Trans. N. V. Ac. Set. lo6 ^^«^- ^9< 



inconvenience attending the use of English, German and Italian 

 names. He then quotes Sir H. Davy's remark, "Science, Hke that 

 Nature to which it belongs, is neither limited by time nor space ; it 

 belongs to the world and is of no country and of no age.'' 



Berzelius gives a list of the then known elementary bodies — forty- 

 nine in number— and explains the use of co-efficients, both small and 

 large, of barred letters for double atoms and of dotted letters for 

 oxides. He employs the plus sign with very nearly the same signifi- 

 cance as that of the period used at present. In all essential points, the 

 existing system is identical with that introduced nearly seventy years 

 ago. 



With the rapid growth of the science, the Berzelian notation was 

 found insufficient to express fully the mutual relations of constituent 

 atoms, and constitutional formulse were devised; these displayed formulee 

 gradually developed under the influence of the theory of atomicity 

 into graphic formulse, and, for educational uses, into glyptic formulas. 



The multiplication of the compounds of carbon, and the necessity 

 of presenting accurate views of the differences in the constitution 

 of isomeric bodies have led to the construction of prismatic formulas, 

 the development of which is still in progress. 



The subject was further discussed by Prof. Leeds, the President 

 and the author. 



March 19, 1883. 

 Lecture Evening. 



No meeting was held, on account of the unavoidable detention 

 of the lecturer in a Western city, by sickness in his family. 



March 26, 1883. 



The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the Chair. 

 Seventy persons present. 



A private communication was presented, from Prof. William B. 

 DwiGHT, of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. : 



" In some zoological explorations which I was making at Martha's 

 Vineyard last summer, I was so fortunate as to find, what I never found 

 before, a nest of newly hatched larvae of Limuliis polyphemus. As they 

 are objects of much interest to zoologists, on account of their forming a 



