112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



"Whereupon it was unanimously voted that the invitation be 

 accepted, the letter placed upon the record of the present meet- 

 ing, and that the officers of the Academy communicate to Pres- 

 ident Quincy the expression of the extreme interest of the 

 Fellows of the Academy in the occasion which prompted this 

 invitation, and their most cordial acceptance of it. 



Four bundred aud iiinety-first meeting. 



January 30, 1861. — Statute Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary read a letter from the Hon. 

 G. M. Dallas, the American Minister at London, enclosing a 

 copy of correspondence with Lord John Russell, Secretary of 

 State, and announcing the liberal donation by the British Gov- 

 ernment to the American Academy, of a complete set of the 

 Geological Maps and Sections of the Survey of the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain. 



Mr. J. E. Oliver, of Lynn, was elected a Fellow, in Class I. 

 Section 1. 



Professor Peirce presented the results of an investigation of 

 the phyllotaxic numbers and their relations. 



President Felton gave an account of the progress that had 

 been made, and the results attained, in unrolling and decipher- 

 ing the Ilerculanean manuscripts. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited specimens of eocene tertiary 

 coal from the Isthmus of Darien, near Chiriqui, similar in 

 character to cannel coal, although of so much more recent for- 

 mation. 



Mr. Newcomb presented the results of an investigation of 

 the dynamical theory of gases. 



One of the most beautiful hypotheses ever propounded in physics is 

 that which has lately been known as the dynamical theory of gases. 

 This theory supposes a gas to be composed of isolated particles, moving 

 about in every direction with great velocity, and continually striking 

 and rebounding from each other. The expansive force is due to col- 



