36 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
listened to with attention, but no action was taken by the Govern- 
ment at that time. 
The Committee on Weights and Measures was also requested 
to consider certain changes in the coinage that had been pro- 
posed, and was authorized to communicate its views to Con- 
gress. 
A committee was appointed by the Academy in 1868 in con- 
nection with the total eclipse of the sun which was to occur the 
following year and would be visible in the United States. The 
observations on this important eclipse, during which the presence 
of the new element, coronium, was discovered in the sun’s corona, 
led to the presentation of four papers relating thereto at the 
following session of the Academy, held at Northampton from 
August 31 to September 3, 1869. 
In the year 1868 the number of asteroids discovered by astron- 
omers had reached ror, and the Academy appointed a committee 
to give names to those bearing the numbers 100 and 1o1. The 
name Hecate was chosen for the former, and Helena for the 
latter. 
The Academy lost another of its original members in 1869, 
Theodore Strong, and two others, Frazer and Caswell, resigned 
and were placed on the list of honorary members. As showing 
its continued interest in astronomical investigation, the Academy 
this year appointed a committee to consider the completion and 
publication of Gilliss’ observations of zones of stars around the 
South Pole. A committee was also appointed to determine 
whether the magnetic observations made by Harkness while on 
board the monitor Monadnock were suitable for publication. 
The latter observations were made by Professor William 
Harkness under an order of Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, 
U.S.N., during a cruise of the Monadnock from Philadelphia 
to San Francisco, by way of the Straits of Magellan, beginning 
in October, 1865. ‘This detail was made by the Navy Depart- 
ment upon the recommendation of so-called “ Compass Com- 
mittee’ of the Academy, which was concerned with questions 
of magnetic deviations in iron vessels. ‘“ The investigation was 
