1886.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 263 



designate precisely those of our younger astronomers who are to 

 succeed to the eminence of tliose we have lost. It will be easier 

 to prophesy after the fact. But one cannot go wrong in saying 

 that among the astronomical names which have either first ap- 

 peared, or have first become conspicuous, during the past decade, 

 we ought to mention, in our own country, Pickering, Ilolden, 

 Langley, Stone, Burn ham, Boss, Chandler, Pritcliett, Todd, 

 Paul, Payne, and Elkin. In Europe, we have Gill, Darwin, 

 Common, Gledhill, Tisserand, Vogel, Palisa, Hasselberg, H. 

 and L. Struve, Hartwig, Valentine, and Von Konkoly. And 

 there are many others, both here and abroad, hardly, if at all, 

 their inferiors. 



In this rapid, though, I fear, tedious review, I have tried to 

 put before you a just and fairly proportioned sketch of the pro- 

 gress tiiat has actually been made. While no great discovery 

 like that of gravitation appears upon the record, yet I am in- 

 clined to think that, with one or two exceptions (during the life 

 of Galileo and Newton), no other decade in all the history of 

 our unselfish science can make a better showing. 



As an American, too, I have been surprised and delighted to 

 find how honorable a place our American astronomers hold in 

 the record. Take out of the ten years'* story the works of Hall 

 and Newcomb and Gould, of Draper, Langley, and Pickering, 

 of Burnham, and Holden, and Stone, and the loss would indeed 

 be orievous. 



May 24, 1886. 

 Stated Meeting. 

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

 Thirty persons present. 



The following resolution was presented by Prof. D. S. Mar- 

 tin, and adopted: 



Resolved, That this Society expresses its sense of the great 

 value and importance of the work done by the National Board 

 of Health, and believes it to be highly desirable that Con- 

 gress should enact such legislation as will give efficiency to the 

 Board, and should provide appropriations for use under its 

 direction, as in former years. 



Dr. Stephen Smith read a paper entitled 



