May 7, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



695 



Beport of the Committee on the J. Lawrence Smith 



Fund 

 To THE National Academy op Sciences: 



In regard to researches now in progress or lately 

 completed whieli have received aid from this fund 

 the committee reports as follows: 



Grant No. 3. Edmund Otis Hovey, curator in 

 geology and paleontology in the Ainerican Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, New York, received in 

 1910 a grant of $400 in aid of the study of cer- 

 tain meteorites. Metallographic and chemical ex- 

 aminations are in progress. Dr. Hovey is at this 

 time out of the country. 



Grant No. 4. Professor C. 0. Trowbridge, of 

 the department of physics in Columbia University, 

 received in 1910 a grant of $400 in aid of his 

 study of the luminous trains of meteors. The 

 academy has also made further grants of $250 in 

 1912, of $250 in 1913, and of $250 in 1914. The 

 important work of collecting, verifying and tabu- 

 lating records of observations of luminous trains 

 has been diligently pursued. Lately, the collection 

 and preparation for publication of drawings of 

 luminous trains has been undertaken. In accord- 

 ance with the vote of the academy in 1912, three 

 payments have been made from this grant and it 

 is expected that the fourth and last installment 

 will be required during the current year. 



Grant No. 5. Dr. George P. Merrill, curator in 

 the department of geology in the United States 

 National Museum, received a grant of $200 in 

 1910, and of $200 in 1911, to aid in the study of 

 the occurrence of certain elements suspected to be 

 present in small quantities in some meteorites. 

 This work has been successfully completed, and 

 the final report is ready for submission to the 

 academy; the report contains a tabulation of all 

 available trustworthy analyses of meteorites, and 

 is accompanied by a special paper on the occur- 

 rence in meteorites of francolite or some allied 

 phosphatie mineral in place of the apatite of ter- 

 restrial rocks. 



The cash balance of income now available for 

 grants is $874.87, and the invested income is 

 $1,532.50. 



Edward W. Morley, 



Chairman 



Professor S. A. Mitchell, University of Virginia, 

 has applied for a grant of $500 to aid in the 

 computation of orbits of meteors. Dr. Charles P. 

 Olivier, president of the American Meteor Society, 

 has computed orbits from some nine thousand ob- 

 servations of meteor paths, and has some thousand 

 observations awaiting reduction. He has published 

 two important papers containing several hundred 

 ■computed orbits. The committee recommend the 

 grant of $500 to Professor S. A. Mitchell, to aid 

 in computations of orbits of meteors. 



\ Edwaed W. Morley, 



Chairman 



The following motion was presented: 

 That the Committee on the J. Lawrence Smith 

 Fund recommend that the meteorites remaining 

 from the purchases by Dr. Merrill be deposited by 

 the National Academy of Sciences in the United 

 States National Museum. 



Beport of the Board of Directors of the BenjaTmn 

 Apthorp Gould Fund 

 The income balance of the Gould Fund is now, 

 in cash, four hundred and four dollars and sixty- 

 four cents ($404.64) ; in readily negotiable se- 

 curities, four thousand and fifty-seven dollars and 

 fifty cents ($4,057.50), and in an unpaid grant to 

 the Astronomical Journal, one thousand dollars 

 ($1,000). 



F. E. MOULTON, 



E. E. Barnard 



Beport of the Directors of the Wolcott Criibs Fund 

 The trustees of the Wolcott Gibbs Fund for 

 Chemical Research have the honor to present their 

 annual report to the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences. Since the last report three grants have 

 been made from the income of the Fund as fol- 

 lows: 



III. One hundred dollars to Professor W. J. 

 Hale, Ann Arbor, to pay for assistance in a re- 

 search on derivatives of 2.3-diaeetylpentadieiie, 

 voted May 15, 1914. 



Professor Hale reports that he has prepared the 

 cyelopentadiopyridazine and the corresponding 

 phenyl compound, and determined their composi- 

 tion. He hopes to finish the research before the 

 summer vacation. 



IV. Two hundred dollars to Professor W. D. 

 Haskins, University of Chicago, for making a 

 special potentiometer and galvanometer to study 

 cobaltammines and ternary systems of fused salts. 

 Voted November 25, 1914. 



Professor Haskins reports that a beginning has 

 been made on the work in spite of his severe sick- 

 ness and the fact that the war has prevented him 

 from obtaining part of the apparatus from Ger- 

 many. 



V. A second grant of one hundred dollars to 

 Professor Mary E. Holmes, of Mount Holyoke 

 College, for assistance in her work on the electro- 

 lytic determination of cadmium. Voted March, IS, 

 1915. 



Professor Holmes reports that she has purchased 

 platinum electrodes of a new form, and with these 

 has studied the deposition of cadmium and copper, 

 so that she is now beginning to study the elec- 

 trical separation of cadmium from other metals. 



The imexpended income of the fund amounted 

 on April first to $111.99. 



C. L. Jackson, 



Chairman 



