croscope itself, we find in the first number the science of zoölogy represented by papers on "The Sting of the Honey-Bee," and "On the Structure of Blood-Corpuscles"; botany by "Descriptions of New Species of Diatoms," and "On the Spore-Formation of the Mesocarpeæ"; the arts, by "The Microscopical Examination of the Fibres"; and in the next number we are promised among others an article on microscopical geology, and a study of a case of tubercular meningitis; while the subject of foods will receive attention in a paper on the microscopical characters of natural and artificial butter. From this enumeration it will be seen that the editor intends to cover a wide range of topics; and, while probably in the majority of cases the discussions will be more or less technical, many of them will also possess both popular and practical interest. The projectors of the enterprise are entitled to great credit, not only for the handsome magazine they have made, but for their courage in entering a field already the scene of many failures, and we would ask for them, not the sympathy, but the cordial support, of all who are interested in the progress of science.
Science News. Edited by Ernest Ingersoll and William C. Wickoff, of New York, and published fortnightly by S. E. Cassino, Salem, Mass. Subscription price, $2 a year.
The main object of this new periodical, as indicated by its title and expressly announced in the prospectus, is the prompt publication of scientific news, and, judging from the four numbers received, the editors are fulfilling their promise in a very satisfactory way. Each number is to contain not less than sixteen pages of matter, exclusive of advertisements, freely illustrated and presented in a style that may be readily understood by the average reader. The type is good, the price is reasonable, the editors are wide awake, and, with the advantages of thorough scientific training and long previous experience on scientific journals, are well adapted to the work—conditions certainly favorable to the production of a good magazine. Yet in one respect we think the new journal might be improved. There is news enough of a scientific character, and of both special and general interest, to more than fill such a periodical, even if it contained double the present number of pages, and to our minds this, in the form of paragraphs as brief as an intelligible statement will permit, might be profitably substituted for the more elaborate essays which now occupy the earlier pages of the periodical.
Third Annual Report of the Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore: Murphy print, 1878. Pp. 60.
Mr. D. C. Gilman, President of the Johns Hopkins University, in this report, strives to draw the line of distinction between the college and the university. The university is designed to give to those who have already received a college training or its equivalent more advanced and special instruction. To this end it must possess ample libraries, laboratories, and apparatus. Then, the holders of professorial chairs in a university must be expected and encouraged to advance by positive research the sciences to which they are devoted. For though, primarily, instruction is the duty of the professor in a university, as it is in a college, the difference of intellectual maturity between the students of the two institutions involves a difference in the respective demands of each upon the professor: university students should be so mature as to exact from their teachers the most advanced instruction, and even to quicken and inspire by their appreciative responses the new investigations which their professors undertake. An interesting feature of this report is a statement by Professor Ira Remsen, of the nature of the work done in the three scientific laboratories which form part of the Johns Hopkins University—viz., the biological laboratory, the physical laboratory, and the chemical laboratory.
Notes on a Collection from the Ancient Cemetery of Chacota Bay, Peru. By J. H. Blake. With Illustrations. From "Report of Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology," 1878. Pp. 28.
The interesting collection here partly described comprises mummies, utensils, weapons, ornaments, etc. What race of people it was that buried their dead in this ancient cemetery it is impossible even to conjecture. The present Indian inhabitants of the locality claim no relationship with them.
