68 TRANSACTIONS OF THE : [JAN. 7 
REGULAR Business MEETING. 
January 7th, 1895. 
The Academy was called to order by Pres. Rees. The at- 
tendance was twenty. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The 
Secretary presented from the Council the following names : 
Prof. WILLIAM STRATFORD, Resident Member, Mr. Isaac M. 
DyckMAN, recommended for election, and on motion they were 
elected. 
The Section of Astronomy and Physics then organized, Prof. 
Pupin being elected Secretary pro. tem. The minutes of the 
last Sectional meeting were read and approved. 
The first paper was by Herman 8. Davis, entitled “ The 
methods employed in deducing definitive declinations and proper 
motions of fifty-six stars, used in the investigation of the varia- 
tion of latitude at Columbia College.” 
After explaining the nature of the latitude investigation and 
the reason of the choice of this list of 56 stars, he outlined the 
preliminary work done towards their reduction by Professor 
Jacoby, Dr. Humason and himself during the fall of 1894, and 
how, when Professor Jacoby was taken ill, the entire work was of- 
ficially placed by Professor Rees, in December, 1894, in his hands 
for completion. Having given a brief resumé of similar work 
in star reduction by Argelander, Auwers, Safford and Boss, he 
explained that the desire to include, so far as attainable, all ob- 
servations made since 1750, and to profit by the experience and 
labors of these four predecessors, together with the application 
of the most recent determinations of systematic corrections, etc., 
had been the controlling motive of the work. While some very 
poor catalogues have been corrected and a corresponding weight 
given to their positions, a few other catalogues, usually of like 
low weight, have not been consulted, on account of the impossi- 
bility of finding copies of them, but this is thought to be ex- 
a i a 
