PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. t9 



assume the spheroidal form of equilibrium almost as perfectly and 

 as promptly as aa equivalent mass of fluid. 



Mr. J. W. Powell remarked that he had studiously abstained, 

 in every commuuioatiou he had made to this Society (as the 

 members will bear witness), from indulging in any speculations 

 of a general or cosmological character, and had faithfully confined 

 bis remarks to a discussion of the actual facts observed, to the 

 scale of the phenomena and of the actions involved, and to the 

 length of time necessarily required therefor. On this mooted 

 question— certainly not unimportant to geological principles, he 

 had secretly his own opinions; and if he must "make a clean 

 breast of it," he confessed that he had been slowly driven to the 

 conviction that the shell of rock we stand and move and live upon 

 was very thin ; he was almost afraid to say how thin he thought 

 it. Perhaps not more than fifty or sixty thousand feet. Mr. 

 Powell further illustrated his idea by the use of the blackboard. 



i'urther discussion of the subject followed. 



106th Meeting. May 6, 1876. 



The President in the Chair. 

 Forty members and visitors present. 

 Mr. J. J. Woodward made preliminary remarks on 



the use op photography in connection WITH THE MICROMETER 

 MEASUREMENT OP BLOOD CORPUSCLES. 



Mr. Horace Capron read a paper on 



JAPAN, 



giving an account of his reception, his mission and its objects^ 

 the development of productive and industrial arts in that empire,, 

 and the character and habits of the natives. 



Remarks were made by Messrs. Alvord, Hilgard, and But- 

 ton. 



16 



