JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 145 



Leipzig, 1855, — Gleichgewiehtsbe Singungen ungen von Erdmassen von 

 Prof. C. Culm urn, Zurich, 1836, from, Dr. Fliigel; Proc. Boston Soc. Nat, 

 Hist., Nov. & Dec, 1800, from the Son.; Descrip. of New Species of Tertiary 

 and Cretaceous Fossils, by Win. M. Gabb, 1860, from the Author ; The 

 Primordial Fauna and Taconic System of J. BarratiHc, with Additional 

 Notes by Jules Marcou, Boston, I860, from the Author; Report on State- 

 house Artesian Well, Columbus, Ohio, by Dr. J. S. Newberry, from the 

 Author. 



Dr. Engelmann stated that the quantity of rain which had 

 fallen the past year amounted only to 29.79 inches, being con- 

 siderably less than that of any year since 1839 ; the average 

 annual fall during the last twenty years had been about 45 

 inches. 



Dr. Wislizenus stated the results of his observations on 

 atmospheric electricity, and gave a minute description of 

 Dellmann's Apparatus for measuring the same. 



Dr. Engelmann exhibited a germinating cocoa-nut, and de- 

 scribed the peculiar mode of growth of this genus of plants. 



Win. T. Woodruff, Esq., of Marshall, Mich. ; Chas. Robin, 

 M.D., of Paris, and Geo. Vasey, M.D, of Ringwood, 111., were 

 elected Corresponding Members. 



The Annual Report of the President, Dr. Hiram A. Prout, 

 was then read, as follows : 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



Time in its ceaseless course has brought us to the close of another year 

 and to the close of the fifth anniversary of our Academy. It becomes us 

 to pause here, and piss in review the events and circumstances which 

 have marked our progress, in order that we may determine how far we 

 have advanced in the accomplishment of the noble and praiseworthy ob- 

 jects which form the ba^is of our association. 



It gives me ihe highest gratification to be able to state, that the past 

 year furnishes sufficient evidence of our continued prosperity, and a sub- 

 stantial earnest of the success and perpetuity of our labors in the future. 

 Surrounded by difficulties and embarrassments, without means and with- 

 out patronage, we have struggled on, and struggled successfully. We 

 had hoped th >t ere the present moment some friend or friends of science, 

 with enlarged and liberal views, would have extended to us a helping 

 hand and placed us in a condition to give to the world a more ample ex- 

 hibition of the fruits of our labors. But for (he generous liberality of 

 one of our members we should not now have a place to hold our meet- 

 ings, or to garner up the treasures which have been so liberally contrib- 

 uted to our museum ; and, again, these objects lose a part of their interest 

 for the want of appropriate casings in which they could be systematically 

 arranged or classified. 



We have been compelled to make a publication of our transactions from 

 the limited funds annually paid by the Associate Members, aided by their 

 private subscriptions. The fourth number of our Transactions, complet- 

 ing one large volume, has been published and sent abroad to scientific 

 associations, and everywhere it has met with the most cheering welcome, 

 and the expression of the hope that our humble labors may be continued. 

 We have s^nt out our publications to one hundred and fifty-three socie- 

 ties, universities, and authors, in foreign lands, and seventy-three in our 

 own country. For these we have received in return many memoirs and 

 transactions, which, if continued, as doubtless they will be, will form a 

 most valuable collection of the current literature of the science of the 

 present day, and the nucleus of a library which will be resorted to by the 

 10 



