vu. 



out if the observations of both wind and rain had been made at 

 the same place. 



On motion, Mr. Robert Moore, Prof. Pritchett and Dr. Leete 

 were appointed a Committee to draw up suitable resolutions in 

 regard to the death of Mr. C. Shaler Smith, to be presented at the 

 next meeting. 



January 3a?, 1887. 



President Nipher in the chair ; seventeen members present. 



Mr. Kinealy presented a paper entitled "A Spiral on a Torus," 

 in which the equation of a curve and its tangent were determined 

 and discussed. Referred to the Committee on Publication. 



Mr. McAdams presented a paper on "Some Peculiarities of 

 the Mode of Occurrence of Fossils in the Loess," which he illus- 

 trated by numerous and admirable specimens found in the valley 

 of the Mississippi. This paper was also referred to the Commit- 

 tee on Publication. 



The President presented the following report for the year 1SS6 : 

 Gentlemen of the Academy: 



Again we stand at the beginning of a year and look back upon the year 

 which has departed. While we have made no striking advance, we cer- 

 tainly' have no reason to feel discouraged. We have published another 

 number of our Transactions and have distributed it to our exchanges, and 

 we are out of debt. The interest of our meetings has been well sustained, 

 and we have made valuable acquisitions to our membership. If we con- 

 sider the conditions which surround us, we may well turn to the future 

 with a courage born of confidence. The future has still better things in 

 store for us, if we but lay hold of the present with the opportunities it 

 affords. 



Progress in science depends upon the discovery of men able and will- 

 ing to think and work, and upon the chance that they shall be so placed 

 that they can control their time. There are doubtless many who might 

 do valuable work in science, but who never discover their talent, tastes, 

 and powers, or who do not get an adequate training in early life. 



From a moral point of view, that man is most valuable as a moral 

 agent who does not need to exert himself in order to lead a good and no- 

 ble life; who does not need to waste his energies in a continual struggle 

 against temptation. 



The good deeds of such men proceed naturally and unconsciously from 

 an inborn and inbred nobility of character, and without regard to the 



