to be expected, Congress made a liberal provision for the publication of the results of the expedition. The narrative volume was prepared under the supervision of Admiral Davis, at the time Superintendent of the Naval Observatory at this city, and the volume of physical results, prepared under the direction of Dr. Emil Bessels, the chief of the scientific corps of the expedition, and printed by Congress. There still, however, remains a large amount of material relating to the geology, natural history, and ethnology of arctic America, and Dr. Bessels has been continuing the elaboration of this work for publication, having a room in the building assigned for the purpose.

Congress at the last session made an appropriation of $8,000, and placed it under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, to be expended in preparing this material for final publication. The supervision of the work was placed in Dr. Bessel's hands, and in order to complete his researches on the history of the Esquimaux, it became necessary for him to visit Copenhagen and have conference with Dr. Rink in reference to that branch, as also to study the collections in the Copenhagen Museum. He has been very sucessful in his mission, and expects to return in February, and immediately thereafter to begin the printing of his final report. By authority of the Secretary of the Treasury the disbursal of the funds was placed in charge of Mr. Thomas J. Hobbs, one of the disbursing clerks of the Treasury Department.

The Alaska Commercial Company.-For many years the Alaska Commercial Company has acted to a great degree as the agent of the Smithsonian Institution on the Pacific coast, and the heartiest acknowledgements are due for its assistance during the year 1880, as well as in previous years. It has not simply been the agent for the transmission or reception of packages between Washington and San Francisco, but has readily undertaken the purchase of supplies and their transmission to the agents of the Institution, in many cases making large money advances. The entire business has necessarily involved the employment of much official time, and in some cases doubtless considerable annoyance. This, however, has been cheerfully rendered by the company without any consideration whatever.

The company has also made many contributions to the Museum from the collections sent to it by its own agents.

Centennial Commission Archives.-In the latter part of 1880 a meeting of the executive committee of the International Exhibition of 1876 was held in Philadelphia for the purpose of closing up the business of the exhibition. It was then decided to deposit all the archives of the commission in the National Museum at Washington, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was notified of this action.

The value and importance of these papers, plans, &c., will increase with time, and the determination of the commission to secure for them

permanent preservation at the national Capital is to be considered as patriotic and judicious. I have formally assured the commission of the willingness of the Institution to receive the articles as soon as a suitable place can be prepared in the new Museum for their reception.

National Academy of Sciences.-The regular meeting of the National Academy of Sciences was held in Washington on the 20th day of April, the accommodations being furnished, as in 1879, by the officers of All Souls' Church. It is hoped that at no distant day it may be in the power of the Smithsonian Institution to again offer the necessary facilities of room, &c., to the Academy. Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, president of the Academy, presided, and the meeting was in every way a successful one, a very large proportion of the members being in attendance and many interesting papers communicated. As the early history of the Academy was closely connected with that of the Smithsonian Institution, by reason of Professor Henry having been the president for many years, the files, correspondence, and archives were searched for data illustrating this relationship, and the results transmitted to Professor Rogers.

Paris International Congress and Exposition relative to Electricity.— Through the courtesy of the State Department, this Institution received early copies of circulars and programmes relative to a proposed international congress of electricians, and also to an international exhibition of electrical apparatus and applications, to be held at Paris in 1881. These papers have to some extent been appropriately distributed. By an official decree of President Grévy, of the French Republic, dated October 23, 1880, a congress of electricians is invited to meet at Paris on the 15th of next September (1881), the presiding officer of which body will be the minister of the postal service and telegraphs, M. Ad. Cochery. An international exposition of electrical apparatus of all kinds, designed for the production, propagation, and utilization of electricity (as well as of all memoirs and treatises relating to that subject) is appointed, to be held in the palace of the Champs Elysées, from the 1st of August to the 15th of November, 1881. M. George Berger has been appointed the commissioner-general of the congress and of the exhibition.

As a token of interest and co-operation in this enterprise, the Institution has sent to the commission, for deposit in the bibliographical class, a copy of each of its publications relating to electricity and terrestrial magnetism, to wit, four numbers of its octavo series (of Miscellaneous Collections), and thirteen numbers of its quarto series (of Smithsonian Contributions).

Recognition by Foreign Governments.-A gratifying testimonial to the appreciation of the Smithsonian Institution in its labors connected with the results of international exchanges, &c., was furnished by the action S. Mis. 31-5

of the International Exposition in Sydney, Australia, in presenting to it a bronze medal, although no exhibit of any kind was made by the Institution on that occasion.

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS.

Loss of Employés and Collaborators.-It is seldom that a year passes without entailing the mournful task of recording the loss by death of one or more of those who have been either directly employed by the Institution, or have rendered it assistance in the prosecution of its varied scientific operations. In the necrology of the past year, several valued names are to be included.

In the death of Dr. THOMAS M. BREWER, at his residence in Boston, on the 2d of January last, the Smithsonian Institution loses one of its best and earliest friends, and one who always rendered important serv ice in his capacity as editor of a leading Boston daily journal, and did much toward keeping the public advised of the true spirit of the operations of the Institution.

In his death the science of ornithology loses one of its earliest votaries, constituting, as he did, a connecting link between the present epoch and the period of Audubon and Nuttall. Dr. Brewer's specialty was in his knowledge of the history and the habits of birds, and especially of their nidification, and he has always been the highest authority on everything relating to the eggs of North American species. Many years ago he planned an exhaustive work on North American Oology, to be illustrated by the best drawings that could be procured, and an agreement was made by the Smithsonian Institution to publish this work in successive parts. The first number of this North American Oology was published by the Institution, and embraced more particularly the rapacious birds, the swallows, the goat suckers, and the king-fishers. This publication took place at a time when the knowledge of North American birds was undergoing many changes, resulting from the expansion of the territory of the United States and the better knowledge of its different portions. The further publication was deferred for a time, but arrangements were being made at the time of his death to take up the work again and carry it to its completion.

Dr. Brewer has done a great deal towards popularizing American ornithology by his investigations and correspondence with ornithological students of all grades of advancement. To no one so much as to Dr. Brewer is due the love of ornithology that is so prevalent in New England. In 1840, he published an American edition of Wilson's Ornithology, which met for a time a much felt want, and he has also published a large number of papers on ornithological subjects. His most important work, however, was in connection with the History of North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, printed by Messrs. Little & Brown, in 1873, of which three volumes have so far appeared, namely, those on land species. Of these the entire biological text was

furnished by Dr. Brewer. At the time of his death, he left behind the manuscript of the water-bird portion of the same history. This is now in the hands of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and will probably be published soon as one of the remaining portions of the work.

Dr. Brewer had been throughout his life one of the chief supporters of the Boston Society of Natural History, of which, indeed, he was one of the founders, occupying year by year important posts in connection with the society; and his influence upon it cannot easily be overestimated.

After giving up his editorial connection with the Boston Atlas and Traveller, Dr. Brewer entered into business as a publisher and bookseller; and retiring from this a few years ago, he spent a year and a half in travelling in Europe, in the course of which he visited all the ornithological and oological establishments, and arranged special connections between their owners or the curators. Partly as the result of this visit, and partly of long-continued and persistent efforts, he became possessed of one of the finest general collections of eggs in the world, but especially rich in the North American species. These collections he caused to be passed over at his death to the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Cambridge, where they are safely preserved, and constitute one of the most striking features of that great museum.

The death of Mr. JAMES W. MILNER, which occurred at his residence, Waukegan, Illinois, on the 6th of January, 1880, was a serious loss to the science of fish-culture. Mr. Milner had been connected with the United States Fish Commission as assistant commissioner for many years past, having been in its service indeed, from the first year of its organization. He commenced his labors, as a collector of statistics in regard to the fisheries of the great lakes, the results of which appear in the reports of the commission. In later years he had had charge more particularly of the division of the propagation of food-fishes, in the course of which he invented or brought into use many important practical discoveries. In the course of his visits to different parts of the country he also took occasion to make extensive collections in natural history for the National Museum, all of which are recorded in its catalogues.

Mr. Milner's illness was induced by a severe cold (taken in the spring of 1878,) which assumed a malarial tendency, and required his return to Lake Michigan for recuperation. He again assumed charge of his work in the autumn of that year, organizing the arrangements for the hatching of codfish by the United States Fish Commission at Gloucester, in the months of October and November. His increasing indisposition, however, made it necessary for him to go to some other locality, and he returned to Washington, and after spending a short time he went to Florida, where he remained during the winter.

He returned to Waukegan in the spring of 1879; but this season was exceptionally raw and trying on the lakes, and by the direction of his

physician he visited Colorado for the summer. He, however, failed to improve, and was brought to Waukegan in the autumn, and after much suffering died, as stated, on the 6th of January, 1880.

A man of modest and agreeable demeanor, Mr. Milner, by careful obser vation and study, had mastered the theory and practice of fish-culture, and had himself made many important improvements. His loss to the Fish Commission is one which it will be extremely difficult to replace. Mr. J. HOMER LANE must be mentioned as a valued collaborator of the Institution, who died in this city May 3d of the past year. A graduate of Yale College, he commenced his career as a teacher. His high scientific and mathematical attainments having become known to the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, he was early ap pointed to a position in that branch of the public service. About the year 1847, on the recommendation of Professor Henry, Mr. Lane was transferred to the United States Patent Office, as opening to him a more varied and active occupation; and he discharged the responsible duties of an Examiner in that institution with a pains-taking fidelity for many years. On the death of Mr. Saxton, who had charge of the construction and verification of the national and metric standards (under the Coast Survey Office), Mr. Lane was recalled to that bureau to fill this vacancy, a position held by him till his death.

Mr. Lane had given considerable attention and study to the mathematical theory of electricity, and in 1859 he conducted, at the request and under the general supervision of Professor Henry, a series of experiments for this Institution, on several points of scientific interest relating to the Atlantic telegraph, a brief notice of which investigation was given in the Smithsonian Report for 1859, p. 38. To Mr. Lane was also occasionally referred, for examination and report, communications or memoirs requiring for their thorough treatment a special familiarity with the higher mathematics. In 1866, he undertook an elaborate investigation into the conditions of successive expansion or rarefaction in gases, having particularly in view a more precise determination of the absolute zero of temperature. In these experiments he was assisted by apparatus specially constructed for him by the Institution. His fastidious desire for extreme accuracy led him to postpone the publication of results until it is feared that the valuable work actually accomplished by him in this direction will not be available for the promotion of knowledge among men, to which purpose he had so long and earnestly devoted himself. Mr. Lane was remarkable for the logical clearness of his mind and the strict conscientiousness of his moral nature.

When Mr. William H. Dall retu ned, in 1873, from his labors in Alaska, under the direction of the United States Coast Survey, he brought with him a young Aleute, named GEORGE TSAROFF, who commended himself to him by his intelligence. With the aid of some persons interested in education, Mr. Dall secured for his protégé an ex