NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



NEBRASKA. 



471 



N 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. The 



officers of the Academy in 1898 were : President, 

 Wolcott Gibbs ; Vice-President, Asaph Hall : For- 

 eign Secretary, Alexander Agassiz ; Home Secre- 

 tary, Ira Remsen; Treasurer, Charles D. Walcott. 



Two meetings were held in 1898. The first or 

 stated meeting was held in Washington on April 

 19-21. On that occasion the following papers were 

 read: "The Coral Reefs of Fiji,'' by Alexander 

 Agassiz ; ' The Fiji Bololo," by Alexander Agas- 

 si/ and W. McM. Woodworth ; " The Acalephs of 

 Fiji." by Alexander Agassiz and A. G. Mayer; 

 ' Ballistic Galvanometry with a Countertwisted 

 Torsion System " and " A Curious Inversion in the 

 Wave Mechanism of the Electro-magnetic Theory 

 of Light," by Carl Barus; " The Variation in Viru- 

 lence of the Colon Bacillus," by John S. Billings ; 

 " McCrady's Gymnophthalrnata of Charleston Har- 

 bor," by William K. Brooks; "A Consideration of 

 the Conditions governing Apparatus for Astronom- 

 ical Photography," by Charles S. Hastings : " New 

 Classification of Nautiloidea," by Alpheus Hyatt ; 

 " The Use of Graphic Methods in Questions of Dis- 

 puted Authorship, with an Application to the 

 Shakespeare-Bacon Controversy," by Thomas C. 

 Mendenhall ; " A New Spectroscope," by Albert A. 

 Michelson ; " On Double Halides containing Organic 

 Bases," by Ira Remsen ; " On the Hydrolysis of Acid 

 Amides," by Ira Remsen and E. E. Reid ; " The 

 Question of the Existence of Active Oxygen." by 

 Ira Remsen and W. A. Jones; ''On the Product 

 formed by the Action of Benzenesulphonchloride on 

 Urea," by Ira Remsen and J. W. Lawson ; and " A 

 Method for Obtaining a Photographic Record of 

 Absorption Spectra," by Arthur W. Wright. 



The following papers were read by scientists not 

 members of the Academy : " Theories of Latitude 

 Variation," by H. Y. Benedict (presented by Asaph 

 Hall) ; " Progress in the New Theory of the' Moon's 

 Motion," by E. W. Brown (introduced by Simon 

 Newcomb) ; " On the Variation of Latitude and the 

 Aberration Constant," by Charles L. Doolittle (in- 

 troduced by Seth C. Chandler). 



Also a biographical memoir on Edward Drinker 

 Cope, by Theodore Gill, was read. 



This year, for the first time, the Academy met in 

 the library building. The only public business 

 transacted by the Academy at this meeting, besides 

 the reading of the papers mentioned previously, was 

 the elections. The, honor of associate membership, 

 which is given only to foreigners, was conferred on 

 the following : Prof. Henri Poincare, whose name is 

 known among mathematicians the world over; Prof. 

 David Gill, the astronomer in charge of the observa- 

 tory at Citpe Town, Africa; Lord Rayleigh, the 

 eminent English physicist: Lord Lister,' the physi- 

 ologist ; Prof. Edward von Suess, the Vienna geolo- 

 gist ; Prof. H. de Lacaze-Duthiers, the Parisian 

 zoologist; Prof. Edward Strasburger, the German 

 botanist ; Prof. Felix Klein, of the University of 

 Gottingen. Germany, famous for his researches in 

 mathematics : Prof. Henri Moissan, the French 

 chemist whose studies in high temperatures have 

 resulted in the artificial production of gems; and 

 Prof. Karl von Zittel, of Munich, Germany, who 

 has a high reputation as a palaeontologist. The 

 election of the foreign associates was followed by 

 the election of a treasurer for the Academy, Dr. 

 John S. Billings having resigned on account of his 

 removal from Washington. Dr. Charles D. Walcott, 

 Director of the United States Geological Survey, 



was elected in his place for a term of six years. 

 The following members of the council were re- 

 elected : John S. Billings, Henry P. Bowditch, 

 George H. Brush, Arnold Hague, Othniel C. Marsh, 

 and Simon Newcomb. The officers of the Academy 

 are members of the council ex officio. 



The scientific session was held in New Haven, 

 Conn., Nov. 15-16, when the following papers were 

 read : " On Solid Solutions of Colloidal Glass," by 

 Carl Barus; " Anatomy of Nautilus Pompilius," by 

 William K. Brooks and L. E. Griffin ; " The Influ- 

 ence of Alcohol and Alcoholic Fluids on Digestion," 

 by Russell H. Chittenden ; " Sodium Tungstate as a 

 Retainer for Boric Acid," by Frank A. Gooch and 

 Louis Cleveland Jones ; " The Ammonium-Magne- 

 sium Phosphate of Analysis," by Frank A. Gooch 

 and Martha Austin ; " On a Series of Native Skulls 

 from New Guinea," " On the Reputed Prefrontal 

 Bones in Recent Mammals," "On the Brecciated 

 Fossil Marble from Kishiu, Japan," and "On Some 

 Rare Antiquities from Mexico," by Othniel C. 

 Marsh ; " Observations on the Zeeman Effect with 

 the Echelonspectroscope," by Albert A. Michelson ; 

 " Three Phases of Vertebrate Development " and 

 " Notes on Mammalian Embryology," by Charles S. 

 Minot ; " Further Researches on the Two Isomeric 

 Chlorides of Orthosulphobenzoic Acid: A Study in 

 Tautomerism," by Ira Remsen ; " Report upon Work 

 in Spectrum Analysis carried on by help of the 

 Bache Fund," by Henry A. Rowland ; " On the Na- 

 ture and Origin of the Marine Fauna of Bermuda " 

 and "On the Ability possessed by Certain Animals 

 to Recover after Complete Freezing," bv Addison 

 E. Verrill. 



The following papers were read by scientists not 

 members of the Academy: "On the Conditions 

 Modifying the Excretion of Kynuremic Acid." by 

 Lafayette B. Mendel (by invitation) ; " The Chem- 

 ical Composition of Tourmaline," by Samuel L. 

 Penfield (by invitation) ; and " Perturbations of 

 Minerva, with a Preliminary Determination of its 

 Orbit," by W. S. Eichelberger (presented by Simon 

 Newcomb). 



During the year the Academy has lost by death 

 the following members : James Hall and William 

 Augustus Rogers, sketches of whom will be found 

 in OBITUARIES, AMERICAN, in this volume. 



NEBRASKA, a Western State, admitted to the 

 Union March 1, 1867; area, 77,510 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial 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 Stale 

 officers during the year: Governor, Silas A. Hoi- 

 comb ; Lieutenant Governor, James E. Harris ; 

 Secretary of State, W. F. Porter, Treasurer, J. B. 

 Meserve'; Auditor, J. F. Cornell: Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, C. J. Smyth ; Superintendent of Education, 

 W. R. Jackson ; Land Commissioner, J-. V. Wolfe ; 

 Adjutant General, P. H. Barry; Oil Inspector, J. 

 H.Edmiston ; Secretaries of the Board of Transpor- 

 tation, J. C. Dahlman, G. L. Laws, and J. W. 

 Edgerton, all of the silver parties; Chief Justice of 

 the Supreme Court, T. 0. C. Harrison, Republican ; 

 Associate Justices, T. L. Norval, Republican, and 

 J. J. Sullivan, fusion ; Clerk, D. A. Campbell, Re- 

 publican. 



Finances. The balance in the general fund Dec. 

 1, 1896, was $589.370.39. The receipts for the fol- 

 lowing two years were $1,975,434.54, making a 

 total of $2,564.804.93. The disbursements were 





