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MISCELLANY.
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Climatology of Florida. By A. S. Baldwin, M.D. Pp. 39. Charleston, S. C.: Walker, Evans & Cogswell.

Secular Sermons, No. 1. By John Mcintosh. Pp. 20. Rochester: C. H. Stump.

Language, its Nature and Functions. By Rev. J. H. Pettingell, M.A. Pp. 26. Washington: Gibson Bros.

Report of the Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum, Utica, for the Year 1874. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co.

Management of the Insane. By Henry Howard, M.D. Pp. 14. St. Johns, N. B.: News Print.

A Protest against the High-Pressure System of Education. Same Author. Pp. 24.

Philosophy of Dairy Manufactures. By F. X. Willard, M.A., of Herkimer Co., N.Y. Pp. 29.

The Aërial World (Hartwig). Appletons.

Problems of Life and Mind (Lewes). Osgood.

What Young People should know (Wilder). Estes & Lauriat.

Storms: their Nature, Classification, and Laws (Blasius). Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.

Certain Harmonies of the Solar System (Alexander).

Lists of Elevations (Gannett).

Fishes of the East Coast of North America (Gill).

Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum.

Meteorological Observations (Chittenden).



MISCELLANY.

Notices of Recent Earthquakes.—The American Journal of Science for May gives a summary of earthquakes for the year 1874, prepared by Prof. C. G. Rockwood, Jr., of Rutgers College, New Jersey. They are reported from nearly all quarters of the globe, forty-three in number. Two of these were disastrous, but in most cases the shocks appear to have been light.

Fourteen shocks are reported as having occurred in the United States. The most important of these took place in North Carolina, in Bald and Stone Mountains. The shocks continued at intervals from February 10th to April 17th, with explosive and rumbling noises. The most severe shock was felt February 22d. On one occasion the sound of the shock resembled that made by blasting in a deep quarry, first explosive, then reverberating.

The shock which occurred in the vicinity of New York City, December 10, 1874, is noticed. It extended as far as Peekskill on the north, and Norwalk, Connecticut, on the east. The shock was most severe in the neighborhood of Tarrytown and Nyack, but did no damage anywhere.

The most disastrous earthquakes occurred at and near Harpoot Mission, Eastern Turkey, destroying the houses of Haloosi, a considerable town near that place, and at Volcan del Fuego in Guatemala. This earthquake destroyed the town of Duenos. From a small mountain near the base of the Volcan del Fuego there issued an eruption of cold compact mud.

Testing Iron and Steel.—We have received the programme of organization of a Board appointed by the President, in accordance with the provisions of an act of Congress, making "appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, and for other purposes."

The instructions of the Board are, to determine by actual tests the strength and value of all kinds of iron, steel, and other metals, which may be submitted to it, or by it procured, and to prepare tables which will exhibit the strength and value of said materials for constructive purposes. The members of this Board are Lieutenant-Colonel T. T. S. Laidley, U.S.A., President, Commander L. A. Beardslee, U.S.N., Lieutenant-Colonel Q. A. Gillmore, U.S.A., Chief-Engineer David Smith, U.S.N., W. Sooy Smith, C.E.. A. L. Holley, C.E., and R. H. Thurston, C.E., Secretary.

The Board has organized into standing committees to conduct special experiments and investigations, during the delay in preparing the testing machinery for the regular work of the Board, and afterward, as leisure