566 Transactions of the American Institute. 



of examining his wing under the microscope. I expected, if I caught 

 them with flies, to catch them by the mouth. I caught five, and 

 every one was caught by the tip of the wing. This would indicate 

 that the bat makes a peculiar use of his wing in procuring his food. 



Dr. Van der Weyde — Comparative anatomy proves that the wing 

 of the bat is built after the plan of the hand ; and it is probably used 

 as a hand in catching its food. 



Prof. John Phinn — In angling for swallows in Italy, where it is a 

 common sport, they are caught by the mouth. 



The President — It may turn out that the bat has some new sense 

 governed by electric forces. Before he comes to a thread he 

 receives a warning, and turns out of the way. What sort of a warn- 

 ing is that ? 



Dr. J. W. Richards — I have seen a blind man who would never run 

 against a post. So acute was his sense of touch that on the approach 

 of a solid body he would perceive it. It may be that the bat, instead 

 of a new sense, has merely an exaltation of the senses that are com- 

 mon to other animals. 



Prof. John Phin — I knew a blind man who could steer clear of 

 objects by his keen sense of sound. 



Dr. J. W. Richards — That is another instance of the exaltation of a 

 common sense. 



The President — That would not explain this case of the bat ; for 

 sound would not be reflected from a fine thread. 



IV. Printing Chronograph. 



The President remarked, that during the last month he visited 

 Professor Q. W. Hough, at the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, K. 

 Y., who exhibited and explained his new printing chronograph — an 

 automatic apparatus destined to work an entire revolution in the 

 manner of recording astronomical observations where the utmost 

 accuracy of time is of the highest importance. The inventor has 

 successfully solved one of the most difficult problems, that of record- 

 ing, by means of electricity, division of time as minute as the hun- 

 dredth part of one second without sensibly affecting the regularity 

 of the clock movements. It will be remembered that Professor 

 Hough is also the inventor of a self-registering barometer and ther- 

 mometer, which expresses in figures the changes in the pressure and 

 temperature of the atmosphere as often as every five minutes, if 

 required; the total number of changes during twenty-four hours 

 being recorded on the same sheet, thus forming an annual volume of 



