ccxl 



of the plane is constant; that, with the same velocity, it increases with the 

 inclination. 



Among our fellow-members. Prof. F. E. Nipher has devised a lecture 

 galvanometer, for lantern projection, which can be used in showing the 

 presence of thermo and induction currents, and can also be used as a 

 differential galvanometer. He has also shown the unequal distribution of 

 errors in numbers written from memory, and has devised a method of 

 measuring the strength of memory, an investigation in which he is yet 

 engaged. He has also continued his investigations on the laws of muscu- 

 lar exertion ; and has devised new and curious experiments on binocular 

 vision. 



ARCHAEOLOGY. 



Much interesting work in this field has been done during the year by the 

 Davenport (Iowa) Academy of Science, No. i, vol. i., of whose Transac- 

 tions is largely given to the subject, and is most creditable. Mr. F. W. 

 Putnam has completed the work left unfinished by the late Jeffries Wy- 

 man, on the "Fresh-Water Shell Heaps of the St. John's River, Florida." 

 Our Academy has published the reports of observations and discoveries 

 made by Prof. Gage, respecting his examinations of mounds and graves 

 in Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri, and also of those made by Mr. Co- 

 nant, near New Madrid, Mo., of remains of an ancient Indian town, and 

 the opening of mounds in which were found skeletons and pottery. 



Prof. Potter and Dr. G. J. Engelmann, from the committee appointed 

 to examine mounds, have had surveys made of several fortified villages in 

 Southeast Missouri. Mounds have been opened, and skulls and pottery 

 obtained, the former characteristic of the mound-builder type. Graves 

 have been opened on the Illinois bluffs in St. Clair County, where skulls 

 of the type of the modern Indian were found. Some mounds examined in 

 the Okaw bottom yielded skeletons unaccompanied by pottery or weapons, 

 while stone graves and other mounds in the same vicinity inclosed frag- 

 ments of bones and pottery. 



Mounds on the bluffs and in the bottom in the vicinity of the large 

 Monk's Mound, opened by Dr. F. C. A. Richardson, contained some skel- 

 etons. Messrs. Hilgard and Patrick, of Belleville, Illinois, have made a 

 careful and most valuable survey of Monk's Mound, and an interesting 

 discovery of burnt and broken human bones was made by Mr. Hilgard in 

 some of the stone graves opened by him on the Illinois bluffs. A num- 

 ber of the large series of mounds in the Arcadia Valley, Mo., were opened, 

 and nothing found ; so also mounds on the Missouri River were opened 

 without result. Mr. Howland. of Buffalo, N. Y., made a most valuable 

 discovery of horn and copper in a mound near Alton. 



The Academy has appropriated, in all, $120.31 to defray the expenses of 

 the committee, and most of the specimens obtained are in charge of Prof. 

 Potter, at Washington University, for want of room and cases in our pres- 

 ent quarters. Next to the publication of our Transactions and care of our 

 library, whatever funds we may have to spare cannot be more profitably 

 used than in prosecuting this Archaeological work. 



