Johnson, now a resident of this city, is an able scholar and a profound jurist, whose acquirements will render him a very useful member of the Board of Regents. He was formerly a judge of the Court of Appeals of this State. Mr. Curtis, the popular author, is so well known in literary circles, that it is needless to add that he will be a valuable accession to the oldest institution charged with the duty of directing the educational interests of the State. Mr. Curtis possesses a combination of rare qualities, which will add greatly to the practical usefulness of the Board in which he now takes his seat.

The Board of Regents now consists of the following members:

MEMBERS.

John V. L. Pruyn (Chancel

lor)......

Gulian C. Verplanck (ViceChancellor)

May 4, 1844....Albany.

Prosper M. Wetmore........ Ap'l ....... Feb.

Erastus Corning.

Gideon Hawley

Jas. S. Wadsworth

Robt. Campbell...

May

Feb.

Jan. 26, 1826....New York. Feb. 5, 1833....Albany. 4, 1833....New York. 1, 1842....Albany. 4, 1844.... Geneseo. 2, 1846....Bath. Samuel Luckey.. May 6, 1847....Rochester. Robert G. Rankin.. Sept. 22, 1847....New York. Erastus C. Benedict. Mar. 22, 1855.... New York. George W. Clinton. Mar. 6, 1856....Buffalo. Isaac Parks.... April 7, 1857....Fort Plain. Lorenzo Burrows... Feb. 15, 1858....Albion. Robt. S. Hale....... April 29, 1859.... Elizabetht'n. E. W. Leavenworth.. Feb. 5, 1861....Syracuse. J. Carson Brevoort... Feb. 5, 1861....Brooklyn. George R. Perkins..... Jan. 31, 1862....Utica. George W. Curtis.......... April 12, 1864....New York. Alexander S. Johnson....... April 12, 1864....New York. Ex-officio.-The Governor, Lieutenant governor, Secretary of State, and Superintendent of Public Instruction.

MINNESOTA. We are indebted to Hon. David Blakely, Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the fourth annual report concerning the schools of that State.

In

The first apportionment of public moneys was in February, 1863, at which time there was apportioned to the several counties (taking as the basis the number of persons residing therein, between the ages of five and twenty-one years) $12,308.45. February, 1864, there was $27,999.28. The receipts for this year will be, from all sources, $75,000; or $1.94; to each person between the ages of five and twenty-one years. This exhibit arises from the sale of 90,440 acres of land, being only a little more than one-fourteenth of the whole number of surveyed lands in the State.

Should the balance of these lands be sold at the minimum price of five dollars per acre, there would be a total school-fund of nearly half a million of dollars, arising from the interest on the money derived from such sale. The lands remaining unsurveyed. are here left entirely out of the account.

The whole number of school districts in the State is 1,685; number of persons between five and twenty-one years, 64,819; number of pupils at school, 38,547; number of teachers, 1,646. The average monthly compensation paid to male teachers is $20.90; to female teachers, $13.04.

The superintendent recommends the separation of the offices of secretary of state and superintendent, and the creation of a distinct Bureau of Public Instruction,—the power of designating its head being vested in the governor, by and with the advice of the heads of the Departments, or of the State Normal Board. He also argues at length in favor of a change in local supervision, and quotes largely, in support thereof, from the report of other State superintendents. There are now, in each county, instead of a county superintendent, from three to five examiners, whose whole duty is to examine and issue certificates to such teachers as present themselves for examination on the last Saturdays of March and October. It is made the duty of each trustee to visit the school once in each term, and give such advice to teachers as may be for the benefit of the school. These officers are men, in many cases, wholly unfit to answer the demands of the law; hence schools are unvisited, or unprofited by suggestions or advice. A change in the grading of teachers' certificates is recommended,—there being now but one grade. There are also several other important changes recommended which we have not space to enumerate.

Superintendent Blakely is a worker. Though by the laws of the State, his only duty as Superintendent of Public Instruction, besides preparing his annual report, is to provide and distribute blanks and make the annual apportionment of school moneys, he has done much to raise the standard of the schools, to ingraft into their system, "the vigorous and flourishing branches of other long-tried and well

working systems." We do not doubt, that with the vast material resources devoted to the school interests at his disposal, he will succeed in making Minnesota a leading State in educational affairs.

GYMNASTIC EXERCISES have been introduced into the public schools of Boston with the most gratifying results. Dr. Dio Lewis is accomplishing a great work in this direction. The fourth graduating class from his Normal Gymnasium, recently gave an exhibition before a crowded audience in that city, and evinced a wonderful freedom and grace of motion, and ability to introduce these healthful and pleasing exercises into their respective school-rooms.

cided to employ an instructor to teach military tactics to the boys in the High and Grammar Schools.

IN PROVIDENCE, R. I., Messrs. J. J. Ladd and W. A. Mowry, of the High School, and A. W. Godding, of the Arnold-street Grammar School, have resigned, and more resignations are contemplated. Messrs. Ladd and Mowry have opened a flourishing select school in that city.

THE people of Gloucester, Mass., are erecting a convenient and commodious school-house, which is designed to accommodate 1,200 pupils.

HON. E. P. WESTON has been reappointed Superintendent of Schools for the State

AN extensive deposit of asphaltum has been discovered near Buena Vista Lake. As it boils up to the surface its temperature is warm, and it is of the consistency of molasses, but hardens on exposure. Birds and small quadrupeds become entangled in the bitumen while it is in a semifluid state, and perish, being unable to extricate themselves.

THE OIL SUPPLY.-The question of the ability of the oil region to supply continually the demand now made for petroleum, is one which is discussed by those interested in the production and trade of the article. The wells which have been sunk are found frequently to diminish in production, and the vicinity of other wells is found also to diminish the productiveness of old wells. From the frequent striking of mud veins, it is assumed by some that the oil supply is becoming exhausted, and that these mud veins are the bottom or bed of the deposit. Some owners have found it advantageous, when a well gives out, to sink it deeper, where they find it yielding an additional quantity, which leads to the supposition that there exist several superincumbent layers of the pe

culiar mineral from which petroleum is derived, and the oil may be procured at the depth of a thousand feet, as surely as it is at the depth of five hundred feet. This is a matter which has yet to be tested by experiment, but the fact is a highly important one as connected with the permanent supply of an article which has become so considerable an article of trade.

AN offer has been made by an English company to connect the whole of the West India Islands by telegraph with the mainland at Cayenne, in French Guiana, and at Key West, near Florida, if a guarantee of six per cent. on the outlay can be obtained. The cost is estimated at £300,000.

A MODIFICATION of the spectroscope has been recently introduced in Paris, and already attracts a great deal of attention in the scientific world. This instrument consists of three small tubes, fitted with lenses, mounted on a single pedestal or stand, common to them all, and converging toward the faces of a flint prism. Through one of these tubes the rays of a flame are transmitted to one of the faces of the prism; through a second, the image of an exceed

ingly minute scale of lines is thrown up on the same face; through the third, for the opposite side, may be observed the image of a scale in combination with that of the spectrum, but without interfering with it, thus affording a means of measuring the bands of color with great precision.

A RECENT reference in the London Times to a statement that "three centuries ago Blasco de Garay attempted to propel a boat by steam in the harbor of Barcelona," called forth a counter-statement from a correspondent, who has had access to the original letter from Blasco himself, written in A. D. 1543, which contains the evidence often cited by the Spaniards for this assertion. This letter describes minutely a vessel propelled by paddles worked by two hundred men, but there is not a word about steam in the whole document. The first well-authenticated instance of a steamboat actually used is found in the manuscript correspondence between Leibnitz and Papin, in the Royal Library at Hanover, where Papin relates his experiments with a model steamboat on the river Fulda, in the year 1707.

IN the south of Russia, grapes are preserved by the following process. They are gathered before they are quite ripe, put into large air-tight jars, so filled with millet that the grapes are kept separate. They are sent in this way to the markets of St. Petersburg. After remaining thus for a whole year, they are still very sweet, all their sugar being developed by the ripening process in the pots.

EFFECT OF LEAD ON WATER.-The following remarks, by the Scientific American, upon the effects of lead upon water, are worth attention. Almost all our drinking water is drawn through lead pipes, and, if it be injurious under certain circumstances, the fact ought to be known, especially as the remedy is easy, by drawing off, without use, the water which was all night in the pipes:

"By taking a strip of clean lead, and placing it in a tumbler of pure water (say rain or soft water), in less than an hour, by dropping in the tumbler a little sulphide of ammonium, a black precipitate will be

thrown down, consisting of the sulphide of lead-e. g., lead must have been dissolved and held in solution in the water; and, as the salt of lead happens to be classed among some of the most dangerous poisons, we are necessarily led to the conclusion that lead pipes, conveying water, if the latter is pure, must be somewhat dangerous. Water standing in a lead pipe for some hours decomposes the metal, and, when it runs off, the poison is carried with it. Water drawn in the morning through a lead pipe should never be used for domestic purposes, such as cooking or drinking, and servants in cities should be instructed respecting this particular subject, because they are usually ignorant of the nature of lead and the effects of water upon it. Several metals taken in food or drink accumulate slowly in the human system and ultimately produce disease; but it approaches so stealthily that the danger is not usually apprehended. Some of the salts of lead are not poisonous, and the sulphide is of that class. The interior of lead pipes may be converted into an insoluble sulphide of lead by subjecting them for some time to the action of a hot sulphate of soda in solution, according to the recent discovery of Dr. Schwarz, of Breslau. Those who prepare lead pipes for conveying water for domestic purposes, should test the alleged discovery, as it is of the utmost importance that all the safeguards to health should be enforced and multiplied."

HYDROPHOBIA PREVENTED.-The Progrès, of Lyons, mentions a new remedy for the bite of a mad dog, discovered by a German veterinary surgeon of Magdeburg, named Hildebrand, by which the painful application of a red-hot iron is avoided. This remedy consists in bathing the place bitten with hot water. M. Hildebrand has ascertained by experience that hot water has the effect of decomposing the virus, and, if applied in time, renders cauterization unnecessary. In that case, all that is to be done, after well bathing the part, as stated, is to apply a solution of caustic potash to the wound with a brush, and afterwards anoint it with antimony oint ment.

EFFECT OF LIGHT.-Dr. Moore, the metaphysician, thus speaks of the effect of light on body and mind: "A tadpole confined in darkness would never become a frog; and an infant being deprived of heaven's free light will only grow into a shapeless idiot, instead of a beautiful and responsible being. Hence, in the deep, dark gorges and ravines of the Swiss Valais, where the direct sunshine never reaches, the hideous prevalence of idiocy startles the traveller. It is a strange, melancholy idiocy. Many citizens are incapable of any articulate speech; some are deaf, some are blind, some labor under all these privations, and all are misshapen in almost every part of the body. I believe there is in all places a marked difference in the healthiness of houses according to their aspect with regard to the sun; and those are decidedly the healthiest, other things being equal, in which all the rooms are, during some part of the day, fully exposed to the direct light. Epidemics attack inhabitants on the shady side of the street, and totally exempt those on the other side; and even in epidemics, such as ague, the morbid influence is often thus partial in its labors."

PROBABLE RETURN OF THE COMET OF 1810.-Professor James C. Watson, of Ann Arbor, Mich., announces the discovery of a new comet on the evening of Saturday, January 9th, at 6 o'clock.

After giving the results of three observations, and the elements of the orbit computed from them, he says:

"The above elements almost exactly resemble those of the comet of 1810, so that there can be very little doubt of the identity of the two comets. Whether this is the first return to the perihelion since 1810, or whether it has returned several times unperceived, must be decided by subsequent observations.

"The comet is large and bright, with a tail 11° in length, and a nucleus strongly condensed at the centre."

A PHILOSOPHER was once consulted as to the best method of destroying one's enemy, and he gave for an answer, "Make him your friend."

a combination similar to one of the pairs of an achromatic microscope objective; and this construction-the field-glass remaining a crossed double convex-preserves the advantage of a large and flat field, with better definition and freedom from color, on which account it is called the aplanatic eyepiece. When looking at the sun or moon, at least one-third more of the disk of each body is visible with this eyepiece than with the corresponding Huygenian.

A similar advantage is obtained in examining the planets and clusters of stars, such as Pleiades, Presepe, and others. Small stars are brought up by the increase of power and light, without losing the advantage of a large field; and in the great nebula of Orion the effect is very remarkable-allowing the employment of a power which before was disadvantageous, as it made the object dim and contracted the field, but which is now, by this new arrangement, large, and the nebula brilliant.

MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES.-The discovery that phosphorus is capable of existing in a condition in which it is no longer spontaneously inflammable, has been

The

turned to account in the manufacture of matches, which cannot be ignited by friction anywhere except on the prepared surface of the box which contains them. secret of the contrivance is, that the chlorate of potash compound, tipping the match, is destitute of phosphorus, which in the amorphous form is placed on the sand-paper; hence these matches are perfectly safe from accidental ignition, and are not poisonous.

In the place of sulphur for coating matches, thereby rendering the wood more inflammable, an English company has introduced paraffine; and the matches thus prepared are not likely, by the vapors they generate, to tarnish silver surfaces and dyed fabrics. Paraffine matches are found to possess the quality of withstanding dampness in a remarkable manner.

MR. GRAVE, a French physician, proposes to destroy the taste of intensely bitter medicines by mixing chloroform with them in certain proportions. He claims that the taste and odor, even of asafoetida, can be annihilated.

TEA AND COFFEE CULture. Experiments made in California in the cultivation of tea and coffee, have been so successful as to encourage the belief that both articles will be raised on every farm in the State, for household purposes at least. There is one nursery, at Sacramento, which has five thousand coffee plants on trial, and near the Mission Dolores several thousand tea plants were raised during the last year. The mild winters of California are favorable to the growth of both tea and coffee.

CHINA having made the first step towards the Western barbarians by adopting the Code of International Law, as expounded by Wheaton, a French savant, the Marquis D'Hervey Saint-Denis proposes to reciprocate the politeness of the Celestials by writing a complete history of the Chinese Em

pire. The marquis has already made his mark as a sinologue, by a striking translation of Chinese poetry of the seventh, eighth, and ninth Christian centuries, accompanied by a thoughtful and critical dissertation on the literature and language of China.

ACCORDING to a return just issued by the postal authorities in Switzerland, there exist in that country three hundred and fortyfive journals, of which only one hundred and eighty-five are exclusively political, twenty-two literary and scientific, twenty religious (fifteen Protestant and five Roman Catholic), and one rationalist; the remainder are miscellaneous. Of these three hundred and forty-five publications, two hundred and thirty-one are printed in the German language, one hundred and three