44 PRESIDENT’S REPORT. 
has proposed a very essential but not widely accepted 
modification of the hypothesis; Proctor and Lockyer, 
who have emphasized the role of meteors in building up 
suns and planets, and Darwin, who has shown that a 
cloud of meteors on a large scale has a tendency to be- 
have in its progress of aggregation and central conden- 
sation precisely like a finely gaseous mass. He has 
brought also the effect of tidal reactions between a cen- 
tral mass and planets circulating near it. 
At the business meeting, Mr. Silas Wodell, and Dr. 
Theodore Neumann were unanimously elected members 
of the Institute. 
Dr. Stevenson nominated Mr. H. P. Amen, and Mr. 
Elsworth nominated Miss A. M. Goodsell for member- 
ship. 
MAY 6, 1890—NINTH ANNUAL MERTING. 
President Henry VY. Pelton, and a quorum of members 
present. 
Miss A. M. Goodsell and Mr. H. P. Amen were res- 
pectively elected members of the Institute. 
President Henry V. Pelton presented his report of the 
work of the Institute as follows: 
Your president respectfully presents his report of the 
work of the Institute and of its sections, for the past 
year. 
Five public meetings of the Institute were held, 
covering all the dates for which the by-laws provide, 
except the one in January, when it was thought best to 
omit the meeting. 
Your president presented the address on November 12, 
as required. 
December 3. William A. Mowry of Boston lectured upon ‘‘ The Early Set- 
tlement of the North West Territory.”’ 
February 4. Rey. George D. Hulst of Brooklyn, N. Y., spoke upon ‘‘ In- 
sects and their Habits.”’ 
