[Annals N. T. Academy of Sciences, Vol. XX, pp. 420a-420b.] 

 [Omitted by error from its proper place. Please insert.] 



BUSINESS MEETING. 



May 23, 1910. 



The Academy met at 5 p. m., at the American Museum of Natural 

 History, President .James F. Kemp presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 

 The following candidates for election as active members, recom- 

 mended by the Council, were duly elected : 



Miss M. C. Bishop, 9 East 84th Street, 



Charles Lyman Brinsmade, 166 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, 



Mrs. M. E. Dwight, 31 Mt. Morris Park West, 



Eichard E. Eollett, Pittsfield, Mass., 



Karl Hutter, 241 Lafayette Street, 



J. A. Lindbo, St. Edward, Nebraska, 



Dr. William N. Polk, 7 East 84th Street. 



On motion, the President, Recording Secretary and Treasurer were 

 given power to elect to membership in the Academy persons applying 

 during the vacation season for membership under the circular authorized 

 at the meeting of 7 February and approved by the Council. 



The following communication was then read : 



Wallace Goold Levison, The Character of Comets.^ 



My present hypothesis of the character of comets is that they are allied 

 to foci of radiant matter, and that the train corresponds to the cathode 

 beam in a Crookes tube. As the latter is confined within and sur- 

 rounded by the glass vessel while the former is developed in imlimited 

 vacuous space, it is not surprising that they may differ in some details. 

 It seems to me that the polyfurcation of comets' tails is effected by the 

 sun or planets acting as great magnets; just as the cathode beam in a 

 Crookes tube may be similarly divided by an artificial magnet into 

 streamers closely resembling those of multiple-tailed comets.- 



While in some details as to their spectra, comets differ somewhat from 

 the ordinary cathode phenomena as yet noted, probably for the reason 



1 Manuscript received by the Editor IG May, 1910. 



- This liypothesis I have described in more detail and illustrated with comparative 

 photographs of comets and cathode beams in the following publications : 



Papers of the American Astronomical Society, No. 2, p. 54, 1887. 



I'rospectus Bkln. Inst. Arts and Sci. for 1894-5, p. 18. 1894. 



Yearl)ook P.kln. Inst. Arts and Sci. for 1895-6, p. 120. 1896. 



Trans. New York Acad. Sci., Volume XV, p. 156, 1895-1896. 



Scientific American, Volume LXXV, No. 10, p. 303, Sept. 5, 1896. 



