OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Ill 



President, to distribute copies of the Memoirs to the Fellows of the 

 Academy resident in foreign countries as they shall deem expedient.' 



3. " That five hundred copies of the fourth volume (New Series) be 

 printed, of which one hundred shall be furnished to the authors of the 

 memoirs respectively, for immediate distribution." 



Three hundred and fourteenth meeting. 



January 2, 1849. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Dr. Charles T. Jackson stated that he had discovered the 

 presence of manganese in the water of streams, &c., almost 

 universally. He had detected it in water from the middle of 

 Lake Superior, in Cochituate water, &c. It has usually been 

 regarded as iron in previous analyses. He regarded the obser- 

 vation as having an important bearing in accounting for the 

 deposits of bog manganese at the outlets of lakes and in bogs, 

 as well as for the source of the oxide of manganese in the 

 blood. 



Dr. Jackson also remarked upon the importance of having 

 permanent marks fixed along our coast, at mean low water, to 

 serve as a future indication in respect to the elevation or sub- 

 sidence of the land. It was thought that the proper observa- 

 tions might best be made, and the marks fixed, by the United 

 States Coast Survey. On motion of Dr. Jackson, a committee, 

 consisting of Dr. Jackson, Mr. Desor, and Dr. Gay, was ap- 

 pointed to confer with the proper authorities upon this subject. 



Professor Peirce presented a memoir entitled " Researches 

 in Analytical Mechanics. No. I. Upon the Fundamental 

 Principles of Mechanics." In this memoir, the various prin- 

 ciples which have been proposed and adopted as a basis of the 

 science are discussed historically and philosophically, and a 

 new form is proposed, which is thought by the author to be 

 more general, and less exceptionable than the others which 

 have been given. " A system of bodies in motion," he re- 



