NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



NEBRASKA. 



517 



N 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The officers of the Academy in 1890 were: Presi- 

 dent, Wolcott Gibbs; Vice-President, Asaph Hall; 

 Foreign Secretary, Alexander Agassiz; Home 

 Secretary, Ira Hemsen, Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, Baltimore, Md.; Treasurer, Charles D. Wal- 

 cott. 



Two meetings were held in 1899. The first or 

 stated meeting was held in Washington, April 

 18-20. On that occasion the following papers 

 were read: On the Diamond and Gold Mines of 

 South Africa and On the Tanner Deep-sea Tow 

 Net, by Alexander Agassiz ; also On the Acalephs 

 of the East Coast of the United States, by Alex- 

 ander Agassiz and A. G. Mayer; On the Develop- 

 ment by Selection of Supernumerary Mammse in 

 Sheep and On Kites with Radial Wings, by Alex- 

 ander G. Bell; Ophiura Brevispina, by William 

 K. Brooks and Caswell Grave; exhibition of 

 specimens of Nautilus pompilius, by William K. 

 Brooks and L. E. Griffin ; The Shadow of a Planet, 

 by Asaph Hall; Remarks on the Work of the 

 Nautical Almanac Office during the Years 1877- 

 '98 in the Field of Theoretical Astronomy, by 

 Simon Newcomb; and Progress in Surveying and 

 Protection of the United States Forest Reserves, 

 by Charles D. Walcott. 



The following papers were read by scientists 

 not members of the Academy: On the Limestones 

 of Fiji, by E. C. Andrews (communicated by 

 Alexander Agassiz) ; On the Bololo of Fiji and 

 Samoa, by William McM. Woodworth (communi- 

 cated by Alexander Agassiz) ; The Work of the 

 Division of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, 

 by Gifford Pinchot; and The Resulting Differ- 

 ences between the Astronomic and Geodetic Lati- 

 tudes and Longitudes in the Triangulation along 

 the Thirty-ninth Parallel, by Henry S. Pritchett, 

 both of whom were introduced by Charles D. 

 Walcott. 



The meetings were held in the hall of Colum- 

 bian University. The public business included 

 the fifth conferring of the Watson gold medal, 

 the recipient of which was David Gill, astronomer 

 in the observatory at the Cape of Good Hope for 

 the British Government, for his work in per- 

 fecting the application of the heliometer to astro- 

 nomical measurements; also the conferring of 

 the Draper medal on James A. Keeler, of the 

 Lick Observatory, for his researches in spectro- 

 scopic astronomy. The new members elected were 

 Charles E. Beecher, of the department of palaeon- 

 tology in Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; 

 George C. Comstock, director of Washburn Ob- 

 servatory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 

 Wis.; Theodore W. Richards, of the chemical de- 

 partment of Harvard University, Cambridge, 

 Mass.; Edgar F. Smith, of the chemical depart- 

 ment of the University of Pennsylvania, Phila- 

 delphia, Pa.; and Edmund B. Wilson, of the bio- 

 logical department of Columbia University, New 

 York city. The following six members were 

 elected to the council: John S. Billings, Henry 

 P. Bowditch, George J. Brush, Arnold Hague, 

 Samuel P. Langley, and Simon Newcomb. These 

 gentlemen, together with the officers ex officio 

 of the Academy, constitute the council. A popu- 

 lar lecture On the Photography of Sound Waves 

 and a Description of a New Process of Color 

 Photography was presented by Prof. Robert W. 

 Wood, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 

 Wis. 



The scientific session was hold in Columbia 

 University, New York city, Nov. 14 and 1.1, 1899, 

 when the following papers were read: The Hydro- 

 gen Vacua of Dewar, by George F. Murker; The 

 Definition of Continuity, Topical Geometry in 

 General, and The Map-coloring Problem, by 

 Charles S. Peirce; Recent Results of the Henry 

 Draper Memorial, by Edward C. Pickering; The 

 Electro-chemical Equivalents of Copper and Sil- 

 ver, by Theodore W. Richards; Variations in 

 Normal Color Vision, by Ogden N. Rood; and 

 The Statical Properties of the Atmosphere and 

 A Direct Proof of the Effect on the Eulerian 

 Cycle of an Inequality in the Equatorial Motions 

 of Inertia of the Earth, by Robert S. Woodward ; 

 also, by invitation, The Time of Perception as a 

 Measure of Difference in Intensity; Relations of 

 Time and Space in Vision, by J. McKeen Cattell, 

 of Columbia University. 



A biographical Memoir of William A. Rogers 

 as a Physicist, by Edward W. Morley, was read. 

 At the business session Henry P. Bowditch pre- 

 sented the report of the delegates who repre- 

 sented the Academy at the congress held in Wies- 

 baden during the summer to consider the estab- 

 lishment of an international scientific associa- 

 tion. A committee of five was appointed to se- 

 lect the name of the scientist who, within the 

 past five years, has made a discovery in physics 

 or astronomy or in the application of science 

 which shall be adjudged most valuable to the 

 human race, and to present the name of that 

 person as a candidate for the Barnard medal at 

 the next meeting. 



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 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. O. C. Harrison, Republican; Associate Justices, 

 T. L. Norval, Republican, and J. J. Sullivan, 

 Fusion; Clerk, D. A. Campbell, Republican. 



Finances. The receipts for the year ending 

 Nov. 30 were $2,650.324.78; the expenditures, 

 $2,660,737.87. The balance at the beginning of 

 the year was $624,523.43; at the end, $614,110.34. 



Of the receipts, $996,378.25 were for the gen- 

 eral fund, the main part of which, $856,638.86, 

 came from taxes. The disbursements from this 

 fund were $968,819.33; of this amount. $894,033.63 

 were for general fund warrants and the remain- 

 der for interest. 



The permanent school fund received from sales 

 of lands $243,059.36. 



The total appropriations of the Legislature for 

 1899 were $2,591,373. 



The assessed valuation for 1899 was $169,- 

 105,905. The general fund levy was $845,529, and 

 the total levy $1,286,792. The floating debt now 

 consists almost solely of general fund warrants 

 outstanding. Nov. 30, 1898, there were general 



