all others had failed, he solved the true meaning of Smithson's bequest in a way of which the world has recognized the correctness, and Mr. S. S. Cox how he had labored to give that meaning effect; and General Sherman bore testimony to Professor Henry's personal qualities as a scientific teacher and guide; while the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin demonstrated the satisfactory manner in which he had managed the financial and material interests of the institution, and the excellent condition in which he left it. To these minutes are added a memorial discourse by Samuel B. Dodd, and reminiscences by Professor Cameron, at Princeton College; the discourse of President Welling, of Columbian University, before the Philosophical Society of Washington; the discourse by William B. Taylor before the same body on "The Scientific Work of Joseph Henry," full and elaborate enough to make a volume by itself; and addresses by Professor J. Lovering, Professor Simon Newcomb, and Professor A. M. Mayer, before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association, respectively. The special subject of the last address is "Henry as a Discoverer," The recognition of the simplicity, gentleness, and strict integrity of Professor Henry's character is a distinct feature in all of the addresses.
Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston Society OF Natural History. Published in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Society's Foundation, 18301880. Boston: Published by the Society. Pp. 635, with 44 Plates. Price, $10.
The Boston Society of Natural History, having completed its fiftieth year in 1880, celebrated the event by a jubilee meeting on the 28th of April, and by the publication of this noble volume, containing the history of the Society and a number of special scientific papers. The book is a worthy memorial of the work of one of the oldest and most active of American scientific societies, and does justice to the part which that body has taken in the promotion of scientific research and the extension of scientific knowledge in the United States. The history of the Society is given from year to year, and by periods of ten years each, with a minuteness of detail which records every gift of specimens, every trouble from the ravages of insects in the museum, and even such matters as the passage of a resolution forbidding smoking in the room—things which may seem superficially of little interest, but which are instructive enough to justify their place, for they show how the life of the Society was maintained, what mistakes it made, and what difficulties it had to encounter. These features and accidents are such as are common to all similar societies, and this frank setting of them forth, as lessons of experience by which other bodies may be guided to the wisest management, is a good work. The present Society was preceded by the Linnæan Society of New England, which was founded in 1814, and was the first organized effort to excite the interest of the American public in natural science. It had a successful and prosperous career for several years, but finally died out because it depended entirely upon the voluntary effort of men whose time was already wholly occupied with their own business for its maintenance and the care of its collections. The museum—a fine one for the period—was given to Harvard College, which promised to provide a building for it and did not, and consequently it was nearly all lost. The Boston Society of Natural History was founded in 1830, on the same plan as the Linnæan Society, and by the same leading men, and would probably have met the same fate, but that it came into the possession of a fund sufficient to put it on a firm footing and enable it to employ special curators for its collections. Its early history is an epitome of the earlier development of scientific thought in this country, and, in its later history, it has kept pace with the broadest expansion of that thought. Its contributions to knowledge, as related in the yearly records, appear important and valuable when regarded in detail, and give, when summed up, occasion for satisfaction that we have had such a body laboring so long and so industriously to lead the public to higher objects of study, and that its vigor is still waxing. Not the least important of the works of the Society has been the institution of the practical scientific lectures to teachers, with object-illustrations, for the
