OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 47 



season, and others after a lapse of one or two years, which 

 have received their fertilizing influence from the male this 

 long period in advance. Speaking of the development of 

 eggs, he alluded to the fact that in bees there are two kinds 

 of females produced from eggs, which, in the beginning, pre- 

 sent no differences ; every female bee might become a queen 

 if properly fed and cared for, but from want of the proper sur- 

 rounding influences most of them become sterile. In some 

 species of crabs, he had found also two kinds of females, 

 fertile and sterile, though, unlike the bees, existing in about 

 the same numbers. 



Dr. B. A. Gould, Jr. made some remarks on the means of 

 diminishing the personal equation, or the best method of get- 

 ting rid of personal errors in transit observations made by 

 different observers. He quoted M. Arago, from the Comptes 

 Rendus for February 14, 1853, in which he claims priority 

 for the method of employing the senses of sight and touch 

 to diminish the personal equation, instead of sight and hearing, 

 as usually employed; this method of tapping at the instant 

 the star passed the threads of the instrument dates back to 

 1843. 



Dr. Gould mentioned a similar method employed at Phila- 

 delphia, some time between 1828 and 1832. The best way, 

 he believed, was that employed in our Coast Survey, by the 

 electric clock, by breaking the circuit by a tap of the finger 

 at the instant of the transit. 



The problems, why sight and hearing should be less ac- 

 curate than sight and touch, why observers should differ from 

 each other, and why the same observer should diff"er from 

 himself in the same manner of observation, 'are exceedingly 

 difficult to solve ; they involve the consideration of tempera- 

 ment, physiological conditions, state of the health, mechani- 

 cal dexterity, &c., which make the subject exceedingly in- 

 tricate. 



Professor Bache, Professor Peirce, Professor Agassiz, and 

 the President made remarks on the same subject. 



