o 







Prof. Parsons referred to a statement of some chemist in Cin- 

 cinnati, that all our native grape juice has a relative excess of 

 malic acid, and a great deficiency of tartaric, differing in these 

 respects from that of European grapes. 



Dr. Jackson stated that American wines contain considerable 

 tartaric acid, and that it is abundant in our wild grapes. 



Prof Parsons thought that, at the present prices of American 

 wines, no other so profitable use could be made of land as to 

 plant it with vines. 



Edwin Harrison, of St. Louis, was chosen a Corre- 

 sponding Member, and Messrs. Benj. Perkins, Jr., of 

 Roxbury, C. L. Amory and M. D. Ross, of Boston, Resi- 

 dent Members. 



March 2, 1859. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson gave a sketch of the theory of metamor- 

 phism in geology as now generally adopted. He also spoke in 

 detail of the experiments of Daubree in France, which have 

 proved that water at moderate temperatures will transform and 

 produce minerals, and even ores ; and that glass, under the action 

 of water at 400° C, becomes an opaque spongy mass filled with 

 quartz crystals and AYollastonite, the water becoming a saturated 

 solution of silicates of potash and soda. Pine wood in his tubes 

 became anthracite so hard that steel would hardly scratch it ; a 

 result which affords a satisfactory explanation of some of the phe- 

 nomena of the coal-fields which have long been subjects of dis- 

 pute. Some authors maintain that bituminous coal has been 

 formed from resinous plants only ; others have said that all coal 

 was originally bituminous, anthracite being caused by the driving 

 off of the bitumen, and being nothing but a compressed coke — both 

 these explanations are unsatisfactory. If we regard the anthra- 

 cite coal-fields of Pennsylvania as having been acted upon by hot 

 water under ocean pressure, the explanation seems satisfactory ; 



