NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



and " Kecent Gravity Instruments and Results," by 

 Thomas C. Mendenhall also a " Biographical Memoir 

 of John Le Conte," by Joseph Le Conte. 



A paper was read by George C. Comstock, en- 

 tied "An Investigation of the Aberration and 

 Atmospheric Refraction of Light, with a Modi- 

 fied Form of the Loewy Prism Apparatus." 



For a second time in the history of the Acad- 

 emy no new members were elected, because the 

 many names presented made it impossible for the 

 members to agree in a majority upon any of the 

 candidates. At the business session the mem- 

 bers of the old council were re-elected, and that 

 body now includes, besides the officers previously 

 mentioned, George J. Brush, Benjamin A. Gould, 

 Samuel P. Langley, Thomas C. Mendenhall, 

 Simon Newcomb, and Ira Remsen. 



The treasurer's report of the condition of the 

 trust funds was accepted and referred to an au- 

 diting committee. The aggregate of the Bache 

 fund, the Watson fund, the Henry Draper fund, 

 the J. Lawrence Smith fund, the Barnard medal, 

 and the Wolcott Gibbs fund is now about $80,- 

 000, all of which is invested within the District 

 of Columbia, the interest being used for further- 

 ance of scientific investigation. 



At this session the Watson medal was awarded 

 to Seth C. Chandler, of Cambridge, for his re- 

 searches on variable stars and on the variation 

 of latitude. Also at this meeting the death of 

 Charles E. Brown-Sequard was reported, and the 

 preparation of a biographical memoir was as- 

 signed to Dr. Henry P. Bowditch. 



The scientific session was held in New Haven, 

 Conn., on Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, when the following 

 papers were read : 



" On the Influence of Insolation upon Culture 

 Media, and of Desiccation upon the Vitality of the 

 Bacillus of Typhoid, of the Colon Bacillus, and of 

 the Staphyloc'oecus Aureus," by John S. Billings; 

 u Atmosph'eric Dust and Aqueous Precipitation in 

 Arctic Regions," by William H. Brewer; "Further 

 Researches on the Polar "Motion," by Seth C. Chan- 

 dler; " On a Certain Theorem in Theoretical Mechan- 

 ics," by J. Willard Gibbs; " Remarks upon the Prog- 

 ress of Work upon a Handbook of the Brachiopoda " 

 and " Note upon the Occurrence and Distribution of 

 the Dictyospongidfe in the Devonian and Carbonifer- 

 ous Formations," by James Hall ; " On Derived Equa- 

 tions in Optics " and " On a Method of eliminating 

 Secondary Dispersion, using Ordinary Silicate Glasses 

 only," by Charles S. Hastings ; " Literal Expression 

 for the Motion of the Moon's Perigee," by George 

 W. Hill ; " Infra-red Spectrum," by Samuel P. Lang- 

 ley ; u The Relation of Gravity to Continental Eleva- 

 tion " and " The Legal Units of Electrical Measure," 

 by Thomas C. Mendenhall ; " On the Effect of Pres- 

 sure in broadening Spectral Lines," by Albert A. 

 Michelson ; " The Winnebago County (Iowa) Mete- 

 orites, and the Meteor," by Hubert A. Newton ; " An 

 Indirect Experimental Determination of the Energy 

 of Obscure Heat " and " Determination of the Errors 

 of the Circles of an Electrotype Copy of Tycho 

 Brahe's Altitude Azimuth Instrument now in "Pos- 

 session of the Smithsonian Institution," by William 



A. Rogers ; and " Geographical and Batliymetrical 

 Distribution of the Deep Sea Echinoderms discov- 

 ered off the American Coast North of Cape Hatteras," 

 by Addison E. Verrill ; also a " Biographical Memoir 

 of Ferdinand V. Hayden," by Charles A. White. 



The following papers were read by gentlemen 

 who are not members of the Academy : 

 "The Chemical Nature of Diastase," by Thomas 



B. Osborne, introduced by Samuel W. Johnson; 



NEBRASKA. 



503 



,u * he Development of Brachio- 



poda," by Charles KBeecher, anS On the Presence 

 of Devonian 1 ossils m Strata of Carboniferous Age 

 by Henry S. Williams, both introduced by Othniel 

 C. Marsh ; and - Report on photographing Meteors " 

 by William L. Elkin, introduced by Hubert J 

 Newton. 



The death of Prof. Josiah P. Cooke, of Har- 

 vard University, was reported, and to his asso- 

 ciate, Dr. Charles L. Jackson, was assigned the 

 preparation of a biographical memoir of him. 

 During the year the Academy has lost by death 

 Dr. Charles E. Brown-Sequard and Prof. Josiah 

 P. Cooke from among its home members, and 

 Prof. Helmholtz from among its foreign mem- 

 bers. Sketches of these, together with one of 

 William D. Whitney, a- former member, may be 

 found elsewhere in this volume. 



NEBRASKA, a Western State, admitted to 

 the Union March 1, 1867; area, 77,510 square 

 miles. The population, according to each decen- 

 nial census since admission, was 122,993 in 1870; 

 452,402 in 1880 ; and 1,058,910 in 1890. Capital, 

 Lincoln. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, Lorenzo 

 Crounse, Eepublican ; Lieutenant - Governor, 

 Thomas J. Majors; Secretary of State, John C. 

 Allen ; Auditor of Public Accounts, Eugene 

 Moore ; Treasurer, Joseph S. Bartley ; Attorney- 

 General, George H. Hastings ; Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, Alexander K. Goudy ; Com- 

 missioner of Public Lands and Buildings, A. R. 

 Humphrey ; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 T. L. Norval ; Associate Justices, A. M. Post and 

 T. 0. C. Harrison ; Commissioners of the Supreme 

 Court, Robert Ryan, John M. Ragan, and Frank 

 Irvine. 



Finances. The financial condition of the 

 State is not good. There were outstanding war- 

 rants on the general fund, Dec. 1, to the amount 

 of $547,281.18, and on the feeble-minded insti- 

 tute fund for $61,256.93, with only $28,503.67 in 

 those funds from which to pay them. But there 

 is $417,313.61 in the treasury belonging to the 

 school fund. 



The limit of taxation for the general fund is 5 

 mills on the dollar, and the assessed valuations 

 are very low ; the property of the State, valued 

 by the census of 1890 at $1,275,685.514, is assessed 

 at $180,000,000. Efforts were made by the Board 

 of Educational Lands and Funds to invest the 

 permanent school fund. Few counties have 

 made issues of bonds owing to the depression of 

 business; in some instances school funds have 

 been invested in them : in others, attempts to 

 secure them have failed. 



No part of the money deposited in the Capital 

 National Bank of Lincoln, $236,364 (see ''Annual 

 Cyclopaedia " for 1893, p. 505), has been recovered 

 by the State from any source. The bank exam- 

 iner found that the bank has been insolvent 

 since Jan. 2, 1885, and that dividends have been 

 declared regularly every six months when, in 

 fact, there were no net earnings. The receiver 

 has begun a suit against resident stockholders to 

 recover $213,708 of these unearned dividends, 

 and similar suits will be brought against non- 

 resident stockholders. 



Banks. The abstract of the October reports 

 of the condition of the 114 national banks in 



