42 RECORDS 



The following candidates for resident membership, approved 



by the Council, were duly elected : 



Frederic Peterson, M.D., 4 West 50th street. 



Adolf Meyer, M.D,, Pathological Institute. 



George I. Finlay, Columbia University. 



S. Alfred Mitchell, Ph.D., Columbia University. 



Adjourned. 



Henry E. Crampton, 



Recording Secretary. 



SECTION OF ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND 



CHEMISTRY. 



March 3, 1902. 



Section met at 8:30 P. M., Professor Hallock presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting of Section were read and 

 approved. 



The following program was then offered : 



C. C. Trowbridge, The Physical Nature of Persistent 

 Meteor Trains. 



S. A. Mitchell, Observations on the Flash Spectrum at 

 THE Sumatra Eclipse. 



Summary of Papers. 



Mr. Trowbridge gave a list of forty meteor trains which had 

 remained visible to the naked eye for from two minutes to over 

 one hour, all of them seen by reliable obsei*vers. Several 

 tables were exhibited, giving the size, shape and color of re- 

 cently observed meteor trains. 



Mr. Trowbridge gave his views as to the most probable com- 

 position of meteor trains, and presented several hypotheses 

 which might account for their long-continued luminosity. These 

 are the following: (i) Incandescence of the particles of the 

 train ; (2) phosphorescence of the train ; (3) electrical dis- 

 charges ; (4) Reflection of the light from the sun, moon, or 

 stars, by the particles of the train ; (5) electrons striking the 

 meteoric dust or the air particles in or about the train, causing 



