2. Berghaus' Physical Atlas. Expensive; but Petermann's, a small work costing about four dollars, serves as a tolerably good substitute. 3. Kiepert's or Stieler's Large Atlas. Westermann furnishes the list of the maps in both of these; and they, too, can be ordered at the teacher's discretion, those of Stieler's costing only twelve cents each, and Kiepert's but twice that sum. 4. Kiepert's Globes. The sizes are specified above. 5. Reimer's or Schotte's Relief Globes and Maps. The lists can be ordered through Westermann. 6. Berghaus' Map of Commercial Lines of Communication. An admirable and useful work. 7. Menke's or Kiepert's Ancient Atlas. 8. Kiepert's Wall-Map of Palestine. Van der Veldi's is the best (published at Gotha), but not the distinctest when hung. These are the best, and at the same time the most practical, it requiring no German to use them with advantage. W. L. G. SCIENCE AND ARTS. R. C. M. Wetherill has been engaged upon a series of very important experiments with the ammonium amalgam, to ascertain positively the existence or non-existence of the hypothetical metal, ammonium. From these he has drawn the following conclusions: The so-called ammonium amalgam is not an alloy of mercury and ammonium; the swelling of the mass in the phenomenon is due to the retention of gas bubbles; and the coherence of the gases and liquids concerned is changed from a normal condition, exhibiting phenomena which may be classed with those of catalysis. The experiments, detailed in Silliman's Journal, No. 119, are apparently conclusive. -Fresh sources of the new metal, indium, have been found by Dr. Kachler, of Vienna. He discovered it in considerable quantity in the zincblende of Schönfelde, near Schlaggenwald. The blende is roasted and then dissolved in sulphuric acid; on treating this solution with metallic zinc, the indium is precipitated with traces of other metals, from which it is afterwards separated. -M. Soret has determined that the density of ozone is one and one-half times greater than that of oxygen; and Regnault has arrived at a like conclusion. Dr. Boeckel, of Strasburg, has shown from observations made during eleven years, that ozone is most abundant in spring, that May is the richest month, that October and November are the poorest; there is less ozone at night than during the day; and the barometric variations, morning and evening, coincide with the quantitative variations in ozone. ---M. Betekoff asserts that the elements unite in inverse proportion to their specific gravity. Mercury, being heavier than iron, has less chemical energy. The investigator supposes that the laws of chemical affinity are identical with those of mechanics. -Prof. Wohler, of Gottingen, has discovered a new mineral in some platinum ore of Borneo. It forms black, semi-metallic, very brilliant grains, similar to crystallized iron. The specific gravity varies from six to nine. It consists of a compound of sulphide of osmium and sulphide of ruthenium. This is the first time that the platinum metals have been found in combination with sulphur, and will at once be seized upon by the advocates of the theory that the sulphur in the auriferous pyrites of Colorado is in chemical combination with the gold, as gold is classed by them in the platinum group. Wohler proposes the name laurite for the new mineral. -M. Engelbach has discovered in the basalt of Annerod, at Giessen, near the Hartz Mountains in Germany, small quantities of the following very rare metals: Lithium, rubidium, titanium, and vanadium, together with traces of copper, cobalt, lead, tin, and chromium. There is much probability that with careful analysis, a trace of most of the metals might be found in nearly or quite all eruptive matter. -A recent French work gives the following: Into a bell-jar full of air, a'tube, entering at the bottom and carried nearly to the dome, carries a slow current of hydrogen-electric sparks are passed through the jar above the mouth of the tube; the hydrogen ignites and darts about the glass in the form of small luminous spheres. These soon become very numerous, and rush all round the inside, but never touch each other. -In electrotyping, instead of covering the moulds with plumbago, it is better to cover it with acetate of copper or nitrate of silver, afterwards submitting them to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen. -At a late meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. B. G. Wilder exhibited a yellow band of the silk of nephila plumites, the geometrical spider, which had been woven in the middle of a ribbon by a power-loom. The thread consisted of eighteen threads reeled directly from the living spider. Twenty threads of the cocoon of the silkworm were necessary to make a thread large enough to be woven in the usual way. -According to C. Robin, the ray is an electric fish, although less so than the torpedo. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. NEW ENGLAND STATES. NEW HAMPSHIRE.-The House of Representatives has decided to locate the Agricultural College at Hanover, in connection with Dartmouth College. The State will have five trustees and the college four, and the State reserves the right to assume the full control after fifteen years. MASSACHUSETTS.-George Peabody has just made another gift of $100,000 to the Peabody Institute, established by him at South Danvers. This gentleman has Yale College next on his list of endowments. It is said that next spring he will begin the erection of a building for a geographical cabinet, with ample accommodations for a chemical laboratory and a philosophical lecture-room.The Boston public library contains 123,000 volumes. Its largest con tributors are Joshua Bates, of London who gave $100,000 worth of books, and Theodore Parker, who left 11,000 books and 8,000 pamphlets. In 1865 nearly 195,000 books were lent, or an average of 708 per day. The greatest number given out in a single day was 1,464. The superintendent reports a constantly improving character in the circulation: that it is tending strongly to the more substantial and useful class of books. CONNECTICUT.-The late Augustus R. Street left by will $100,000 to Yale College. This, with his donations while alive, swells the aggregate of his gifts to the college to more than $250,000.-The Sheffield Scientific School buildings at New Haven have been enlarged by the generous patron of the school, Joseph E. Sheffield. Two towers have been built, one for the new telescope and the other for the meridian circle. The instruments are also the gift of Mr. Sheffield, who has spent in all some $150,000 upon the school and its buildings. -Mr. James B. Hosmer, of Hartford, has given $50,000 to the Theological Institute at Hartford. MIDDLE STATES. NEW YORK.-The burning of the Medical School buildings of the University of New York is not likely to prove so great a calamity as at first supposed. The school has formed a connection with the New York Hospital, whereby it secures advantages excelled by those of no similar institution in the country.-Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, is advancing towards complete organization. Ezra Cornell gave $500,000, and the State pledged the income from its land-grant fund, in order to secure the establishment of this institution. The agricultural department will be opened in 1867. The annual income of the build ing-fund is $35,000. The policy in erecting the buildings will be to use only the income, and have the general fund unimpaired. Mr. Cornell is buying in and focating the land scrip, and hopes to secure $3,000,000 as the grand endowment of the institution.-Rochester University intends to erect a memorial tablet to the memory of those of its students who fell during the war.--At a late meeting of Methodists in Rochester, it was resolved, that "in our judgment, the three annual conferences, Oneida, Black River, and Wyoming, should realize the sum of at least $200,000 for the purpose of endowment of the Genesee College, provided it be removed to a more central location." ferent school-systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country. Section 2. That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Commissioner of Education, who shall be intrusted with the management of the Department herein established, and who shall receive a salary of $4,000 per annum, and who shall have authority to appoint one chief clerk of his department, who shall receive a salary of $2,000 per annum, one clerk who shall receive a salary of $1,800 per annum, and one clerk who shall receive a salary of $1,600 per annum; which said clerks shall be subject to the appointing and removing power of the Commissioner of Education. Section 3. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Education to present annually to Congress a report embodying the results of his investigations and labors, together with a statement of such facts and recommendations as will, in his judgment, subserve the purpose for which this department is established. In the first report made by the Commissioner of Educa tion, under this act, there shall be presented a statement of the several grants of land made by Congress to promote education and the manner in which these several trusts have been managed, the amount of funds arising therefrom, and the annual proceeds of the same, as far as the same can be determined.. Section 4. That the Commissioner of Public Buildings is hereby authorized and directed to furnish proper offices for the use of the Department herein established. The report on the colored schools for May is gratifying. There are 63 dayschools, with 126 teachers and 6,414 scholars. The night-schools are 12 in number, with 468 scholars, and there are 19 Sundayschools with 2,555 scholars. The industrial schools reported are 5 in number, employing 181 women. VIRGINIA.-C. H. McCormick has subscribed $80,000 as endowment of a professorship in the Union Theological Seminary, near Hampden Sidney College, Virginia. He has also added $5,000 to his contribution of $10,000 for the endowment of a professorship in Washington College, Lexington, of which General Lee is president. SOUTH CAROLINA.-Superintendent Tomlinson reports 75 freedinen-schools in South Carolina, with 9,017 pupils, and an average attendance of 6,574. There are 148 teachers, of whom 58 are natives and 50 colored. One other school, from which there were no returns, would swell the number of pupils to 10,000. The interest of the colored people in the schools continues unabated, and that of the white people is growing; yet there are some places where it is said no school could be established, nor tolerated after the garrison ENGLAND.-The Ragged School Union, London, presided over, like the City Mission, by Earl Shaftesbury, reported 826 Sunday-schools, with an average attendance of 26,000; 204 day-schools, with an average attendance of 18,750; and 217 evening-schools, with an average attendance of 8,284; total, 747 schools, with an attendance of 61,984. This is an increase of about 70 schools and 5,000 scholars. The Union employs 896 paid teachers and 480 paid monitors in its schools. It has 450 boys and girls in the refuges connected with it. Its clothing clubs have received £1,689 in deposits. Its penny-banks have had £6,778 deposited in them during the year past. Its shoe-black brigade, numbering 318, has earned £7,002, and in the fifteen years since the brigade was formed there has been a total earning of £55,708. 12,845 volumes are in the lending libraries of the Union.-Mr. Goldwin Smith is to resign his professorship at Oxford at the close of the current academical term. Among his probable successors Mr. Froude appears to have the best prospects. Mr. Ruskin will probably succeed Matthew Arnold as professor of poetry. This professorship is tenable for five years by an M. A. or B. C. L.-A movement has been inaugurated by Archbishop Manning for the education of poor Catholic children in London. There are in that city 29,000 Catholic children who ought to be at school; of these, 7,000 are set down as absolutely without instruction. Thirty-five new schools are required. The archbishop is cordially supported by the Catholic laity and clergy. IRELAND.-A female member of the Irish Presbyterian Church has made to the Assembly's College, Belfast, the handsome donation of £2,000 for the erection of dwelling-houses on the college grounds for two of the professors. FRANCE.-The brothers Siegfried are organizing at Mulhausen, Alsace, a vast commercial college, somewhat on the plan of our American commercial institutions. The pupils, who must have finished their preparatory studies, will be taught foreign languages, book-keeping, ornamental writing, commercial law and geography, industrial economy, and the knowledge of goods in general. Sham business-offices are to be inade, in which the forms of business may be acquired.-The government is making great efforts to supply the demand for a non-classical, yet really high course of instruction, which may fit youth for the highest industrial and commercial situations. The course of study determined upon differs little from the scientific course adopted in several of the American colleges. RUSSIA. Russia has six universities: St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great; Moscow, founded in 1755, by the Empress Elizabeth; Wilna, which in 1842 was transformed into the University of St. Vladimir; Dorpat, founded in 1632 by Gustavus Adolphus, destroyed in 1704, and revived by Alexander I. in 1802; Kharkhov and Kasan, founded in 1804 by Alexander I. Each university has four faculties, history and philology, physical and mathematical sciences, law and medicine. Each university has fifty professors, with assistants. The students were thus distributed in 1864: St. Petersburg, 628; Moscow, 1,515; Kasan, 325; Kharkhov, 528; St. Vladimir, 518; Dorpat, 660; total, 4,084. Of these, 847 were bursars, costing the government upwards of 25,000 pounds sterling per annum.--The gymnasia, or secondary schools of Russia, resemble the great schools of England, and are intermediate between the elementary schools and the universities. In 1864 they were 95 in number, and were attended by 28,429 pupils of all ranks and religions. GREECE.-Amid all the vicissitudes of the nation the national university has in creased. In 1887 the attendance was 52; in 1864-5, it had advanced to 1,100. Like the German universities, it has four faculties. In 1864-5 there were 38 students in theology, 625 in law, 244 in medicine, and 193 in philosophy. 852 belonged to Greece, and most of the others came from Turkish provinces. SANDWICH ISLANDS.-The details respecting the education of girls are taken from a Honolulu paper: "An hour in the morning is spent in gardening, the girls having under cultivation about two acres of land. Besides this the girls do all their own work, such as washing, ironing, and other house-work. Some of them are quite skilled in crocheting and other fancy work. Every afternoon the whole company, with their lady teachers, either go to walk or indulge in the aquatic sport of bathing and swimming, for which the river affords a fine place. Many of them are said to rival the mermaids in the celerity and grace with which they glide through, over, and under the water. Most of them acquired the art of swimming before they entered the school. "Special pains have been taken to provide the scholars with all the modern appliances for exercise and out-door sports, such as swinging, rope jumping, etc., in which they exhibit all the zest and skill of their fair-skinned cousins in this and other climes. With them, however, as with other juveniles, each sport has its day and then goes out of fashion, and to the skill of the teachers is left to provide new ones. "The girls are all taught to sing, and special attention is given to this branch of instruction, which requires early training to develop it properly. Most of them sing any of the tunes in the two native tunebooks, and also many of the more modern hymns and songs composed by the poets of Hawaii." INDIA. Both among the Hindoos and Parsees a decided beginning has been made in the education of their girls, and the movement must accelerate as the education of the males themselves becomes elevated and broadened. At the Convocation of the University of Bombay for conferring degrees, it was stated that 109 out of 241 candidates passed the matriculation examination in November last, of whom 86 were Hindoos, 19 Parsees, 2 Portuguese, 1 European, 1 Mussulman. Of 82 candidates, 15 passed their first examination in Arts; of 20 candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 15 passed examination; and 2 Parsee candidates passed the examination for the degree of Master of Arts.Mr. Premchund Roychund (a lucky cotton speculator), who had already given $100,000 to the Calcutta University, has given a like sum to the Bombay University, towards the erection of a library, and a further sum of $100,000, "towards the erection of a tower, to contain a large clock and a pair of bells." HAYTI. According to an expose of the State of Hayti for 1865, just published by Government, there are 201 free national schools, daily attended by 13,896 pupils besides eight private schools subventioned by the State; one clerical seminary, which has already produced three priests; one grand seminary in Paris, attended by government scholars. CURRENT PUBLICATIONS. OME one has said, and said most truth SOME fully, "Peace hath her victories, no less than war." The invention of the "art preservative of all arts," was an event of more real importance than any other which happened in the fifteenth century. The invention of the cotton-gin was an event more important than any one of the struggles through which our country has passed. Without the cotton-gin, the Seminoles in Florida had not been an obstacle to be removed from the white man's path; without it, Texas had remained a State of Mexico till now; without it, our erring sisters" had never crowned cotton king. The introduction of useful inventions, the progress of commerce and of the arts, the progress of universal education in a State, and the discovery of new sources of wealth, as the gold of California, the copper of Lake Superior, and the petroleum of Pennsylvania, constitute a part of the experience of the people, add to their prosperity and happiness, and are equally worthy of the historian's pen. All such things, in connection with the action of their govern ment, constitute a people's real history. This truth is recognized in "Berard's School History of the United States." The main portion of the book has been (1) SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By A. B. BERARD, Philadelphia: Cowperthwait & Co. 12 mo., pp. 303. $1.25. |