NATIONAL ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 



NEBRASKA. 



397 



serve as a beginning of a general fund, provided 

 sufficient money is raised to make that fund 

 $20,000 as a minimum amount. Committees were 

 appointed to take charge of raising both these 

 funds and to solicit subscriptions for them. The 

 new members elected were: James E. Keeler, di- 

 rector of the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, 

 Cal. ; Henry F. Osborn, Da Costa Professor of 

 Biology in Columbia University, New York city; 

 Franz Boas, Professor of Anthropology in Colum- 

 bia University and Assistant Curator in the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, New York city; 

 and Samuel L. Penfield, Professor of Mineralogy 

 in Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 

 New Haven, Conn. An announcement was re- 

 ceived from Dr. Wolcott Gibbs that his advancing 

 years would compel him to resign the presidency 

 of the Academy. Dr. Gibbs is one of the two sur- 

 viving original members of the Academy, and is 

 the foremost of American chemists. The follow- 

 ing six members were elected to the council : Dr. 

 John S. Billings, Dr. Henry P. Bowdich, Prof. 

 George J. Brush, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs. Mr. Arnold 

 Hague, and Prof. Simon Newcomb. 



The scientific session was held in Providence, 

 R. I., Nov. 13 and 14, 1900, when the following 

 papers were read: Exhibition of Certain Novel 

 Apparatus; A Wave Machine; An Expansion 

 Lens; A Recording System of Two Degrees of 

 Freedom; A Tube showing Colored Cloudy Con- 

 densation ; On Stability of Vibration and on Van- 

 ishing Resonance; Demonstration of the Projec- 

 tion of One Grating by Another, and Hysteresis- 

 like Phenomena in Torsional Magnetostriction and 

 their Relation to Viscosity, by Carl Barus; Re- 

 port on the Meeting of the Committee of the Inter- 

 national Association of Academies, by James M. 

 Crafts ; Progressive Evolution of Characters in the 

 Y T oung Stages of Cephalopods, and Descriptive 

 Method of Presenting the Phenomena of the Cycle 

 of Evolution among Cephalopods, by Alpheus 

 Hyatt; Note on the Energy of Recent Earth- 

 quakes, by Thomas C. Mendenhall ; The Synthesis 

 and Reactions of Sodium Acetate Ester, and their 

 Relation to a New Interpretation of Chemical 

 Metathesis, and On the Genesis of Matter, by 

 Arthur Michael; Spectrum of Sodium in a Mag- 

 netic Field, and Progress in the Echelon Spectro- 

 scope, by Arthur A. Michelson; On the Develop- 

 ment of the Pig, and Normal Plates Illustrating 

 the Development of the Rabbit and the Dogfish, 

 by Charles S. Minot : Distribution of Philogeny of 

 Limulus, and Male Preponderance (Androrhopy) 

 in Lepidopterous Insects, by Alpheus S. Packard ; 

 Stereographic Projection and Some of its Possi- 

 bilities from a Graphical Standpoint, by Samuel L. 

 Penfield ; Recent Observations of the Planet Eros, 

 and Screens Free from Relative Absorption, by 

 Edward C. Pickering ; The Porous Cup Voltameter, 

 ana An Account of the Study of Growing Crystals 

 by Instantaneous Microphotography, by Theodore 

 W. Richards: A Report of the Spectrum Work 

 carried on with the Aid of a Grant from the Bache 

 Fund, and On the Explanation of Inertia and 

 Gravitation by Means of Electrical Phenomena, 

 by Henry A. Rowland ; Investigations of Light and 

 Electricity with the Aid of a Battery of Twenty 

 Thousand Cells, by John Trowbridge : Folding and 

 Faulting of Strata in Cordilleran Area, by Charles 

 D. Walcott. 



Xo public bvisiness was transacted at this meet- 

 ing, although several important matters were in- 

 troduced and submitted to committees to be re- 

 ported upon at the spring session of the Academy. 

 Biographical memoirs of the following deceased 

 : members were assigned for preparation : Frederick 

 A. P. Barnard to Ogden N. Rood ; C. H. F. Peters 



to Charles A. Schott; Benjamin A. Gould to Seth 

 C. Chandler; Francis A. Walker to John S. Bill- 

 ings; Othniel C. Marsh to Arnold Hague; Elliott 

 Coues to Theodore N. Gill; Fairman Rogers to 

 George F. Barker; and James E. Keeler to Charles 

 S. Hastings. 



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; 1,058,910 in 1890; and 1,068,539 

 in 1900. Capital, Lincoln. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1899: Governor, William A. Poynter; 

 Lieutenant Governor, E. A. Gilbert; Secretary of 

 State, W. F. Porter; Treasurer, J. B. Meserve; 

 Auditor, John F. Cornell; Attorney-General, C. J. 

 Smythe; Adjutant General, P. H. Barry; Super- 

 intendent of Education, W. R. Jackson all Popu- 

 lists except E. A. Gilbert, Silver Republican, and 

 C. J. Smythe, Democrat; Land Commissioner, 

 J. V. Wolfe; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 T. L. Norval, Republican; Associate Justices, 

 J. J. Sullivan and Silas A. Holcomb, Fusion. 



The State officers are elected in November of 

 the even-numbered years, for a term of two years. 

 The Legislature meets in January of the odd- 

 numbered years. 



Finances. The biennial report of the State 

 Treasurer, covering the term from Nov. 30, 1898, 

 to Nov. 30, 1900, presents these items: Total re- 

 ceipts, $6,038,179.69; total disbursements, $5,423,- 

 161.35; balance on hand Nov. 30, 1900, $615,018.34. 

 The Treasurer says: "The bonded indebtedness of 

 the State having been entirely paid, there is now 

 in the sinking fund $56,165.23 which should be 

 transferred to the general fund. No levy is being 

 made from the sinking fund, but some is still due 

 from back taxes. There is $2,358 in the Peniten- 

 tiary land fund. This money arises from rent of 

 lands which were set aside for the building of the 

 Penitentiary; small tracts of said lands have not 

 been sold. In my last report we still had $153,- 

 267.35 of State bonds. These have been entirely 

 paid, making a total of $468,267.35 paid and can- 

 celed during my two terms of office. We still 

 have a floating indebtedness, which arises from 

 the fact that we have a large amount of back taxes 

 which have not been collected but against which 

 warrants have been issued. The school fund holds 

 $1,165,762.12 of this amount; the balance ($561,- 

 747.60) is held by individuals. The fact that the 

 school fund has absorbed so much of this floating 

 indebtedness has virtually put the State upon a cash 

 basis as far as any advantage could be obtained 

 by paying cash for all purchases made by the State 

 for the running of the State institutions, and the 

 loss to the State from paying the interest is re- 

 duced to the minimum, as the interest goes back 

 to the State and is distributed to the taxpayers 

 through fhe temporary school fund. The State 

 has bonds and securities as an investment for its 

 educational funds amounting to $4,365,544.63. 

 Since my last report we have bought county bonds 

 to the amount of $268.868.62. We have bought 

 general fund and university fund warrants to the 

 amount of $1.238,288.26. Making a total invest- 

 ment in four years of $2,245.356.79." 



Education. The educational fund for the 

 school year ending July 9, 1900. had receipts (in- 

 cluding balance) amounting to $5,073,147.68, and 

 a balance on hand at the close of the year of 

 $669.925.61. This balance was larger by $7,178.26 

 than the balance left over the previous year. The 

 number of teachers employed was 9,463 2,062 

 men and 7,401 women. The average monthly sal- 

 ary of the men was $46.26; of the women, $36.90. 



