OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 297 



The Corresponding Secretary read a letter from the Her- 

 mite Committee, announcing their intention to give a medal 

 to M. Hermite on his seventieth birthday, and inviting sub- 

 scriptions ; also, a letter from the American Philosophical 

 Society, inviting the Academy to send a delegate to the cele- 

 bration of its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. This 

 invitation was accepted, and the President was requested to 

 appoint a delegate. 



Messrs. Francis H. Storer, Charles L. Jackson, Thomas M. 

 Drown, Arthur M. Coraey, and Leonard P. Kinnicutt were 

 appointed a committee to consider and report upon methods 

 for the management of the C. M. Warren trust for the encour- 

 agement of chemical research. 



Upon the recommendation of the Rumford Committee, 

 it was 



Voted, That an appropriation of two hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars ($250) be made to Professor Daniel Shea, of Illinois 

 State University, for an investigation upon the effect of a 

 maofnetic field on lisjht. 



Voted, That an appropriation of two hundred dollars ($200) 

 be made to Professor B. O. Peirce for an investigation on the 

 conduction of heat. 



The following papers were read : — 



Notice of the late James B. Francis. By Hiram F. 

 Mills. 



Note on an Approximate Trigonometric Expression for the 

 Fluctuations in Temperature of the Steam in an Engine Cyl- 

 inder. By Edwin H. Hall. 



The following papers were presented by title : — 



Contributions from the Herbarium of Harvard University : 

 1. New and little known Plants collected on Mount Orizaba in 

 the Summer of 1891. By Henry E. Seaton. 2. Additions to 

 the Phsenogamic Flora of Mexico, discovered by C. G. Pringle 

 in 1891 and 1892. By B. L. Robinson and H. E. Seaton. 



On the Excursion of the Diaphragm of a Telephone Re- 

 ceiver, By Charles R. Cross and Henr}'- M. Phillips. 



A Revision of the Atomic Weight of Barium. First Paper: 

 The Analysis of Baric Bromide. By Theodore Wm. Richards. 



