186 bulletin of the 



136th Meeting. February 2, 1878. 



Vice-President Taylor in the Chair. 



Thirty-eight members and visitors present. 



The election of Mr. Jacob Kendrick Upton as a member of 

 the Society was announced. 



Mr. Asaph Hall communicated 



THE results of HIS SEARCH FOR SATELLITES OF MARS, 



and the eventual discovery of the two now recognized, and pro- 

 posed for the inner satellite the name of #o/3os, and for the outer 

 the name of Afijuo;. He considered that the great velocity of the 

 revolution of the former around Mars constituted an objection to 

 the nebular hypothesis as propounded by La Place. 



{Mr. Hall's paper will appear in the next volume of the Observations of the 

 Washington Observatory.) 



The subject was discussed especially in its relations to the 

 nebular hypothesis by Messrs. Abbe, Taylor, Doolittle, Gil- 

 bert, and Newcomb. 



Mr. Lester Ward commenced a communication on 

 the natural system of plants. 



IStTH Meeting. February 16, 1878. 



Yice-President Welling in the Chair. 

 Thirty-eight members and visitors present. 



Mr. Parker, for a Committee appointed at the last meeting 

 reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously 

 adopted : — 



The Philosophical Society of Washington having heard with 

 unusual interest the communication of Professor Asaph Hall, 

 U. S. N., giving an account of his discovery of two satellites of 

 Mars, therefore, 



Resolved, That*this important discovery by one of its members 

 constitutes an event which not only the Society appreciates, but 



