Hagen.] ^^" [Feb. 3, 



Longstrelh, M. D., Henry Ilartsliorne, M. D., J. Price AVetherill, Carl 

 Seller, M. D., William Goodell, M. D., Frank Thomson, Robert Patterson, 

 Edward D. Cope, Charles S. Wurts, M. D. 



Dinner was then served, and interesting addresses were delivered l)y 

 Frederick Fraley, President ; S. D. Gross, M. D., Hon. John Welsh, Rob. 

 ert E. Rogers, M. D., William Pepper, M. D., Eckley B. Coxe, and E. 

 D. Cope, and at 10 o'clock p. m. the meeting adjourned. 



Mr. Ashburner introduced the subject of a bill before Con- 

 gress for establishing a Government Bureau of Mines. 



On motion of Mr. Price, the consideration of the propriety 

 of the Society's recommending to Government either the es- 

 tablishment of such a bureau, or the establishment of an execu- 

 tive department to take charge of the agricultural, mining 

 and commercial interests of the nation, was referred to a com- 

 mittee consisting of the President, Mr. Fraley, as Chairman, 

 Mr. Ashburner and Mr. Price. 



And the meeting was adjourned. 



On the Inclination of the Apparent to the True Horizon and the Errors 

 rising thereof in Transit, Altitude, and Azimuth- Observations. By John 

 Hagen, 8. J., College of tlie Sacred Heart, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, February 3, 1882.) 



In the year 1875, Mr. Hann, editor of the "Zeitschrift der Oesterreichi- 

 schen Gesellschaft fiir Meteorlogiti, " called attention to a special kind of 

 irregularities in the figure of the earth, which hitherto were not sufficiently 

 taken into account. According to him the most important perturbation of the 

 ellipsoidal level of the sea arises from the continents attracting the waters of 

 the surrounding oceans. (See Mittheilungen der geogr. Gesellsch. zu 

 Wien, N. 12, 1875.) He supports his statement by the fact, that the con- 

 tinents are to be compared to large mountains, Avliich by necessity, must 

 disturb the level of the sea in the same way, as the Cordilleras of South 

 America, the Apennines in Italy and the Shehallien in Scotland were able 

 to deviate the plumb-line, and again by the fact, that the force of gravity on 

 islands was in average found greater than was forecast by calculation, from 

 which Dr. Hann concludes that the level of the oceanic islands be lower 

 than that of the shores of the continents. He estimates in general the ver- 

 tical distance between the disturbed and tlie undisturbed level of the sea 



