PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 95 



Remarks on this paper were made by Mr. Hilgard and Mr. 



HOLDEN. 



115th Meeting. December 16, ISTG. 



The President in the Chair. 



Thirty-seven members pad visitors present. 



The election of Mr. Charles Abiather White as a mem- 

 ber of the Society was announced. 



Dr. J. J. Sylvester, of the Johns Hopkins Institute, Balti- 

 more, made a communication on 



SOME recent investigations on the theory of invariants, 



giving an account of what had been done in that special field of 

 research, and of the advances he himself had been able to ac- 

 complish. 



Mr. J. M. Toner read a paper on 



THE burning of THEATRES AND PUBLIC HALLS, 



with reflections on some of the causes of the great mortality oc- 

 casionally attending such fires, and suggestions for improved 

 security to life ; with a chronological list of theatres and other 

 public edifices burned. 



{This paper has been printed as a 12mo. pamphlet, Washington, D, C, 1876.) 



Mr. E. S. HoLDEN presented a paper 



ON REFERENCE CATALOGUES OF ASTRONOMICAL PAPERS ANB 

 MEMOIRS. 



(ABSTRACT.) 



I have received from my friend E. B. Knobel, Esq., F.R.A.S.^ 

 of London, an advance copy of his Reference Catalogue of As- 

 tronomical Papers and Researches, reprinted from the Monthly 

 jVotices of the Royal Astronomical Society for Nov. 1876, pp. 

 365 et seq. I desire to call the attention of the Astronomers 

 and others of the Society to this paper on account of its import- 

 ance, but specially to make a few remarks upon its accuracy, 

 which I have been able to test; as well as to say a few words oq 

 Astronomical Bibliography in general. 

 17 



