prosecuted during six years, and to include both the Asiatic and the American coasts. Its primary object is to search for light concerning the origin of the American race and its relations to the races of the Old World, concerning which, in the absence of all definite knowledge at present, a confusion of opinions exists. The characteristics of the American races have been studied to a considerable extent by the Russian missionary Vemiaminoff, Dall, and others, in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands; Murdoch among the Eskimos of Point Barrow, and Boas under the auspices of the British Association in British Columbia; but, as Dr. Boas observes, very much remains to be done in those districts; while of the corresponding region in Asia, notwithstanding the few investigations that have been published, the types of man, languages, customs, and mythology are practically unknown.
Among the interesting jubilees celebrated during 1896 was that of the York Retreat in England. In 1792 William Tuke, a member of the Society of Friends, became convinced that the methods of treatment of the insane which prevailed at that time were unnecessarily harsh; they were treated more like wild beasts than as human beings. William Tuke therefore conceived the idea of founding an institution where sufferers from mental disease could be treated in a manner more in accordance with humanity and with sound therapeutic principles. The necessary support was after a time obtained, and the "Retreat" was opened in 1796. It was the first institution in England where the insane were treated min a humane and rational manner.
Mr. b. n. brough affirms, in a lecture on deep mining, that the greatest depth yet reached in mines is 4,900 feet at the Red Jacket shaft of the Calumet and Hecla mine, in the Lake Superior district. The Tamarack mine, in the' same district, 4,450 feet, is the only other mine going below 4,000 feet in depth. Four mines in Germany, two in Belgium, and one in Austria-Hungary are between 3,500 and 4,000 feet deep. The deepest British mine is the Pendleton, near Manchester, 3,474 feet deep; and the deepest in Scotland is the Niddrie, at Porto Bello, 2,010 feet. The products of the mines are now lifted with ropes of crucible steel wire, of which a flat rope is mentioned weighing only 8·2 pounds per foot, which had a tensile strength of eighty-nine tons per square foot, and lasted twelve months while used for raising loads of eleven tons from a depth of 3,117 feet. At the deep mines of Calumet the cage, carrying six tons, was lifted at the rate of a mile in a minute and a half. In England the speed has been as great as fifty-seven miles an hour. The increased cost of sinking these deep mines is believed not to be very appreciable where the output is considerable. At Tamarack the cost of increasing depth was more than compensated by the increased output and improved machinery.
The most important events in last year's history of the astronomical observatory of Harvard College were the erection of the Bruce photographic telescope in Peru, and the establishment of a series of circulars, which furnish a prompt means of announcing discoveries. Twenty-five hundred and eight photographs were taken with the eight-inch Draper telescope, and twenty-seven hundred and seventy in Peru with the eight-inch Bache telescope; and "there is probably no star brighter than the thirteenth magnitude in any part of the sky from the north to the south pole that does not appear on one or more of these plates." The attempt is made to photograph all the regions in which variables are discovered at least once a month. In Mrs. Fleming's examinations of the spectra photographed, a large number of objects having peculiar spectra have been discovered. Two new stars have been found in the constellations Carina and Centaurus. The photographs of one of the new variable stars show a very peculiar spectrum and changes of light unlike those of any star hitherto discovered. Meteorological observations were continued at La Joya, 4,150 feet above the sea; Arequipa, 8,060 feet; Alto de los Huesos, 13,300 feet; Mont Blanc station on El Misti, 15,600 feet; El Misti, 19,200 feet; and Cuzco, 11,000 feet.
A work by M. Meguin on the Bacteria of Dead Bodies is reviewed in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal: "As a result of this work it is now possible to determine in a most accurate manner the time of death
