558 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 19. 



main sections under three separate heads, — first, the 

 physical and moral characteristics of the type ; second, 

 the main branches of each (under this head the 

 classification will be carried out) ; third, an alphabet- 

 ical index which will form a complete ethnologic 

 gazetteer, collecting all known races, tribes, and lan- 

 guages under short descriptive titles, alphabetically 

 arranged, and full of references to authorities. The 

 Asiatic domain alone furnishes, according to Mr. 

 Keane, some four thousand entries. 



The work will be published only upon the condi- 

 tion of there being five hundred subscribers. 



— The annual meeting of the American academy 

 of arts and sciences was held in Boston, Tuesday, May 

 29. The following oflloers were elected for the ensu- 

 ing year: president, Professor Joseph Levering; vice- 

 president, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes; correspond- 

 ing secretary. Professor Josiah P. Cooke; recording 

 secretary. Professor John Trowbridge; treasurer, 

 H. P. Kidder; librarian, S. H. Scudder. Four new 

 members were elected: Prof. J. W. Mallet of the 

 University of Virginia, and Dr. Atticus G. Haygood 

 of Oxford, Georgia, as associate fellows; George B. 

 Dixwell of Boston as resident felloW'; and Adolph 

 Wurtz of Paris as foreign honorary member. 



The list of members of the academy now includes 

 one hundred and ninety-two resident fellows, ninety- 

 two associate fellows, and seventy-two foreign hon- 

 orary members. The loss by death this year has been 

 as follows. Resident fellows: Augustus A. Hayes, 

 Brookline; William B. Kogers, Chandler Eobbins, 

 and Nathaniel Thayer, Boston. Associate fellows: 

 Charles Avery, Clinton, N.T. ; Henry Draper, New 

 York; Isaac Ray, Philadelphia; George P. Marsh, 

 Rome. Foreign honorary members: Joseph Liou- 

 ville, Paris; ifimile Plantamour, Geneva; Friedrich 

 Kohler, Gottingen; T. L. W. Bischoff, Munich. 



The academy voted unanimously to confer the 

 Eumford gold medal upon Professor Henry A. Row- 

 land of Baltimore for his researches in light and 

 heat. 



The following papers were presented by Mr. W. T. 

 Brigham: 1. Recent volcanic phenomena on the 

 Hawaiian Islands; 2. The flow of lava-streams as 

 illustrated by the Hawaiian eruption of 18S1. Profes- 

 sor Cooke presented the following contributions 

 from the chemical laboratory of Harvard university 

 by title: 1. On tamerol, by C. Loring Jackson 

 and A. E. Menke; 2. On curcumin, by the same 

 authors; 3. On the action of phosphorous trichlo- 

 ride of aniline, by the same authors; 4. On the 

 action of sodic ethylate on benzaldehyde, by C. Lor- 

 ing Jackson and G. T. Hartshorn ; 5. On the action 

 of concentrated hydrobromic acid upon mucobromic 

 acid and other related substances, by H. B. Hill ; C. 

 On the action of alkaline hydrates upon mucobromic 

 acid, by H. B. Hill and E. K. Sterns; 7. On phe- 

 noxychloracrylic acid, by M. Loeb; S. On /3-phenyltri- 



brompropionic acid, by L. P. Kinnicutt and G. M. 

 Palmer; 9. On the determination of nitrites with 

 potassic permanganate, by L. P. Kinnicutt and J. U. 

 Nef; 10. On the determination of sulphites with 

 potassic permanganate, by L. P. Kinnicutt and E. 

 Penrose; 11. On the vapor density of the chloride, 

 bromide, and iodide of antimony, by C. P. Worces- 

 ter; 12. On a method of correcting the weight of 

 bodies of unknown volume for the buoyancy of the 

 atmosphere, and its applications, by J. P. Cooke. 

 Professor Asa Gray presented the following from 

 the Botanic garden. Contributions to American 

 botany : 1. List of plants from south-western Texas 

 and northern Mexico, collected chiefly by Dr. E. ■ 

 Palmer in 1879-80 (II. Garaopetalae to Acotyle- 

 dones) by Sereno Watson; 2. Descriptions of new 

 species of plants, with revision of certain genera, by 

 Sereno Watson. Professor Trowbridge presented the 

 following papers from the physical laboratory of 

 Harvard university: 1. Attraction of a shell bounded 

 by confocal ellipsoidal surface, by F. N. Cole; 2. 

 Weber's theory of magnetism, John Trowbridge 

 and C. B. Penrose; 3. Electromotive force, John 

 Trowbridge and E. K. Stevens; 4. Effect of mag- 

 netism on-the conduction of heat, John Trowbridge 

 and C. B. Penrose. A paper on the deduction of 

 different star catalogues to a common system was 

 presented by title by Prof. W. A. Rogers. 



— At the semi-annual meeting of the American 

 oriental society, held in the hall of the American 

 academy, Boston, May 2, papers were read as fol- 

 lows : by T. O. Paine, on the Julian inscription of 

 Gerash; by L. Dickerman, on the Site of the Pithom 

 of Exodus i. 11; by B. S. Lyman, on the Japanese 

 Nigori of composition; by J. W. Jenks, Some remarks 

 on oriental genius; by W. D. A¥hitney, on the Jai- 

 miniya Brahmana; by J. Avery, on the Modes in 

 relative clauses in the Rig- Veda; by M. Bloorafield, 

 on Certain Vedic subjunctive forms; by D. G. Lyon, 

 Discussion of the question whether or not there was 

 a god El at the head of the Babylonian pantheon; 

 by I. H. Hall, on the Bronze crab inscription on the 

 New- York obelisk; by B. S. Lyman, on Certain Pe- 

 kingese sounds ; and by W. W. Rockhill, Translation 

 of two Buddhist Sutras. The society adjourned to 

 meet in New Haven in October. 



— M. Raoul Pictet has recently completed a small 

 steam-vessel designed to illustrate the advantages 

 possessed by a form of hull proposed by him to be 

 adopted for very high speeds, and has made prelimi- 

 nary trials on the waters of Lake Geneva. His boat 

 has a full, nearly square, midship section, with a flat 

 floor and sharply turned bilges, vertical topsides, a 

 sheer plan having a line of keel very nearly parabolic, 

 the vertex of the curve at the bow, and the maximum 

 ordinate at the rudder-post. The leading idea is to so 

 form the vessel that the water shall be displaced ver- 

 tically downward as far as possible, in order that the 



