168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ACADEMY. 



ralogy. Dr. A. H. Bay ley, of Easton, presented a fine speci- 

 men of the coluber eximius, (corn snake :) Mr. Minifie the two 

 fore feet of a kangaroo, from New Holland ; Rev. J. J. Chanche, 

 six specimens of South American birds ; Dr. W. E. Coale, 

 several specimens of raim and coluber. A memoir was read 

 by Richard Wilmot Hall, M. D. *on the use of water as fuel,' 

 which was referred to the joint consideration of the sections of 

 physics and chemistry. Dr. Aikin proffered on deposite a 

 large collection of geological specimens from the Erie canal, 

 which was accepted and the section of mineralogy charged 

 with superintending their removal to the museum of the Aca- 

 demy. Mr. Fisher communicated the notice of a slight auroral 

 display on the night of Sunday the 8th inst., and also informa- 

 tion of the existence of a mineral spring in the western part of 

 the city, containing free carbonic acid, protocarhonate of iron^ 

 muriates of lime and magnesia^ and a trace of vegetable 

 matter. 



May 19.— Specimens were received from Dr. Cohen, Dr. 

 Keener, and Mr. P. T. Tyson, and several works for the library 

 from Mr. Fisher. Dr. J. W. Gretham, of Mount Vernon, 

 Illinois, reported a table of meteorological observations, made 

 at that place, for the month of April, 1836. Dr. Coale, from 

 the section of mineralogy, reported that the geological speci- 

 mens had been conveyed to the museum. The section was 

 further charged with the duty of arranging these specimens. 

 Mr. Green requested the attention of the Academy to a notice 

 in the American Journal of Science, from the Albany Institute, 

 containing a series of observations made on the 21st of Decem- 

 ber last, with the barometer, wet and dry bulb thermometer, 

 (fee. in compliance with the proposition published in the Lon- 

 don Athenaeum, that hourly observations should be made with 

 those instruments by the men of science throughout the world, 

 on four fixed days— 21st of March, June, September, and 

 December, for thirty-seven hours ; and commented upon the 

 advantage likely to result to meteorological science if the pro- 

 posed observations were generally undertaken and the results 

 compared. Whereupon it was resolved, that a committee of 

 three from the first section be appointed, to report at the next 

 meeting upon the most expedient means of co-operating effi- 



