Ixxxviii 



November 19, 1883. 



Dr. Engelmann in the chair. Eight members present. 



H. S. Pritchett made a few remarks on the plan of standard 

 time meridians, and exhibited a map issued by one of the railroad 

 companies, on which the time belts of the United States were 

 marked. 



He also gave the result of a partial discussion of personal equa- 

 tion in double-star work, and the determination of a system of 

 systematic corrections for different observers with the view of re- 

 ducing all observations to the same standard. 



December 3, 18S3. 



Dr. Engelmann in the chair. Nine members present. 



W. McAdams, of Alton, made a communication on the ani- 

 mals of the loess formations and exhibited several specimens, 

 among others the head of a gigantic beaver. 



December 17, 1883. 



Dr. Engelmann in the chair. Nine members present. 



Dr. Engelmann presented a diagram representing the mean 

 temperature of summer and winter in St. Louis for each year 

 from 1836 to 1883. The work was undertaken with a hope of 

 finding some law for the variation from mean temperature from 

 year to year, but in this he had been disappointed, although it 

 did appear that the variation of the mean temperature of the win- 

 ters was much greater than the summers. The chart also showed 

 that in every six or seven years the mean temperature returned 

 to near the normal, but this may only be a coincidence. 



^January 7, 1884, 

 M. L. Gray in the chair. Nine members present. 

 The Corresponding Secretary presented a paper by Prof. J. W. 



