1883. Y9 Trans. N. V. Ac. Sci. 



supports to sills and cornices, which only lead to the oozing of water and 

 a line of corrosion down the ashlar : 3d, that house repairers recut the 

 projections in this way, whenever possible, and entirely avoid the use 

 of paint, oil, or other organic preservatives. 



February 5, 1883. 

 Regular Business Meeting. 



The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the Chair. 



Fifty-five persons present. 



The following Resolution was passed, "that the New York 

 Academy of Sciences endorse a petition for Congress to remove all 

 duties on specimens of minerals and fossils, whether imported for 

 sale by dealers, or by institutions of learning, or by private collec- 

 tors, so long as they are intended for cabinet specimens and not 

 for use in the arts." 



The following elections took place : 



Mr. J. W. Smith of Newark, N. J., as Resident Member. 



Marquis Antonio di Gregorio of Molo, Palermo, Sicily, as 

 Corresponding Member. 



Mr. W. E. Hidden exhibited nuggets of gold from Burke Co., 

 N. C, from ten to fifty pennyweights in weight, an extraordinary 

 size for that region. They were found in superficial deposits, and 

 had evidently not traveled far. , 



Mr. Romyn Hitchcock read a paper entitled : 



THE RETICULATE STRUCTURE OF LIVING MATTER (Bioplasson), 



with exhibition under the microscope of blood corpuscles and 

 amoeba, showing granular in place of reticulated structures, of corpuscles 

 of blood and pus treated by potassium dichromate, and of the resolution 

 of the lines, wshoo of an inch apart, upon the diatom, atnphtpleiira 

 pellucida. 



(Abstract). 



The living matter of plants and animals, from the lowest proto- 

 type to the highest form of animal life, is, so far as our knowledge ex- 

 tends, identical. It is variously named protoplasm, bioplasm, sarcode, 

 and, not having a sufficient number of names, still another has been 

 applied to it — bioplasson — and a new hypothesis of the structure of 

 living matter, termed the "bioplasson theory," has recently been put 



