OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: DECEMBER 12, 1871. 335 



Six hundred and thirty-eighth Meeting. 



December 12, 1871. — Adjourned Stated Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read letters from Messrs. 

 Henry G. Denny, John Trowbridge, and John K. Paine, ac- 

 knowledging their election into the Academy, and he an- 

 nounced that Part First, of Yol. X. of the Memoirs of the 

 Academy, containing Professor Joseph Lovering's Memoirs on 

 the Periodicity of the Aurora, was now ready for distribution. 



The President called the attention of the Academy to the 

 recent decease of Mr. J. G. Cogswell, the oldest Resident Fellow, 

 with one exception, of the Academy. 



The Chairman of the Rumford Committee announced that 

 the medal awarded to Mr. Joseph Harrison, Jr., was ready for 

 presentation, and it was voted, — That this medal be presented 

 at the monthly meeting in January. 



The following gentlemen were elected into the Academy : — 



R. W. Hooper, of Boston, to be a Resident Fellow in 

 Class II., Section 4. 



J. B. Pettee, of Cambridge, to be a Resident Fellow in 

 Class II., Section 1. 



S. P. Sharpies, of Cambridge, to be a Resident Fellow in 

 Class I., Section 3. 



G. R. Baldwin, of Quebec, to be a Resident Fellow in Class 

 I., Section 4. 



Professor A. P. Rockwell exhibited some fragments of the 

 tusk of a mastodon, discovered by Captain Bethune about four 

 miles from Golden City. 



Professor N. S. Shaler made a communication supplementary 

 to that presented by Mr. Wright, at a previous meeting, on 

 Phyllotaxis. He showed that the parts of some of the highest 

 polyps are arranged like the leaves of plants. Polyps may be 

 divided into two groups : first, those which are nearly flat, form- 

 ing a level sheet ; and, secondly, those grouped along a stem. In 

 the latter the different individuals are arranged often in spirals. 



