191 



Prof. G. Guyot, of Princeton, K J., Prof. Cook, of New 

 Brunswick, N. J., and Prof. Lesley, w^ere appointed the com- 

 mittee to report on M. Meunier's book, received at the last 

 meeting. 



Mr. Britton reported analyses of Rocky Mountain coals, 

 and exhibited the cokes obtained from them. 



Dr. Cresson reported on their gas producing and heat pro- 

 ducing qualities. 



Mr. Goodfellow said that before the next meeting news 

 would be received of a rare event, for which astromomers 

 had been waiting and preparing for a century. Next Tues- 

 day the Transit of Venus would again occur, the times of 

 which as calculated for Washington he gave. So extensive 

 and costly are the preparations for observing this event in 

 distant parts of the world made by various Governments, 

 that it becomes evident the time has arrived when public 

 sentiment is alive to the value, and government action is 

 ready to supply the needs of accurate science, for the benefit 

 of society at large. 



Mr. Goodfellow then gave a sketch of the history of the 

 Observation of the Transit of 1769, and showed, from Dr. 

 Smith's memoir in the Transactions of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, that Dr. Smith's calculations of the sun's 

 parallax, while they widely differ from the results of Encke, 

 approximated much nearer to the truth. 



Dr. Konig explained again by diagrams, the essential 

 points of difference between Mr. Britton's burette, the high 

 value of which he acknowledged, and his own published 

 improvement upon it. Mr. Brinton insisted that they w^ere 

 essentially the same. Mr. Fraley said that the decision of 

 such a question must be left to the practice of Chemists. 



Dr. W. I. Hoffman's letter to Dr J. L. LeConte on the 

 practice of Cremation by the Pah-IIte Indians, of Eastern 

 California, was then read by the Secretary, and Dr. Horn 

 confirmed Dr. Hoffman's statements, adding that the practice 

 was common to all branches of the Pah-Ute Tribe. 



Mrs. Seiler's recently published investigations on the voice 

 in speech were then described by the Secretary, and the 



