11 [1*^0] 



6. The sixth memoir is on the ancient monuments of the State nf Nno 

 York, by E. G. &/uier, and may be regarded as a coniinuati(m of the me- 

 moir by Squier and Davis on the ancient monuments of the Mississippi 

 valley. The expense of the explorations which form the basis of lliis 

 memoir was two hundred dollars, one half of which was defrayed by the 

 members of the Historical Society of New York, and the remainder by 

 this institution. 



7. Another memoir is by Professor Secchi, a young Italian of much inge- 

 nuity and learning, a member of Georgetown College. It consists of a new 

 mathematical investigation of the reciprocal action of two galvanic cur- 

 rents on each other, and of the action of a current on the pole of a mag- 

 net. It begins Avith the assumption that the force between the elements 

 of the currents and the magnet is inversely as the square of the distance, 

 and directly as the sine of the inclination, and then presents the mathe- 

 matical inferences which legitimately flow from these data. The deduc- 

 tions are of such a nature that the author has been able to verify them by 

 means of well devised experiments, and the results accord as nearly with 

 the deductions as the complex nature of the subject will admit. The in- 

 vestigations involve the mathematical theory of the galvanometer, and the 

 experiments furnish much interesting and useful information, aside from 

 the principal object of the memoir, particularly on the comparative value 

 of different kinds of batteries. 



8. The next paper is by Professor Louis Agassiz, of Harvard University, 

 and is entitled T/ic Classification of Insects upon Embrynlogval Data. It 

 gives an account of a series of new and interesting facts observed by the 

 author relative to the metamorphosis of insects, which have an important 

 bearing on general questions in zoology, and which will probably lead to 

 the arrangement of these animals accoixling to a new system of classifica- 

 tion, founded upon more definite principles than those heretofore adopted. 



9. The next is a memoir by Dr. R. W. Gibbes, onthe Moscyaurus^ and 

 some 

 our pi 



the Un.v^ .., i J — 1 - 1 1 



country. This is an interesting addition to paleontology, and lias re- 

 ceived a favorable report frojn the connnission to whom it was referred. 



Researches. 

 The programme of organization contemplates die establishment of re- 

 searches, under the direction of suitable persons, the expense to be 

 borne in whole or in part by the institution. In the last report it was 

 mentioned that a telescope and other apparatus liaf\,^^een ordered lor 

 Lieutenant Gilliss in his astronomical expedition to Uiih, and that, Avitn- 

 out this assistance, the expedition would have been delayed a year. 1 am 

 now, however, happy to state that the expense of these instruments has 

 since been paid by an appropriation of Congress; and the "j;^ ' '^^^^ ^^^^ 

 thus been the means of promoting the objects of the f^P^^^^''; " ;\ ;^^ 

 any expenditure of its income. Certain improvemen s ^^ J\'^''^'J''^^^^ 



Hi 



GUI 



nitrunients, however, have been made since the departure ^[J^^^X 

 ^dhss whicii would much facilitate his observations, ^"f Z^' '^^'^ ''^ .Jj^ 

 do much more with his small number of assistants, and t may bt Avell 

 for the institution to furnish him with instruments of ^hf knia 



Under the head of researches it may also be mentioned that, duiing the 



