154 Miscellanies. 



the naval construction of the United States, tending to correct an er- 

 roneous impression as to the opinions and wishes of President Wash- 

 ington on the subject of the navy, vv^hich had found place in Professor 

 Tucker's Biography of Mr. Jefferson, and which had been the subject 

 of remark by Dr. Harris in his Life of Bainbridge. This communica- 

 tion was referred to the Historical Committee. 



The president communicated a letter to him from Mr. Tyson, of the 

 House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, dated Jan. 29th, 1838, 

 giving intelligence in relation to the ancient records of the State, and 

 of the proposed publication of them at the public expense. 



February 16, 1838. — Professor Henry, of Princeton, made a verbal 

 communication on the lateral discharge of electricity, while passing 

 along a wire as in the Leyden experiment, or communicated directly 

 to an insulated wire, or to a wire connected with the earth ; and de- 

 tailed various experiments proving that free electricity is not, under 

 any circumstances, conducted silently to the earth. 



Dr. Bache announced the death of Dr. John Eberle, a member of 

 the Society, who died at Lexington, Ky., on the 2d of Feb., aged 54. 



March 2, 1838. — The Historical Committee announced that they 

 had completed the publication of Mr. Du Ponceau's Dissertation on the 

 Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing, forming vol- 

 ume second of the Historical Transactions of the Society. 



Mr. Walker read a paper, entitled "Determination of the Longitude 

 of several Stations near the Southern Boundary of Michigan ; calcu- 

 lated from Transits of the Moon and of moon culminating Stars, ob- 

 served in 1835 by Andrew Talcott, late Captain of United States En- 

 gineers-" 



The longitude of places in the United States, north of the Ohio, had 

 hitherto depended on the observations of Ellicott and De Ferrer, made 

 at points on the banks of the Ohio river, and on meridian lines drawn 

 from this river, several hundred miles northward, by the deputy sur- 

 veyors. From Mr. Walker's computations, it appears that Turtle Is- 

 land, Lake Erie, has been placed only 1.7 geographical miles too far 

 east on Tanner's map. Its true place is 41° 45' 9" N. latitude ; and 5 

 hours, 33 min. 34.3 sec. W. longitude from Greenwich. Also, South 

 Bend Lake, Michigan, has been placed 3.9 miles too far east ; its true 

 place being N. 41° 37' 6" ; W. 5 hours, 49 min. 15-3 sec. These ob- 

 servations of Capt. Talcott will prove highly useful to geographers, 

 by furnishing standard points of reference in the northernmost part 

 of the United States. 



Mr. Vaughan announced the death of Benjamin Dearborn, of Boston, 

 a member of the Society, who died on the 22d of Feb., 1838, aged 83. 



March 16, 1838. — Mr. Lea invited the attention of the Society to 

 certain facts, mentioned in a " Memoire sur quelques Acephales d'eau 



