512 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Seven hundred and eighty-ninth Meeting. 



February 10, 1886. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Communications were read b^^ the Corresponding Secretary 

 from H. M. Hugunin, of Chicago, relative to changing the 

 date of the beginning of the civil year ; from the Royal 

 Society of New South Wales, enclosing a list of original 

 researches for which the society offered prizes ; from the 

 President of the Society of Physics and Natural History at 

 Geneva, announcing the subject of the De Candolle prize ; 

 from the French-Canadian Institute at Ottawa, giving a his- 

 tory of the foundation of the institution, and soliciting funds 

 for its maintenance ; from Commodore George E. Belknap, 

 Superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, com- 

 municating a programme of the work to be pursued at the 

 Observatory during the current year. 



The President announced the death of Henrj' P. Kidder, 

 Treasurer of the Academy. 



The following papers were presented: — 



Thunder-storms in New England in 1885. By William 

 M. Davis. 



Observations of Variable Stars in 1885. By Edward C. 

 Pickering. 



Professor Pickering exhibited photographs illustrating the 

 application of photography to transit observations. He also 

 described a method by v/hich the entire aperture of any tele- 

 scope might be used for photographing stellar spectra with- 

 out employing a slit. 



Professor Hooper read a paper by Professor Dolbear on the 

 conditions that determine the length of the spectrum. 



The Corresponding Secretary presented, by title, the fol- 

 loAving papers : — 



On Benzoltrisulphonic Acid. By C. Loring Jackson and 

 John F. Wing. 



On the Action of Sodium on Tribenzylamine. By C. Lo- 

 ring Jackson and John F. Wing. 



