PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. - 85 



Society, shall be dropped from the succeeding published list of 

 members. 



By a vote of the Society this resolution was referred to the Gen- 

 eral Committee. 



The Society then proceeded to ballot for officers for the ensuing 

 year, and the following officers were elected : 



President, William B. Taylor. 



Vice-Presidents, J. E. Hilgard. J. C. Welling. 



J. J. Woodward. J. K. Barnes. 

 Treasurer, Cleveland Abbe. 



Secretaries, Theodore IS". Gill. Marcus Baker. 



MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE. 



J. S. Billings. Garrick Mallery. 



C. E. Dutton. Simon Newcomb. 



J. R. Eastman. J. W- Powell. 



E. B. Elliott. C. A. Schott. 



William Haekness. 



The rough minutes of the meeting were then read and approved, 

 and the Society adjourned. 



209th Meeting. January 14, 1882. 



The President, Wm. B. Taylor, in the chair. 



Upon taking the chair President-elect Taylor offered a few re- 

 marks, and thanked the Society for the honor conferred upon him. 



The minutes of the 207th meeting — the 208th being the annual 

 meeting — were then read and approved. 



A communication by Mr. Benj. Alvord was read, entitled 



curious fallacy as to the theory of gravitation. 



Some years since I noticed in a text book on astronomy, used in 

 one of the most celebrated colleges in the United States, a pretended 

 demonstration that the attraction of gravitation must vary inversely 

 as the square of the distances. It was continued in several editions 

 down to about 1850, when that portion was omitted. I always sup- 



