expected that the tables will all be completed during the present summer, and that the printing of the work will be commenced next autumn.
In reviewing what may be called the extra labors of Prof. Coffin, we cannot refrain from endeavoring to impress upon the mind of the general public that men of his character, who do honor to humanity, ought not to be suffered to expend their energies in the drilling of youth in the mere elements of knowledge, and with a compensation not more than sufficient to secure the necessaries of life; that they should be consecrated as officiating priests in the temple of knowledge, be furnished with all the appliances and assistance necessary to the accomplishment of their objects, namely, the extension of the bounds of human thought and of human power.
The premature death of Prof. Coffin is a loss to the world, and, in regard to him, we have to deplore that so much of his valuable life was expended in the drudgery of teaching, which ought to have been devolved upon inferior minds.
Dr. John W. Foster, the distinguished geologist and ethnologist, of Chicago, died June 29th. He was born at Petersham, Mass., March 4, 1815, and graduated at the Wesleyan University, of Middletown, Conn. He subsequently moved to Ohio, and connected himself with the geological survey of that State. In 1849 he entered upon a geological examination of the Northwest, in company with Messrs. Jackson and Whitney; and the observations they made are embraced in two volumes, entitled "Report on the Geology and Topography of the Lake Superior Land District" (1850-'52). Dr. Foster published an elaborate volume, "The Mississippi Valley," which gave an account of the physical geography, topography, botany, climate, geology, and mineral resources, of that vast and important region of the continent. He was President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting in Salem, in 1869, and has contributed numerous papers to the proceedings of that body and to the Chicago Academy of Sciences. He has been long engaged in the preparation of a work on the "Prehistoric Races of the United States," which was completed and printed, but not yet published, at the time of his death. It is an elegant volume, and a valuable contribution to the subject.
