36 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



listened to with attention, but no action was taken by the Govern- 

 ment at that time. 



The Committee on Weights and Measures was also requested 

 to consider certain changes in the coinage that had been pro- 

 posed, and was authorized to communicate its views to Con- 

 gress. 



A committee was appointed by the Academy in 1868 in con- 

 nection with the total eclipse of the sun which was to occur the 

 following year and would be visible in the United States. The 

 observations on this important eclipse, during which the presence 

 of the new element, coronium, was discovered in the sun's corona, 

 led to the presentation of four papers relating thereto at the 

 following session of the Academy, held at Northampton from 

 August 31 to September 3, 1869. 



In the year 1868 the number of asteroids discovered by astron- 

 omers had reached loi, and the Academy appointed a committee 

 to give names to those bearing the numbers 100 and loi. The 

 name Hecate was chosen for the former, and Helena for the 

 latter. 



The Academy lost another of its original members in 1869, 

 Theodore Strong, and two others, Frazer and Caswell, resigned 

 and were placed on the list of honorary members. As showing 

 its continued interest in astronomical investigation, the Academy 

 this year appointed a committee to consider the completion and 

 publication of Gilliss' observations of zones of stars around the 

 South Pole. A committee was also appointed to determine 

 whether the magnetic observations made by Harkness while on 

 board the monitor Monadnock were suitable for publication. 



The latter observations were made by Professor William 

 Harkness under an order of Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, 

 U. S. N., during a cruise of the Monadnock from Philadelphia 

 to San Francisco, by way of the Straits of Magellan, beginning 

 in October, 1865. This detail was made by the Navy Depart- 

 ment upon the recommendation of so-called " Compass Com- 

 mittee " of the Academy, which was concerned with questions 

 of magnetic deviations in iron vessels. " The investigation was 



