724 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIT. No. 1142 



David B. Pickering, 81 South Burnett St., East 

 Orange, N. J. 



William Francis Rice, Wheaton College, Wheaton, 

 111. 



Eobert Triimpler, Allegheny Observatory, Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa. 



J. van der Bilt, Utrecht Observatory, Utrecht, Hol- 

 land. 



Reynold K. Young, Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, 

 Canada. 

 At the last meeting, the election of officers took 



place. 



President — E. C. Pickering. 



First Vice-president — Frank Schlesinger. 



Second Vice-president — W. W. Campbell. 



Treasurer — Annie J. Cannon. 



Councilors for 1916-18 — E. W. Brown, J. S. 



Plaskett. 



The following officers continue in service: 

 Councillors, 1915-17 — Edwin B. Frost, Joel Steb- 



bins. 



Secretary — Philip Fox. 



It was voted to hold a meeting of the society in 

 conjunction with the American Association, at its 

 coming general quadrennial meeting in New York, 

 on December 26 to 30, 1916. Further, accepting 

 the invitation of Professor Benjamin Boss, it was 

 voted to hold the annual summer meeting of 1917 

 at the Dudley Observatory, in Albany, N. Y. 



A committee composed of Messrs. W. W. Camp- 

 bell, chairman; E. E. Barnard, F. B. Littell, Frank 

 Loud, S. A. Mitchell and Edison Pettit, was ap- 

 pointed to further and facilitate cooperation for 

 the observation of the coming favorable solar 

 eclipse of June 8, 1918. The Committee on 

 Meteors was enlarged by the appointment of C. P. 

 Olivier, secretary; E. E. Barnard, W. J. Hum- 

 phreys, F. R. Moulton and W. H. Pickering. A 

 committee to consider instituting the grade of As- 

 sociate Membership was also appointed. The mem- 

 bers of this committee are: Messrs. Frank Schles- 

 inger, chairman; C. A. Chant, G. C. Comstock, 

 Philip Fox, W. T. Olcott and E. D. Roe. 



Other committees of the society made reports 

 on their work, but only one led to a motion recom- 

 mending a course of action by the society. This 

 was the Committee on Standard Equinoxes for Use 

 in the Publication of Star Positions. The recom- 

 mendation of this committee, which was adopted 

 by the council and recommended for practise by 

 members of the society, was "that in any pub- 

 lication involving star positions no equinoxes 

 should be used intermediate between the years 

 1900 and 1925." If the plan of widely spaced 

 standard equinoxes is adopted, it will greatly 

 reduce the amount of labor now involved in the 

 treatment of the star positions given for such a 

 multiplicity of equinoxes. 



The great European War, which has affected 



profoundly the whole world, has put its blighting 

 hand on our society, in the death of Professor 

 Karl Schwarzschild. At the last meeting of the 

 society, the following resolution was unanimously 

 adopted : 



Whereas: In the death of Karl Schwarzschild 

 on May 11, 1916, many of the members of this so- 

 ciety have lost a warm friend, the society itself 

 one of its most eminent members, and astronomy a 

 brilliant and remarkably versatile contributor: 



Resolved: That the society record in its minutes 

 its sense of deep loss, and that copies of this reso- 

 lution be engrossed and sent to Mrs. Schwarzschild, 

 and to the Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam. 



Aside from committee reports, the scientific pro- 

 gram consisted of fifty-two papers. The titles are 

 given here, in the order of presentation: 



1. F. Slocum: The Van Vleck Observatory. 



2. E. W. Brown: The Progress of the New Lunar 



Tables. 



3. Annie J. Cannon: Peculiar Spectra Found in 



Preparing the New Draper Catalogue. 



4. C. P. Olivier: The Meteor System of Win- 



necke's Comet. 



5. E. C. Pickering: Proper Motion of Stars in 



the Zone — 10° to — 14°. 



6. J. A. Miller: Summary of the Sproul Observa- 



tory Parallax Work. 



7. Hannah B. Steele: The Parallax of Certain 



Binary Stars. 



8. John H. Pitman: Choice of Comparison Stars 



in Parallax Determinations. 



9. Philip Fox: First Results on the Dearborn 



Observatory Parallax Program. 



10. K. Burns, W. H. Meggars, P. W. Merrill: De- 



termination of Wave-lengths by Interfer- 

 ence. 



11. A. van Maanen: Remarks on the Motion of 



the Stars in h% Persei. 



12. W. S. Adams: Recent Stellar Spectroscopic 



Results. 



13. C. J. Hudson: Irregularities in Refraction. 



14. A. Hall: The New Repsold Micrometer for the 



26-inch Refractor of the Naval Observatory. 



15. H. L. Alden: Calibration of the McCormick 



Observatory Photometer Wedge. 



16. S. A. Mitchell: Parallax Work at the Mc- 



Cormick Observatory. 



17. R, H. Curtiss: The Widths of Hydrogen Emis- 



sion Lines in Class B Spectra. 



18. R. H. Curtiss: Some Structure Variations in 



Hydrogen Emission Lines in Class B 

 Spectra. 



19. H. N. Russell, Mary Fowler, Martha C. Bor- 



ton: Photographic Observation of Eclipsing 

 Variables. 



