Revue Scientifique, contributes a full account of his varied and elaborate researches in this new field.

These experiments, coming from so eminent an experimenter, made with a sound knowledge of the sources of error inherent in such work, and presented with a pleasant modesty, are worth the consideration equally of those who do not agree with the conclusions of M. Richet1 and of those whose views are strengthened by these new experiments. M. Richet has been pursuing this investigation for six years, and, if he has been deceived by his subjects, it can only be that the topic presents an unusually puzzling and deceptive aspect.

After an introduction dealing with the precautions to be taken, and emphasizing the fact that at bottom we must trust to the honesty of our subjects, he can do no better than ask the reader to take his word for the observed good faith of the subjects, and equally well assure the reader that he has ever been on his guard against that greatest of wonder-workers, unconscious self-deceptions.' Furthermore, we must require only such a degree of probability for our results as would be satisfactory in other sciences. The slightest defect invalidates the whole observation, and a wellestablished, not very wonderful result is to be preferred to a striking one less securely established.

His subjects are four hysterical women between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five, all subject to hypnotism, and some with a tendency to natural somnambulism, and other signs of an unstable nervous constitution. The first test consisted in willing the patient to go to sleep, M. Richet being at a house five hundred and fifty yards distant. On going to the house he puts the subject to sleep, and she tells him that for a certain twenty minutes of the morning he was trying to put her to sleep, and that she went to sleep. The time is approximately correct. The experiment is varied, and the coincidence of the time of M. Richet's willing and of the patient's sleeping varies from a remarkable exactness to quite wide approximations. However, M. Richet is convinced that the successes are more numerous than can possibly be explained as due to chance. Between coincidence and telepathy, he chooses the latter.

Very many attempts were made to transfer a simple drawing from M. Richet's mind to that of the subject. Many illustrations of the result are figured, and without such illustrations it is useless to describe the result. But the new fact that M. Richet records is that the experiment succeeded nearly or quite as well when he was ignorant of the design contained in the envelope as when he knew it. Here thought-transferrence is out of the question, and M. Richet has recourse to the theory of a sort of clairvoyance to which he gives the generic name of 'lucidity,' a vision in which the ordinary optical impediments no longer act as such. It must be added, that as a rule the subject did not draw her reproduction, but described it part by part, and it was drawn by M. Richet. Selections from the most successful sixth of the results are alone described. Moreover, the very admirable plan was adopted of experimenting with normal subjects by selecting sixty designs, and recording the good results. For seven successes in two hundred with these subjects, he can show twenty with his selected subjects, so that the normal degree of success is to some extent ascertained. Another and very questionable form of test was to have the subject, either in a normal or hypnotic state, describe the disease of a patient thought of, or a lock of whose hair was shown. The descriptions are in vague terms, and the amount of success is by no means remarkable.

Experiments were made in which the letters of an alphabet are moved over by one person, while a group of persons sit at a table, and the letters are recorded at which the pen stopped when the table moved under the more or less unconscious impulse of the sitters. When these letters are put together, they form a more or less close resemblance to what was thought of or asked for. The fact that sentences thus emerge, if fact it is, is certainly extremely wonderful.

Experiments with cards were tried; and the success in guessing the color, the suit, and the grade, compared with the success by

1 The present writer counts himself among this number, and, inasmuch as it is impossible to eliminate individual opinion in so new a question, will criticise the experiments from this negative point of view.

chance, yields the result that no evidence of lucidity' is present. The guessing of names was no more successful. Other observations of a miscellaneous character, and dealing with coincidence, are recorded. These give one the feeling that a great many wonderful things have been happening to M. Richet since he has become interested in this study.

M. Richet takes the position that chance or a new mode of mental action is the only way of explaining the results. This is far from self-evident. On the contrary, it is infinitely more probable that a natural mode of explanation has escaped our observation, and especially so in this unexplained region of mental phenomena. We know, as M. Richet points out, how very shrewd subjects are in anticipating results by unconscious suggestion, and the limits of this power have by no means been reached. We ought, then, to so arrange our experiments that this power finds no field for application. It is not sufficient to refrain from all conscious intimation of the expected result, but this result must not be capable of any such intimation. It is in this point that M. Richet's experiments are sadly deficient. Instead of finding when his subject went to sleep by her account of it, let a schedule be arranged that five times per day for a period of fifteen minutes he should will the distant subject to sleep; then let the hours be determined by hazard, and record the result. Everywhere we require simplicity of conditions with the amount of success due to chance precisely calculable. It is striking that the card experiments, which alone answer this condition, are entirely negative in result. Again, the drawing experiments are useless until we have a system of calculating sucThe designs are largely the combination of a few elements; and if, as M. Richet at times does, we calculate the appearance of one of these elements as a partial success, it is easy to prove telepathy. Finally (for objections could be indefinitely multiplied), the inference from the fact that success was obtained when the operator did not do the drawing, is not that we must suppose lucidity, but that this is excellent evidence against telepathy, and strongly suggests that the percipient has some method of seeing enough of the design to get three times as many as the normal number of successes. The problem is by no means a simple one, and theories of any kind are premature. In maintaining a scientific interest in such phenomena the Psychic Research Society is performing a very useful function.

cesses.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM. In the July number of the American Magazine, Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton writes to the point in reference to the delusion which has recently figured in the law courts. He shows the relationship of this to other psychic delusions, and describes the conditions under which false mental images arise, and lead to the weakening of the judgment.

BOOK REVIEWS.

The Constitution of the United States, with notes. EDWIN D. MEAD. Boston, Heath. 16°.

THE proprietors of the Old South Meeting House established in 1883 a series of lectures on historical and political subjects, with the special object of instructing the young. The lectures have proved popular, and are doubtless doing good; so that the hope is now entertained that they will be permanently continued, and will give rise to other courses of like character elsewhere. In connection with these lectures a series of pamphlets have been issued, called the 'Old South Manuals,' of which this copy of the National Constitution is one. It is of convenient size and well printed. The notes are historical and bibliographical, and though of necessity brief, they convey a good deal of information, and will be specially valuable as showing the student where to go for further instruction. The editor of the work, as well as the managers of the lectures, take a broad view of the subject with which they deal, and are not among those who think that American history and politics can be studied apart from those of the world in general. The vital connection of our institutions with those of England is fully apprehended by Mr. Mead, and several of his notes are devoted to this subject. The leading authorities on both English and American constitutional history are pointed out, and the student who wishes to pursue the subject thoroughly will find this little book a sufficient and trustworthy guide.

NOTES AND NEWS.

ALL intending to be present at the meeting at Cleveland of the American Association should write to the Local Committee, 407 Superior St., for a copy of their circular giving full particulars of the course to be pursued in order to benefit by reduced fares. Certain conditions must be fulfilled before reaching the meeting.

-Jean-Charles Houzeau de Lehaie, honorary director of the Royal Observatory at Brussels, died at Schaerbeek, July 12. He was born at Mons on the 7th of October, 1820.

Courtlandt Palmer died, July 23, at the Lake Dunmore House, Lake Dunmore, near Brandon, Vt., of peritonitis. Mr. Palmer will be remembered as the founder of the Nineteenth Century Club, a debating society devoted to the discussion of social, literary, artistic, theological, and scientific problems in the spirit of the broadest liberality, which has been held together for more than five years by the force of his energy and enthusiasm. Mr. Palmer has always been the president of this organization. Its first meeting was held at his residence, in Gramercy Park, in January, 1883, and for some time afterward the membership of the club was small enough to enable the president to offer to it the hospitality of his home. But the membership increased, and it became the fashion in polite society to attend the club meetings. The rooms of the American Art Association, on Madison Square, were secured, and half a dozen meetings were held every winter. Last season the club changed its meeting place to the handsome assembly rooms of the Metropolitan Opera House. There is no question that the Nineteenth Century Club has done good work. Mr. Palmer's enthusiastic devotion to his society never relaxed. By profession he was a lawyer, and he was born in this city forty-five years ago.

- The July-August number of The Art Review begins Vol. III. of the magazine and the new series of bi-monthly issues. The latter mode of publication will not only allow more time and care in the preparation of the 54 art supplements given annually by the magazine (6 etchings, 6 wood-engravings, and 42 full-page photogravures reproducing American scenery, paintings, statuary, architecture), but will also be better adapted to the review character of the articles, — descriptive and critical accounts of the more important exhibitions in New York and elsewhere, of our public art museums and private galleries, of picturesque American scenery, of the art status of leading American cities, of American architecture and industrial art, of American prints, coins, etc., as well as articles on general art topics, embracing both foreign and American art. In conformity with the reduction in the number of issues per annum, the subscription price is reduced from $10.00 to $7.50 a year. Encouraged by the cordial reception given to The Art Review, the editor and publisher of the Review (Mr. George Forbes Kelly) will begin in September next a new art periodical, entitled The Art Courier, issued twice a month, or 24 times a year. This publication will aim to give the art news of the fortnight, presented in readable style, with brief editorial comments. Each number will have, as its art supplement, a photogravure, and these 24 plates will be furnished with the letter-press for the low price of $4.00 a year. Of the series of railway articles in Scribner's Magazine, the third, entitled 'American Locomotives and Cars,' by M. N. Forney, will appear in the August number, and will be entirely different in subject-matter, treatment, and illustration from the two preceding articles, which dealt with the construction of the road-bed. Mr. Forney will describe the evolution of the modern locomotive from Peter Cooper's engine, which weighed less than a ton, and the typical passenger car from the old stage-coach. In the August number of the Atlantic Monthly two timely and practical contributions, which will be given close attention just now, are Horace E. Scudder's article on Literature in the Public Schools,' and a review of the new book of Political Essays,' by James Russell Lowell. Another practical contribution is furnished by President Eliot of Harvard under the caption Can School Programmes be Shortened and Enriched? - The new number of Ticknor's admirable Paper Series of original copyright novels is 'The Rise of Silas Lapham,' by W. D. Howells. -The Popular Science Monthly is doing splendid service in showing the aspect of the great questions of the day from the scientific standpoint. The August number opens with an article entitled 'The Octroi at Issoire: a City made Rich by Taxa

tion,' by President Jordan of the University of Indiana, which gives the imaginary history of a French town that sought prosperity through a high tariff. The article, A Rare Fish,' in Outing for August deals with the salmon fishing of the Saguenay River. In the August Magazine of American History 'The Conquest of the Mayas' is the fourth and concluding paper in Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon's historical sketches of Yucatan.

The first report of this season's work has been received at the Hydrographic Office from the United States steamship Ranger.' The preliminary triangulation of Sebastiano Viscaino Bay, Lower California, has been completed, In order to make this triangulation, a party was left at Lagoon Head, in camp, with a heliostat constructed on board the Ranger' by using a state-room mirror. The flash was seen and cut in from Cerros, sixty miles distant, on a remarkably clear day, so that the triangulation was easily connected with a system of well-conditioned triangles to the base line measured at San Bartolomé Bay. The heliostat furnished to the ship is effective for a distance of forty miles, but could not be seen from Cerros. The aggregate length of the sides of the various triangles constructed was about a thousand miles, and the length of coast line surveyed, one hundred and nineteen miles. Ten places were occupied on the coast for the determination of the magnetic declination. The observations at Rosalia Bay show that the point of maximum easterly deviation has passed, and that now the declination is decreasing at that place. The hydrography is completed to Point San Eugenio. The great bay of San Sebastian Viscaino is well sounded out, and the east coast of Cerros Island is finished to within three miles of the north end.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

A Pseudometeorite.

ON JUNE 26 the Minneapolis, Minn., Tribune printed a special despatch from Rochester, Minn., stating that a meteorite weighing 203 pounds had fallen on the premises of Mr. A. Sias of that place; that the stone measured 20 inches in length and 12 inches in thickness, and was covered with a black varnish-like coating.

A small piece was kindly sent me by the owner, who also informed me that it was found in a gully which had about eighteen months ago been washed out by a freshet and since then had filled in with limestone. On this pile he found what he believed to be a meteorite.

The fragment sent is red hematite, probably from the Lake Superior region, and not of meteoric origin.

The finders still believe it to be a meteorite, because they cannot see how a mass of hematite could reach there. It is probable that this mass was left in an ore car and thrown out at the limestone quarry where limestone was obtained for flux, and subsequently carted from there with the limestone used in filling up the gully. GEORGE F. KUNZ. New York, July 23.

Professor Loizette's Memory.

I AM glad that in your issue of July 20 you properly characterized 'Professor' Loisette's memory system and methods. I am one who started to become a pupil by correspondence,' and ended by becoming a victim. Having received, after the proper payment, the 'secret' lessons, I proceeded according to directions and transmitted a copy of my work for correction as per contract. Did I receive any attention? Not the least. Another letter, enclosing the proper stamps and explaining the first, drew no further response than a duplicate copy of the printed lessons and a pamphlet of useless advertisements. The 'Professor,' who had been so ready to receive my fee, did not deign, in person or by clerk, write a word, and I became conscious that I had been swindled. It is time, as you suggest, that I ought to have known better; but the most cautious are sometimes taken in,' and become an illustration of the adage that a fool and his money are soon parted.' However, although at considerable cost, I admit that the Professor' has improved my memory to that extent, and if I may serve as a warning to others, my experience may not be without its benefits. CHARLES FLUHRER.

Grand Rapids, Mich., July 23.

་

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1888.

A RECENT NUMBER of the Journal of the Society of Arts contains information of the projected railways in Asia Minor. A new railway is projected from Constantinople to Bagdad, to start from Ismid, the present terminus of a short line of railroad connecting that town with Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople. Its length is about 1,400 miles, and the estimated cost is $75,500,000. Throughout its length it will traverse a country well populated, abounding in mineral resources, and producing great quantities of grain. British consul Jewett, of Sivas, says that the great advantages to the country, commercially and as a civilizing influence, of such a road are too obvious to need mention. It is sufficient to say that it would create a new Asia Minor, open to the trade of the world a vast territory now closed, totally change the character of the country and the people, and practically advance Turkey in Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; moreover, the commercial world at large has a special interest in this project, as it will, if carried out, shorten the distance between Europe and India by nine or ten days, and give a route to the East independent of the Suez Canal. Should the railroad be built, it is said that Bagdad, as the entrepôt for the trade between the East and the West, is sure to attain a commercial importance hardly second to any city in the East. With the advent of the railroad, with the new towns and cities that will spring up, the new resources and industries developed, and especially with the new ideas and wants which civilization creates, there will be a new market, and a constantly increasing demand for almost everything which Europe and America manufacture.

WITH THE REAPPEARANCE this spring of our native birds in great numbers we expected to hear from some of our ornithologists as to a reasonable explanation, The reappearance was first noted in the New York papers, and was promptly credited to the liberal destruction of the pugnacious English sparrow, unable to withstand the storm-beating received in the great March blizzard. But counter to this explanation comes information from Illinois that the attention of all is attracted to the remarkably large number of birds that are to be seen. The groves, the woods, and the meadows in the country, and the many trees in the city, are peopled with these feathered visitors. The oldest inhabitant does not remember to have seen so many and such a variety of birds. And yet the great blizzard did not visit Illinois. The July Auk, the quarterly organ of the ornithologists, contains no hint as to the cause of this sudden return of the old birds, which we had been led to believe were so vastly reduced in numbers that only after a long respite from the attacks of the sparrows and the country's shotguns could they possibly be restored to us in their former numbers. The birds are here, as numerous as ever, and have returned en

names. They are called 'artotypes,' 'heliotypes,' 'albertypes,' but they are all varieties of the same method, the method of applying photography to the purposes of engraving. They are, in fact, reproductions in photo-engraving of the best, the costliest, and the most popular modern English and French engravings and etchings. They are of imposing size, the artotypes measuring, when mounted, thirty inches by forty, and thus approximating to the dimensions of the engravings which they copy. They are showy, effective, and, to use the language of the workshop, 'well got up.' They are in no sense botched or bungled. They are quite a different thing from the German lithographs of our childhood, those naïve attempts in art by which the last generation of continental contrabandistas used to impose upon an unsophisticated world. These things are as like the works they counterfeit as the sun and the printing-press can make them. During the past ten or fifteen years, that is to say, since the recent great development of 'processes' has enabled American publishers to destroy the American demand for the first-hand works of European artists, their remuneration has fallen to a great extent. Fifteen years ago it was quite a common thing for an artist like the late Mr. Cousins to be paid a thousand pounds for a mezzotint plate, for the publisher who commissioned him knew that there were a sufficient number of buyers in Europe and America, taken together, to make such an outlay remunerative. It is not asserted that there are no longer men who can command a similar price, but they are so few that their existence hardly makes a difference in the question. In the case of one or two Englishmen, and one or two French or Dutch etchers, it is still possible for the publishers to give these heavy commissions. Fashion still points that way, and while the fashion lasts these men can be employed; but in the case of the great majority, even of distinguished engravers, the demand for their work is lamentably less than it was, not from any failure of appreciation on the part of the public, not from any failure of power on the part of the engravers, but simply because the returns are less than they used to be, and less almost exclusively on the American side.

IT IS THE CURRENT BELIEF that there has been nothing like the present Cincinnati Exposition since the great one at Philadelphia in 1876. People who were at New Orleans is 1885 say that this is enormously superior in all the arts, especially upon the mechanical and industrial side. The Exposition covers fifteen acres in the very heart of the city, and in every part of this large area one meets evidences of taste, skill, ingenuity, and perseverance in adapting means to ends, which form a series of apparently neverending surprises as one passes from one exhibit to another. The government exhibits are all good and all characteristic. The Smithsonian Institution and the Geological Survey exhibits attract crowds. In the latter Prof. F. W. Clark has some transparent photographic views, represented in colors by some new and as yet undisclosed process. The effect is wonderfully natural and beautiful, and if it is found to be durable it will prove a great discovery. The very fine models of the new classes of naval vessels now building attract crowds daily, as do the various forms of weapons for wholesale slaughter in case we ever have another war. In close juxtaposition are the ingenious devices for saving life in cases of shipwreck, of the Life Saving Service. The Fish Commission exhibit is not as yet complete. In such elaborate displays, requiring much preparatory work, more time should have been allowed for preparation. The Post Office Department and the Army exhibits are also incomplete, but a few days will find every thing in order.

IN A RECENT NUMBER of The Forum, Mr. Lester F. Ward has an article on What shall the Public Schools Teach? In this article Mr. Ward maintains that in refining upon the blessings of education we forget altogether what knowledge is for. His definition of civilization being that it consists in the utilization of the materials and forces of nature,' he holds that so far as the improvement of man's estate is concerned we know only in order to do, that knowledge unapplied is sterile, and is only fruitful when it makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, when it converts 'raw material' into useful objects, or when it directs into some useful channel the forces of nature which were previously running to waste or doing injury to man. Mr. Ward believes that nowadays all inventions are in the nature of 'improvements' upon pre-existing inventions, and are chiefly made by the mechanics or artisans of the higher grades, who are constantly using the original devices, and who, through an intimate acquaintance with these, eventually perceive how they may be improved; that as artisans become more intelligent this class of inventions will increase, and that nothing but the stolid ignorance of the working-classes in the past has prevented this from having always been the chief mode of advancing the useful arts; and the hope is expressed that in the near future the artisan as well as the engineer may not only receive a good education in the hitherto accepted sense of the term, but may also have such a training of the eye and the hand as will enable him to perceive and to effect all possible reforms in his chosen field of labor. Everywhere we see the lack of thought directed to the improvement of our material surroundings. If this is because the importance of improving those surroundings forms no part of the education which is given to the youth of the country, there is reason to believe that any system of education which will tend to develop the human powers of dealing with materials and forces will tend to raise the plane of civilization as defined. Mr. Ward even looks forward to the day when the need for the use of the human animal for the lowest forms of unthinking labor will be done away with, which would simply mean that there would be less opportunity for life among those of low intelligence, and that the ' average man' would be on a higher plane than at present.

This tendency to educate youth so that man may be the better able to deal with his material surroundings is doubtless wise, but brings forth a remonstrance occasionally from those versed in the old ways, who hasten to point out the other sides to a man's nature which come in contact with other conditions which he should be equally ready to contend with, or perhaps better to appreciate. The recently published life of the most illustrious and most amiable man of science of this scientific age has suggested to many readers doubts of the all-sufficiency of science to build up, not theories, but men. Mr. Darwin's admirably candid avowal of the gradual extinction in his mind of the æsthetic and religious elements has proved startling to a generation which, even when it is ready to abandon religion, would be direfully distressed to lose the pleasures afforded by art and nature, poetry and music. Instead of lifting the scientific vocation to the skies (as was probably anticipated), this epoch-making biography seems to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, writing of The Scientific Spirit of the Age,' in the Contemporary Review, to have gone far “to throw a sort of dam across the stream, and to have arrested not a few science-worshippers with the query," as Darwin wrote: " What shall it profit a man if he find the origin of species and know exactly how earth-worms and sun-dews conduct themselves, if all the while he grow blind to the loveliness of nature, deaf to music, insensible to poetry, and as unable to lift his soul to the divine and eternal as were the primeval apes from whom he has descended? Is this all that science can do for her devotee? Must he be shorn of the glory of humanity when he is ordained her priest? Does he find his loftiest faculties atrophied when he has become a ' machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts'?"

THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY EXHIBIT AT CINCINNATI.

THE exhibit of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey at the Cincinnati Exposition shows the principal instruments used in the geodetic, astronomical, topographical, hydrographic, and magnetic work of the Survey, with illustrations of the results of their use, as shown by a series of the annual reports, a number of the principal charts published, a collection of the more important scientific papers or works printed by the Survey, a model of an observing tripod as used in geodetic work, and models showing the basins of the Gulf of Mexico and of the western Atlantic, or' Bay of North America,' constructed from the data furnished by the elaborate hydrographic surveys of those waters. The collection further includes an exhibit from the United States Bureau of Weights and Measures, which is under the care and direction of the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey.

The Exposition occurs at a period of the year when many of the best instruments of the Survey, containing the latest improvements in their several departments of use, are in the hands of field parties and cannot be exhibited. To aid those interested in the exhibit, a pamphlet has been issued by the Survey explaining the instruments shown and their uses.

The great end and chief object of the Survey is, and has been, for a period of half a century, to furnish good and reliable charts of the coasts of the United States, and of its harbors and navigable rivers. These require in their construction a combination of skilful labor, differing greatly in means, appliances, and methods.

First in order is the reconnaissance and triangulation. Next comes the topographical survey of all that portion of the earth's surface which lies above the water. It includes all accidents of ground, all natural or artificial developments of surface, and every thing useful for purposes of commerce or defence.

Third in the chronological order of conducting a survey, but equal in its usefulness, is the development upon the chart of all that portion of the earth's surface which lies beneath the water. This important work is carried on by officers and enlisted men of the navy of the United States. There are 67 officers and 280 petty officers and seamen now engaged upon this duty. The instruments used in the work are only partly shown.

Although one of the minor branches of the operations of the Survey, the study and the application of the results of terrestrial magnetism from a practical point of view are of great importance, not only to the surveyor, but also to the mariner, to whom they are indeed indispensable.

This will be readily understood by simply referring to the extended use surveyors have made of the magnetic needle for the demarcation of land and the consequent frequent necessity of retracing old lines so laid out and recorded..

With reference to the use of the compass at sea, the charts of the Survey require the impress of the compass, they record the variation of the needle, and state the annual change so as to render the sailing directions applicable for other years than that of the issue of the chart. With reference to the adjustment of the compass on board ship, and the construction of deviation tables to answer for different directions, inclinations, and positions of the ship, a knowledge of the magnetic dip and the intensity is demanded. The labors of the Survey and their results may best be shown by a short historical review.

In the early years of the Survey under its first superintendent, the magnetic declination (the scientific term equivalent to the mariner's 'variation') was supplied to the charts as found by the ordinary nautical instrumental means then in vogue. In the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1825), he proposed to measure relative magnetic intensity by means of oscillations of a needle. The magnetic work of the Survey, however, may be said to have commenced in its three-fold aspects, the declination, the dip, and the intensity, with his successor in office in 1843. Professor Bache had previously made a magnetic survey of Pennsylvania, which, although a scanty beginning, was not followed until in quite recent years by the magnetic survey of Missouri. He imported new instruments suitable for more refined measures of the declination than could be secured by the older in

struments, and at the same time capable of exact determinations of the intensity in absolute measure; he also procured dip circles, and availing himself of the additional temporary aid of Dr. Locke of Cincinnati and of Professor Renwick of Columbia College, the observational work was fairly started, and has since been prosecuted uninterruptedly by various assistants of the Survey. In consequence of the dual or polar character of the magnetic force, it resisted for a long time all attempts of measure expressible in the usual units, but in 1833 Gauss showed how this could be done, and after the invention, in 1836, of the portable magnetometer his method for the absolute measure of magnetic intensity came into general use.

Those who are acquainted with magnetic observations, which also include certain astronomical operations, know the delicacy and refinement of its operations when great accuracy is demanded, and it should also be remembered that in those early days of the development of practical methods there were none of those facilities we now possess in the number of trained observers, in the home manufacture of instruments, and in the many treatises for instruction now at hand. Apace with the field work the office work of computation and discussion was prosecuted, and the results were published from time to time in the annual reports.

At first the observations were confined to the vicinity of the seacoast, but it was soon found that the charts could not satisfactorily be supplied with the values for the variation of the compass unless the observations were extended sufficiently inland to give proper direction to the magnetic lines, or isogonics as they are called, which curves determine the angular difference between the astronomical and magnetic meridian for a certain epoch. Meanwhile, surveyors from all parts of the country applied for information, not only for the present value of the declination, but what was far more difficult to answer, for the value at some earlier period. To satisfy this inquiry, and to provide for a better knowledge of the annual change of the declination needed for the charts, a more systematic general collection of all magnetic observations taken within the limits of the United States from the earliest to the present time was undertaken, and has been kept up since 1878, at which time the field of activity of the Survey was enlarged by the change of Coast into Coast and Geodetic Survey. This collection arranged by States and Territories now comprises several thousand observations of declination, dip, and relative and total intensities, and together with the direct survey work, which in July last comprised 731 stations (many of them occupied several times at definite intervals), constitutes the material from which most of the deductions were derived, and which mark the advancement of our knowledge in this department of research contributed by the Survey.

The first permanent magnetic observatories in North America were established at Toronto by the British Government about 1840 (which observatory is still in operation under the auspices of the Canadian Government), and about the same time at Philadelphia, 1840-45, at Girard College. The latter was directed by Professor Bache, who, after taking charge of the Coast Survey, took advantage of the newly invented application of photography to automatic registration, procured one of Brooke's magnetographs, and caused it to be set up and to record continuously the variations of the declination and of the horizontal and vertical intensities at Key West, Fla., between 1860 and 1866. After the lapse of half a sun spot cycle, which is the minimum duration for which it is profitable to keep up continuous observation at any one place, the instruments were transported to Madison, Wis., where between 1876 and 1880 a second series of observations was procured. When the support and co-operation of the Survey was asked for the two international expeditions fitted out by the United States for polar research, the needed magnetic instruments, both absolute and differential, so far as the Survey could supply them, were furnished and the observers were trained during the short time permitting.

The magnetic records of the second year (1882-83) at Point Barrow, Alaska, by the party in charge of Lieutenant Ray, were made by the Brooke magnetometers, which had in the mean time been altered for direct or eye-observations.

A superior self-recording magnetic apparatus, known as the Adie magnetograph, after the Kew pattern, and likewise working by means of photography, arrived here during the late war, but for

want of funds was not set up until 1882. This superior instrument was located at Los Angeles, Cal., and continues to give excellent results. It is intended to terminate this series towards the beginning of the next year, and then remount the instrument, either in Washington Territory near Puget Sound, or in southern Texas, in order to cover as much as possible of the space for which, heretofore, our knowledge of the laws of terrestrial magnetism was most incomplete.

The first isogonic chart published by the Survey, entitled 'Lines of Equal Magnetic Declination,' will be found in the annual report for 1855, the last one in three sheets appeared in the annual report for 1882: a comparison between these charts will show in the most conspicuous manner the progress made in our knowledge in this direction during the interval. The index to scientific papers in the annual report for 1881 under the heading of 'Terrestrial Magnetism,' enumerates no less than sixty-six titles up to the close of 1880; this will give some idea of the activity of the Survey in this department. Several important investigatations have appeared in the later annual reports; in the report for 1882 we have an appendix discussing the distribution of the magnetic declination in the United States for the year 1885; the results are based on observations at more than 2,300 stations. In the report for 1885 we have an investigation of the magnetic dip and intensity, with their secular variations and their geographical distribution in the United States. This appendix, 145 quarto pages, involved much labor for its preparation it is accompanied by three finely excuted charts, besides the illustrations in the text, and discusses no less than 2,000 dip observations and more than 1,500 observations for intensity. The results for secular change of dip and intensity are new. In the report for 1886 (not yet issued) we have in type the sixth edition of an investigation much sought after, namely, The Secular Variation of the Magnetic Declination in the United States and at some Foreign Stations. From a small beginning in 1859 this paper has grown to be a complete depository of magnetic results available for the study of the secular change within our territory, and the author discusses most thoroughly the laws governing this mysterious movement, the cause of which is as yet entirely unknown, though in its nature it must be cosmical, since we cannot think of any adequate cause within the earth to produce, so far as we can judge, with the utmost regularity, the observed angular motion of the needle during centuries.

The deductions rest on 1,071 observations made at ninety-four stations. The earliest observations on our western coast date from the sixteenth century (Sir Francis Drake), the earliest records on the eastern coast dating from the beginning of the next century (Hudson and Champlain). In this branch of research the Survey profited by the use of the valuable collection of declinations and dips, the earliest on record, made by Prof. E. Loomis (now of Yale College), who published them in Silliman's Journal in 1838 and 1840, and without which our results would not possess the degree of reliability they now have. In this sixth edition, which spreads over 116 quarto pages, we have minute references to observations, together with their critical examination. The resulting secular change, illustrated by several diagrams, is expressed analytically and is also given in tabular form. The laws which so far appeared to govern this motion are stated, and embrace the whole of the area of the United States (inclusive of Alaska), and are given sufficient expansion to facilitate their connection with similar relations referring to Europe, South America, and eastern Asia.

The magnetic records brought home by the polar expeditions in command of Lieutenants Ray and Greely were placed in care of the Coast and Geodetic Survey: this material was subjected to computation and discussion, and arranged for the press. The Point Barrow work (1881–83) forms part VI. of the official publication of Lieutenant Ray's expedition (published in 1885), and the work done at Fort Conger (1881-83) under Lieutenant Greely will form Appendix No. 139 of Vol. II. of the official publication now passing through the press.

The reduction, analysis, and discussion of the automatically registered material at the magnetic observatories still await sufficient computing force to bring out the many laws and complex relations due to the ceaseless changes of the magnetic force.

The annual expenditure on account of terrestial magnetism is