May 3, 1912] 
(c) The very fine pyrite sparingly dissemi- 
nated through the carbonaceous shales, herein 
described, seems to have resulted from the 
action of sulphur, from decaying animal and 
vegetable life, on the ferro-megnesian silicate 
fragments which are abundant in these sedi- 
ments. 
Donatp F. MacDonatp, 
Commission Geologist 
CULEBRA, C. Z., 
April 1, 1912 
THE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYS- 
ICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
WASHINGTON MEETING, DECEMBER, 1911 
THE thirteenth session of this society was held 
at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D. C., 
on December 27-29, 1911, with President E. C. 
Pickering in the chair. There were sixty-four 
members of the society in attendance besides 
many friends. Nine persons were elected to 
membership, making a total of more than 270 
members. 
Six sessions were held, two of which were joint 
meetings with Section A of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. At the 
joint sessions Professor E. B. Frost presided in 
the double capacity of vice-president of Section A 
and first vice-president of the Astronomical and 
Astrophysical Society of America; and for these 
Sessions a special program was arranged com- 
prising addresses by Professor Lewis Boss on 
‘Recent Researches as to the Systematic Motions 
of the Stars,’’ by Professor E. H. Moore, retiring 
vice-president of Section A, on ‘‘The Foundations 
of the Theory of Linear Integral Equations’’ and 
by the Reverend Joel H. Metcalf on ‘‘The As- 
teroid Problem.’’ 
The society’s scientific program included thirty- 
two papers and also reports from the committees 
on comets, photographic astrometry and coopera- 
tion in the teaching of astronomy. A new com- 
mittee on asteroids was created with members, 
E. W. Brown (chairman), J. H. Metcalf, G. H. 
Peters and A. O. Leuschner. 
The following members were in attendance at 
the Washington meeting: Misses L. B. Allen, H. 
W. Bigelow, A. J. Cannon, M. M. Hopkins, E. A. 
Lamson, Mary Proctor, 8S. F. Whiting, Messrs. A. 
T. G. Apple, E. E. Barnard, 8. G. Barton, L. A. 
Bauer, L. Boss, J. A. Brashear, E. W. Brown, 
SCIENCE 
‘William Francis Rigge, 
703 
C. A. Chant, H. S. Davis, C. L. Doolittle, E. 
Doolittle, R. S. Dugan, J. C. Duncan, J. R. Hast- 
man, W. S. Hichelberger, F. E. Fowle, E. Frisby, 
E. B. Frost, C. H. Gingrich, A. Hall, W. M. 
Hamilton, J. C. Hammond, H. B. Hedrick, G. A. 
Hill, W. J. Humphreys, H. Jacoby, H. H. Kim- 
ball, W. F. King, F. B. Littell, F. H. Loud, 
BE. O. Lovett, C. A. R. Lundin, Jr., J. H. Metcalf, 
W. I. Milham, J. A. Miller, S. A. Mitchell, W. M. 
Mitchell, H. R. Morgan, C. P. Olivier, G. H. Peters, 
E. C. Pickering, J. 8. Plaskett, R. W. Prentiss, 
W. F. Rigge, F. E. Ross, A. L. Rotch, H. N. 
Russell, F. Schlesinger, A. N. Skinner, H. T. 
Stetson, O. Stone, E. D. Tillyer, A. B. Turner, 
F. D. Urie, R. W. Willson, D. T. Wilson, R. S. 
Woodward. 
New members were elected as follows: John 
August Anderson, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md.; Zaccheus. Daniel, Allegheny Ob- 
servatory, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Walter M. Hamilton, 
2307 Washington Circle, Washington, D. C.; H. H. 
Kimball, Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C.; 
Creighton University; 
Harlow Shapley, The Observatory, Princeton, 
N. J.; Vesto Melvin Slipher, Flagstaff, Ariz.; 
Albert Harris Wilson, Haverford, Pa.; Charles 
Clayton Wylie, Laws Observatory, Columbia, Mo. 
The program of the meeting included the fol- 
lowing papers and reports: 
A Device for Facilitating Various Forms of Com- 
putation: &. W. BRown. 
The device consists of a frame and a carrier 
which supports a number of tapes. On these tapes 
small oblong pieces of cardboard are pasted, the 
members to be summed being written on the pieces 
of cardboard. It is essentially a device for avoid- 
ing the frequent rewriting of the same number 
when it has to enter into a calculation in many 
different ways. It is being used for the summa- 
tion of many small harmonie terms at numerous 
time-intervals and for the formation of double- 
entry tables which consist of ten or more terms of 
the type A cos (10+ j¢-+-a) where 7%, j are 
integers, a, A constants and 6, # increase uni- 
formly with the time. It will probably be also 
used for the analysis of numerous observations at 
equal time-intervals into harmonic terms whose 
periods are known or have been previously deter- 
mined, as, for example, in obtaining the tidal 
constants of a port from hourly observations of 
the tide height. 
The Lesson of Joseph Piazzi’s Life: H. S. Davis. 
Piazzi’s career is followed from his birth, through 
