REPORT ON THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



SOCIETY OF PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA, 



FEOM JULY, 18G'2, TO JUNE, 1863. 



BY PIIOFRSSOR .MARCET, PRESIDENT. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



I.\ proceeding, as has been the custom of my predecessors, to present an 

 account of the hibors of the societ}' during the year just ehipsed, it is but 

 proper that I slioukl aekno\vh;dge how greatly my task has been facilitated by 

 the scrupulous exactness with which the reports of our several meetings have 

 been drawn up by our secretary, M. Ed. Claparedc. Among the topics claiming 

 my attention, many have been already communiciited to the public, or are'about 

 to be so, through the medium of scientific Journals ; as regards these, therefore, 

 I shall restrict myself to an indication of the titles, or a very summary analysis 

 of the conclusions arrived at. In the arrangement of subjects I cannot do better 

 than adopt the division into two sections, that of the physical and that of the 

 natural sciences, first proposed b}- 31. de la Rive, and since observed by the 

 greater part of the presidents who have succeeded him. I shall follow, more- 

 over, the example of my immediate joredecessor in touching very lightly on the 

 discussions which have taken place either on the occasion of original memoirs 

 read before the society or of verbal. reports on recent discoveries made in other 

 countries ; not that these discussions have not often possessed a genuine interest, 

 but because it is essential, if this valuab'e observance is to be retained by us, 

 that the appreciation of the labors of others, the verbal communications in 

 which one is sometimes led to enunciate ideas arising at the moment and perhaps 

 not always sufficiently considered, should receive no greater publicity than that 

 which results from the reading of the journal of our sittings. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



Our indefatigable colleague. Professor Gautier, has continued to keep the 

 society well informed of the discoveries made in astrunonuj . His communica- 

 tions have been numerous and diversified ; we must here limit ourselves to the 

 mention of the most important. M. Gautier presented to the society, in the first 

 jilacc, a report on the observations of M. d'Arrest, of Copenhagen, relative to 

 ihe number and to the variability in brightness of the nebula?, as well as to 

 certain points, still doubtful, which would tend to indicate a proper movement 

 in some of those bodies ; secondly, an account of a memoir of M. Lamon on the 

 p(;riods of the variations of magnetic declination, and the analysis of researches 

 by M. Maine on the flattening of i\Iars, Mhich he estimates at tJ.j ; thirdly, a 

 report on some recent observations of il. Donati on the comets, and on a memoir 

 of the same author relative to stellar spectra : M. Gautier announced on this 

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