XCIX 



Mr. Conant followed with remarks, earnestly urging the impor- 

 tance of establishing an archaeological museum in St. Louis. 



Dr. Engelmann exhibited a small slab of a whet-stone, given 

 him by Mr. Todd, and supposed to come from a petrifying lake 

 in Ireland, and to be fossilized or petrified wood. He explained 

 the difference between incrustation and fossilizjttion, and showed 

 that the specimen in question was nothing but a siliceous shale. 

 Mineral and even animal substances often appear in layers, and 

 are taken for fossil wood by superficial observers. 



Mr. Morgan requested data relating to the Academy to be pre- 

 sented before the Vienna Exposition, and was referred to the 

 Corresponding Secretary, who was instructed to give the re- 

 quested information. 



Dr. H. Z. Gill and Dr. W. Van Blarcom were elected asso- 

 ciate members. 



February 3, 1873. 



Vice President Albert Todd in the chair. 



Sixteen members present. 



The Corresponding Secretaiy laid upon the table a number of 

 publications lately received from foreign societies, and called the 

 attention of members to several papers containing matters of new 

 discovery and peculiar interest, of which he gave a brief abstract. 



Dr. Engelmann presented a copy of the recent Report of the 

 U. S. Signal Service, and obsen'ed that it contained much inter- 

 esting matter, corroborating, in many respects, the obser\'ations 

 that had heretofore been made in Europe, and especially in 

 England and Germany. Owing to the vast extent of the United 

 States as compared with the countries of Europe, the work of our 

 Signal Ser\ ice promised impoitant results. It was the commence- 

 ment of accurate meteorology in the U. States. The probabili- 

 ties and predictions sent out each day had proved surprisingly 

 correct, and were of great advantage to commerce. The map 

 showed that corresponding barometrical changes took place over 

 a great extent of country, not simultaneously, but progressively. 

 He exhibited a map on which he had represented the mean tem- 



