OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 6 



tween the coast of Ireland and this country, having been pubhshed a 

 few days after his lamented death. 



" Other important papers on the same class of subjects have ap- 

 peared in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. One of his 

 most recent publications was a short paper, showing — contrary to 

 Sir David Brewster's till then unquestioned statement — that silex in 

 vegetables, as in the rind of the stem of Grasses and Equisetum, does 

 not polarize light, and is not crystalline in structure. The apparent 

 polarization he showed to be due to organic membrane, which had not 

 been entirely removed. It must not be forgotten, moreover, that he 

 was the first to prove the vegetable structure of coal (at least of 

 anthracite), which he did in a characteristic way, at once simple and 

 decisive, as may be seen by his paper on the subject in the American 

 Journal of Science. 



" Professor Bailey commenced his microscopical observations with 

 simple lenses made by himself of fused globules of glass, using these, 

 as well as better instruments, with extraordinary skill and success. He 

 may justly be regarded as the founder of microscopical research in 

 America, and himself as a model investigator. His published papers 

 are all short, clear, explicit, and unpretending as they are thorough ; 

 and every one of them embodies some direct and positive contribution 

 to science." 



The officers of the Academy were elected for the ensuing 

 year as follows : — 



Jacob Bigelow, .... President. 



Daniel Treadwell, . . Vice-President. 



Asa Gray, . • . . . Corresponding- Secretary. 



Samuel L. Abbot, . . . Recording Secretary. 



Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Librarian. 



Edward Wigglesworth, Treasurer. 



Council. 



Joseph Lovering, \ 



E. N. Horsford, > of Class I. 



Benjamin A. Gould, Jr. ) 



Louis Agassiz, 



Jeffries Wyman, \ of Class II. 



John B. S. Jackson, 



