4 XOTES BY THE EDITOR 



authorized to forward copies of tlie Proceedings to the learned societies of 

 Europe and the United States. The whole number of members at present 

 belonging to the Association, is upwards of 600. 



The Association adjourned on Tuesday, the 2d of August, to meet in 

 Washington, on the last Wednesday of April, 1851. The following officers 

 were elected for the ensuing year. Prof. Jas. D. Dana, of New Haven, 

 President ; Prof. J. Levering, of Cambridge, General Secretary ; Prof. J. 

 Lawrence Smith, Permanent Secretary ; Dr. Elwyn, of Philadelphia, 

 Treasurer. Prof. S. F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, who for the past three years has so ably managed the aifairs 

 of the Association, declined a re-election to the office of Secretary. The 

 following gentlemen were appointed to report on the following topics at the 

 ensuing meeting. Prof. Henry, " On our knowledge of the laws of Atmos- 

 pheric Electricity ;" Pr--;f. Jas. Hall, " On the recent additions to our 

 knowledge of the Palasozoic Rocks;" Prof. H. L. Smith, " On Micro-Chem- 

 istry;" Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, " On the recent progress of Organic Chemis- 

 try;" Dr. B. A. Gould, " On the progress and development of the Electro- 

 chronographical method of Observation;" Prof. Leidy, " On the remains 

 of Extinct Mammalia and Reptilia of North America;" Prof. B. Peirce, 

 " On the present state of the Theory of the Planetary Perturbations;" Dr. 

 Burnett, " On the recent advances in Anatomy and Physiology;" Prof. 

 Agassiz, " On the history of our knowledge of Alternation of Generation 

 in Animals;" Prof. J. D.Dana, " On the Geographical Distribution of 

 the Lower Animals." It was also voted that at the Washington meetin^ 



o o 



of the Association, a general session be devoted to the consideration of 

 the expediency of a change in the present standards of weights and meas- 

 ures in the United States. 



The twenty-third annual meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, was held at Hull, September 7th, Prof. William 

 Hopkins in the Chair. The attendance was less numerous than iisual, and 

 no communications of especial interest or novelty were presented. The 

 Committee on the establishment of an Observatory and telescope of large 

 optical power in the Southern Hemisphere, reported through their chair- 

 man, Lord Rosse, that an application had been made to the Government, 

 and that the necessary funds would most probably be granted. A recom- 

 mendation of the Association, that in the event of a survey of the Gulf 

 Stream being undertaken, provision should be made for investigating its 

 Zoology and Botany, has been communicated to the Admiralty, and favor- 

 ably received. A proposition from Dr. Bache, Director of the Coast Sur- 

 vey of the United States, for a joint survey of the Gulf Stream by the 

 United States and Great Britain, addressed to the President of the British 

 Association since the Belfast meeting, has been forwarded to the hydro- 



