472 Memorial of George Brown C^oode. 



occasion. They may be found in the Bulletin of the Institution which, 

 though rare, is usually possessed by all the older libraries. The opening 

 address was delivered by John Tyler, President of the United States, and 

 the introductory discourse by the Hon. Robert J. Walker, United States 

 Senator from Mississippi — a learned and judicious essay, which reviewed 

 very carefully the achievements of American science, and is well worthy 

 of a reading, even at the present time. Senator Woodbury of New 

 Hampshire, Ex-President John Quincy Adams, Member of Congress 

 from Massachusetts; the Hon. J. R. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, and the 

 Hon. John C. Spencer, Secretary of War, occupied the chair from day 

 to day, and forty-three papers were read. So important were these that 

 it is a matter of regret that few of them appear to have been published. 

 They were prepared by representative men, and related to every branch 

 of scientific inquiry at that time enlisting attention. 

 They were distributed as follows: 



GENERAI^. 



Prof. Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the United States 

 Coast Survey. On the Condition of Science in the United States and 

 Europe. 



Peter Arrell Browne, LL. D., of Philadelphia. On an Improved 

 Method of Teaching the Natural Sciences. 



Hon. Richard Rush. On the vSmithsonian Bequest. 



Prof. vSamuel Stehman Haldeman. On the Necessit)^ of a National 

 Institution for the Encouragement of Science. 



MATHEMATICS AND GEODESY. 



Prof. Charles Gill, of New York. On the Improvement of the Math- 

 ematical Sciences, and the Consequent Advancement of the Natural 

 Sciences. 



Capt. William Henry Swift, U.S.A. On the Measurement of Base 

 Eines. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Prof. John William Draper, of the Universit}' of New York. On the 

 Physical Constitution of the Rays of the Sun. 



Prof. Elias Eoomis, of Western Reserve College, Ohio. On the Great 

 Comet of i<S43. 



Prof. Richard Sears McCulloh, of Baltimore. On the Attraction of a 

 Planet upon a Material Point in Space. 



Prof. William Augustus Norton, of Delaware College, Newark, Dela- 

 ware. On the Nebular Hypothesis. 



Rev. Prof. James Curley, of Georgetown College, Washington, D. C. 

 Description of a Meridian Circle for the Observatory of Georgetown 

 College, District of Columbia. 



