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it is said while enraged at the attempts made to deprive him of the credit of the discovery. Long took no part in these controversies, but in 1849 presented a statement to the Medical Society of Georgia, with affidavits in regard to the use of ether in 1842, followed by seven or eight surgical operations before Morton's success in introducing anesthetics everywhere. The question of priority is thus much involved, but it appears evident that Long first used ether for surgical purposes, though, as a country practitioner, he had no means of making public his discovery and perhaps did not fully realize its importance. It seems, at all events, that the use of anesthetics in surgery is one of the great advances in science which may fairly be attributed to the United States.

American Philosophical Society, founded in Philadelphia by Franklin for the promotion of useful knowledge, is the oldest of our scientific societies and at the same time appears to be the most vigorous of those that cover the whole range of the sciences. The meeting held in Philadelphia at the end of April was quite notable for the number and value of the communications. They not only gave reports of important original investigations by the authors, but were in most cases presented in a manner comprehensible and interesting to those who are not specialists. It is of course impossible to give an abstract in two or three paragraphs of nearly