A gift from Dr. Litton of a number of books for the Academy 

 library was received ; a vote of thanks to Dr. Litton w^as passed. 



November iSth, 1889. 



President Nipher in the chair ; seventeen members present. 



The Academy was honored by the presence also of Prof. Morse 

 of Salem. Mass. ; Dr. Hinrichs, and Dr. Green, of St. Louis. 



Prof. Morse, upon the invitation of the President, gave a very 

 intereresting account of his examination of ancient and modern 

 shell heaps. 



December 2d, 1889. 



President Nipher in the chair ; seven members present. 



Mr. Seddon called attention to the reasons for thinking that in 

 the passage of floods down the Upper Mississippi there was rela- 

 tively a very rapid transmission through Lake Pepin, and offered 

 some theoretic considerations for the opinion that its passage 

 down was here, at least, similar to that of a ''plane wave." 



December i6th, 1889. 



President Nipher in the chair; twelve members present. 



A paper by Dr. C. Liideking on "The Sparking of Iodine" 

 was read. The paper was an account of some experiments to 

 show that Mr. C. P. Smyth, Astronomer Royal of vScotland, was 

 mistaken in supposing that the sparking of Iodine was due to a 

 transformation of iodine into hydrogen. Referred to the Com- 

 mittee on Publication. 



Dr. Hambach exhibited and described the habits of several 

 interesting orchids which he had raised in a room in his house 

 heated by an ordinary base burner. 



Mr. Seddon gave an account of a series of experiments carried 

 out at the St. Louis Water Works on a plan suggested by Col. 

 Flad to determine the relative efficiency of the "flowing water" 

 and "settling basin" systems for clearing the water of sediment. 



