502 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The admirers of "The Earthly Paradise" and 

 " Sigurd " have not in most cases given such un- 

 stinted praise to his latest works in mingled prose 

 and verse, like " The House of the Wolfings," or to 



such a prose romance as " The Story of the Glitter- 

 ing Plain." The great beauty of certain portions 

 is freely admitted, but as a whole they have not 

 been popular. 



N 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. The 



officers of the Academy in 1896 were : President, 

 Wolcott Gibbs ; Vice-President, Francis A. Walker ; 

 Foreign Secretary, Alexander Agassiz ; Home Sec- 

 retary, Asaph Hall ; Treasurer, John S. Billings. 

 Two meetings were held in 1895. The first or 

 stated meeting was held in Washington on April 

 21-23. On that occasion the following papers were 

 read : 



" The State of Carbo-dioxide at the Critical Tem- 

 pei'ature," " The Motion of a Submerged Thread of 

 Mercury," and " On a Method of obtaining Vari- 

 able Capillary Apertures of Specified Diameter," 

 by Carl Barus; "The Olindiadas and other Medusa'." 

 by William K. Brooks ; " Budding in Perophora," 

 by William K. Brooks and George Lefevre; 'Anat- 

 omy of Yoldia," by William K. Brooks and Gilman 

 Drew ; " On the Characters of the Otoccelidae," by 

 Edward D. Cope ; " On a New Type of Telescope 

 free from Secondary Color," by Charles S. Hast- 

 ings ; " Biographical Memoir of James Edward 

 Oliver," by George W. Hill ; " The Geological Effi- 

 cacy of Alkali Carbonate Solutions," by Eugene W. 

 Hilgard; "On the Color Relations of Atoms, Tons, 

 and Molecules," by M. Carey Lea ; " On the Pitlie- 

 canthropus erectus from the Tertiary of Java." by 

 Othniel C. Marsh ; " Exhibition of a Linkage whose 

 Motion shows the Laws of Refraction of Light," 

 " Location in Paris of the Dwelling of Mains, in 

 which he made the Discovery of the Polarization of 

 Light by Reflection," and " (1) On Experiments 

 that the X-Rays can not be polarized by passing 

 through Herapathite ; (2) The Density of Herapa- 

 thite ; (3) Formulae of Transmission of the X-Rays 

 through Glass, Tourmaline, and Herapathite," by 

 Alfred M. Mayer ; " Legislation relating to Stand- 

 ards," by Thomas C. Mendenhall; "Source of X- 

 Rays." by Albert A. Michelson and S. W. Stratton ; 

 "On the Logic of Quantity," by Charles S. Peirce; 

 " Judgment in Sensation and Perception," by John 

 W. Powell ; " Some Studies in Chemical Equilib- 

 rium," " The Decomposition of Diazo-compounds 

 by Alcohol," and " On Double Halides containing 

 Organic Bases," by Ira Rernsen ; " Notes on Rontgen 

 Rays," by Henry A. Rowland ; " On the Separate 

 Measurement, by the Interferential Method, of the 

 Heating Effect of Pure Radiations and of an En- 

 velope of Heated Air," by William A. Rogers ; " On 

 the X-Rays from a Statical Current produced by a 

 rapidly Revolving Leather Belt," by William A. 

 Rogers and Frederick Brown ; " On the Determina- 

 tion of the Co-efficient of Expansion of Jessop's 

 Steel, between the limits of and 64 C., by the 

 Interferential Method," by Edward W. Morley and 

 William A. Rogers; "Experiments on the Reflec- 

 tion of the Rontgen Rays," by Ogden N. Rood; 

 " On a Remarkable New Family of Deep-Sea Cepha- 

 lopoda and its Bearing on Molluscan Morphology," 

 " The Question of the Molluscan Archetype, an 

 Archi-Mollusk," and " On some Points in the 

 Morphology and Phylogeny of the Gastropoda," by 

 Addison E. Verrill ; " The Relative Permeability 

 of Magnesium and Aluminium to the Rontgen 

 Rays,'' by Arthur W. Wright ; and " Biographical 

 Memoir of George Engelmann," by Charles A. 

 White. 



The following papers were presented by gentle- 

 men not members of the Academy: "Biographical 

 Memoir of Charles Henry Davis,'' by Charles H. 

 Davis ; " The Variability in Fermenting Power of 

 the Colon Bacillus under Different Conditions." by 

 A. W. Peckham ; (presented by John S. Billings) 

 " Results of Researches of Forty Binary Stars," by 

 T. J. J. See. 



At this meeting the following new members 

 were elected : Charles Doolittle Walcott, Director 

 of the United States Geological Survey, Washing- 

 ton, D. C., and Robert Simpson Woodward, Pro- 

 fessor of Mechanics in Columbia University, New 

 York city. The researches of the former in palae- 

 ontology gained for him his election, while the 

 studies of the latter in applied mathematics was 

 the cause of his selection. The death of Gen. 

 Thomas L. Casey was announced and the prepara- 

 tion of a. biographical memoir on his career was 

 assigned to Gen. Henry L. Abbott. The deaths of 

 honorary members Louis Pasteur and Arthur Cayley 

 were also announced. 



Members of the council chosen at this meeting 

 were: Benjamin A. Gould, Henry P. Bowditch, 

 George J. Brush, Ira Remsen, Othniel C. Marsh, 

 and Simon Newcomb. The following delegates 

 were appointed to attend the sesquicentennial dele- 

 bration of Princeton University, which was held in 

 Princeton. N. J., on Oct. 22 : Ira Remsen. of Johns 

 Hopkins University ; John Trowbridge, of Harvard 

 University; and George J. Brush, of Yale Uni- 

 versity. The Academy was entertained by a re- 

 ception given by Arnold Hague on the evening of 

 April 23, 1896. 



In response to a request of the Secretary of the 

 Interior, President Gibbs, on March 6, appointed 

 the following commission to report on a national 

 forestry policy : Charles S. Sargent, Director of the 

 Arnold Arboretum, Cambridge, Mass., chairman ; 

 Alexander Agassiz, Director of the Museum of 

 Zoology. Cambridge, Mass. ; Gen. Henry L. Abbott, 

 of the United States Engineers ; William II. Brewer, 

 of Yale University, New Haven, Conn. ; Arnold 

 Hague, of the United States Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. : and Gifford Pinchot, a well- 

 known arboriculturist. The communication from 

 Secretary Smith called for an official expression on 

 the following points : 



" 1. Is it desirable and practicable to preserve 

 from fire and to maintain permanently as forested 

 lands those portions of the public domain now bear- 

 ing wood growth for the supply of timber! 



"2. How far does the influence of forest upon 

 climatic soil and water conditions make desirable a 

 policy of forest conservation in regions where the 

 public domain is principally situated? 



" 3. What specific legislation should be enacted 

 to remedy the evils now confessedly existing : >. " 



The scientific session was held in Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York city, on Nov. 17-18, when the 

 following papers were read : 



" On the Geographical Distribution of Batrachia 

 and Reptilia in the Medicolumbian Region," by 

 Edward D. Cope ; " A New Type of Telescope free 

 from Secondary Color,'' by Charles S. Hastings^: 

 " The Jurassic "Formation on the Atlantic Coast," 



