Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sci. 32 Dec. 3, 



Lieut. Anthony W. Vogdes, U, S. A., was elected a Corre- 

 sponding Member. 



The President reported his receipt of a request from the Am- 

 erican Museum of Natural History, for the removal of the Botani 

 cal Collections belonging to the Academy, and stated that they 

 would be brought down and stored with the Annals in the build- 

 ing of Columbia College. 



He exhibited a series of photographs of the ruins and desolation 

 produced by the recent earthquakes in Ischia; also, an egg of the 

 alligator from Florida, showing the young animal just protruding 

 its head from the shell, with the end of the tail beside the jaws ; 

 also, a portion of a placoderm fossil fish from the Chemung of 

 Pennsylvania, described by Prof. Claypole, under the name of 

 Pterichthys corrugatus. 



Prof. Frederick Stengei, had fanslated, at the request of the 

 Academy, and now read, a paper by Prof. F. Fittica, of the Uni- 

 versity of Marburg, (published in the Annals, vol. HI.) 



UPON A FOURTH MONOBROMPHENOLE. 



DISCUSSION. 



Prof. A. R. Leeds considered these statements of the author of very 

 great importance. He described the constitution of the benzole-ring 

 of Kekule, and stated that he did not see the potency of the a priori 

 reasoning of Prof. Fittica, nor any evidence of the existence of the 

 monobromphenole — that he had really produced such a compound. 

 The difficulties attending the solution of this question were much 

 greater than might be supposed, to satisfactorily determine its dift'er- 

 ence from the other compounds of bromine and phenole. 



Dr. B. N. Martin then called the attention of the Academy to the 

 peculiar phenomena recently occurring in connection with the sunsets, 

 and described the brilliant crimson colors which affected the western 

 sky before and after the disappearance of the sun. 



Prof. O. P. Hubbard had observed in the morning also, at about 

 6 o'clock, that the entire heavens had been dyed in the same brilliant 

 colors from west to southeast for half an hour. He also referred to a 

 similar phenomenon on August 20, 1831. An insurrection was then in 

 preparation among the slaves in Virginia, where he was at that time. 

 Its leader had arranged for the outbreak on a particular day, somewhat 

 later than the day mentioned, but the remarkable appearance of the 

 sky induced him to begin it prematurely at that time. Among other 

 phenomena, the sun assumed a decided green color every afternoon 



