102 BULLETIN OF THE 



On the close of this discussion Mr. Elliott presented a commu- 

 nication 



ON THE CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES, PAST, PRESENT AND 



PROSPECTIVE. 



This communication will be published in another form. 



Remarks upon this paper were made by Messrs. Gill and W. 

 B. Taylor, after which the Society adjourned. 



217th Meeting. May 6, 1882. 



President Wm. B. Taylor in the chair. 

 Twenty-eight members and visitors. 



The President announced to the Society the death of two of its 

 members, Mr. William J. Twining, Major U. S. Engineers and 

 Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and Mr. John Rodgers, 

 Senior Rear Admiral U. S. Navy and Superintendent U. S. Naval 

 Observatory. He further announced to the Society that the pro- 

 position for a federation of the Anthropological, Biological, and 

 Philosophical Societies had been discussed by the General Com- 

 mittee, but that thus far no action had been taken. 



The first communication was by Mr. Elliott Coues, 



ON THE POSSIBILITIES OF PROTOPLASM. 



The following is an abstract of this communication, which has 

 been published at greater length under the title — " Biogen : a Spec- 

 ulation on the Origin and Nature of Life. Abridged from a paper 

 on the ' Possibilities of Protoplasm,' read before the Philosophical 

 Society of Washington, May 6th, 1882. By Dr. Elliott Coues. 

 Washington : Judd & Detweiler, printers and publishers. 1882." 

 (8vo., pp. 27.) 



Referring to previous papers on the subject of Life, by Mr. 

 Woodward and Mr. Ward, the speaker opposed any purely 

 chemico-physical theory, and adhered to the doctrine of the actual 

 existence of a " vital principle." Granting that all substances, 

 including protoplasm, have been evolved from nebulous matter ; 

 that evolution to the protoplasmic state is necessary for any mani- 

 festation of life, and even that life necessarily appears in matter 



