28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



fectly with that of the sacred Psalmist. Exchange the heathen phrase 

 for a BibHcal one, and there results the same thought ; and a very- 

 profound and noble thought it seems to me to be." 



Mr. Charles Folsom referred to the fact, that tablets similar 

 in form to that described by Professor Felton are still in use, 

 in Northern Africa, for the same purpose. 



Mr. Folsom also alluded to the inscription which he had 

 laid before the Academy at the previous meeting, and an- 

 nounced his acceptance of Professor H. W. Torrey's version, 

 by which the obscurity and inelegance of the inscription are 

 removed. 



The President said he was induced, by the discussion on 

 some of the terms in the inscription, to allude to a point which 

 had often occurred to him, namely, the impropriety of the 

 use of the word Respuhlica in the Catalogue and Diplomas of 

 Harvard University ; and he proceeded to show that classical 

 usage does not sanction the application of this word in a 

 geographical sense, as is the case in the instances above 

 mentioned. 



Professor E. N. Horsford exhibited a number of photo- 

 graphs of a piece of recent ice, by which its intimate structure 

 was very accurately shown. 



Mr. Henck gave a demonstration of a general theorem, 

 which he believed to be new, relating to circles tangent to 

 each other and to two given circles, — the given circles being 

 also tangent to each other. This theorem embraced as par- 

 ticular cases the two remarkable propositions concerning 

 similar circles given by Pappus Alexandrinus in the fourth 

 book of his Mathematical Collections. In the course of the 

 demonstration, several interesting properties were developed, 

 some of which he thought had been hitherto unnoticed. 



Dr. A. A. Hayes made a communication " On the Corro- 

 sion of Yellow- Metal Sheathing, in Sea-water," as follows: — 



" In some earlier researches on the chemical and mechanical consti- 

 tution of alloys, I have demonstrated the existence of several definite 



