mo.; Broadhead.--p. 224, Gestation of Opossum; Engelmann.--p. 226, On P. E. Chase's intellectual symbolism; Holmes. p. 250, Rock salt deposit in Louisiana; Owen.--p. 260, A new Icterus; Shimer.-p. 263, Oil springs in Missouri; Shumard.--p. 272. Physiography of the Rocky Mts.; Parry.--p. 282, On Nuphar polysepalum; Engelmann.--p. 285, Altitude of Long Peak; Engelmann.--pp. 287 and 414, On atmospheric electricity; Wislizenus. --p. 299, Thoughts on Matter and Force; Wislizenus.--p. 311, Coal measures in Missouri; Broadhead.--p. 334, Catalogue of the N. A. Paleozoic Echinodermata ; Shumard.--p. 408, New var. of Spirifer; Swallow.--p. 410, New Bryozoa; Prout. --p. 417, Observations on Ozone; Bandelier.--p. 418, Fossil horse in Kansas; Swallow.--p. 424, Revision of the N. A. species of Juncus; Engelmann.