688 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 383. 



Professor Robert Hemy Thurston, 

 Ithaca. 



Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens' 

 Institute, 1871-85; Director of Sibley College, Cor- 

 nell University, since 1885; first President of 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers; in- 

 ventor of various valuable mechanical devices; 

 author of about 20 volumes and some 300 scientific 

 papers. 



Benjamin Chew Tilghman, Philadel- 

 phia. 



Manufacturing chemist and student of chemistry 

 and physics; author of a monograph (as yet un- 

 published) on the chemical changes undergone by 

 bones in passing from the living to the fossil con- 

 dition. 



Professor Robert S. Woodward, New 

 York. 



Professor of Mechanics in Columbia University; 

 mathematician and astronomer of recognized emi- 

 nence; Past-President of the American Association 

 for Advancement of Science; President of Ameri- 

 can Mathematical Society, 1898-1900; Member of 

 the National Academy of Sciences; author of 

 numerous scientific papers on geodetic and astro- 

 nomical topics. 



FOEEIGN RESIDENTS. 



Antoine-Henri Becquerel, Paris, France. 



Member of the Institut de France — Acadfimie 

 des Sciences; the third in descent of the French 

 physicists of the name who have made themselves 

 famous by their researches in science; his work 

 has been chiefly in optics and magneto-optics; he 

 discovered the uranium emanations, now called by 

 his name, which led to the discovery of radium. 



Jean-Gaston Darboux, Paris, France. 



Perpetual Secretary of the Acadgmie des Sci- 

 ences — Section of Mathematics; eminent mathe- 

 matician and author of numerous valuable papers 

 on that subject. 



Sir Michael Foster, F.R.S., D.C.L., Cam- 

 bridge, Eng. 



Secretary of the Royal Society; Professor of 

 Physiology at Cambridge; Honorary Perpetual 

 President of the International Congress of Physi- 

 ologists; Chairman of the International Council 

 in charge of the International Catalogue of Scien- 

 tific Literature; President of British Association 

 for Advancement of Science, 1899; author of 

 ' Text-Book of Physiology,' and of other works ; 

 Joint-Editor of ' Scientific Memoirs of Thomas H. 

 Huxley.' 



Professor G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 

 London, Eng. 



Graduate of theUniversity of Dublin and Fellow 

 of Trinity College; formerly Astronomical Assist- 

 ant to the Earl of Rosse, at Parsonstown, and sub- 

 sequently Professor of Natural Philosophy in 

 Queen's University; his papers upon the 'Phys- 

 ical Constitution of the Sun and Stars/ on the 

 ' Internal Motion of Gases,' on ' Spectroscopy and 

 Microscopy ' have attracted universal attention. 



Professor Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., 

 London, Eng. 



Principal and Professor of Physics in City and 

 Guilds Technical College, Finsbury; a well-known 

 investigator in physics and an authority on elec- 

 trical subjects; author of sundry technical works 

 on electricity, and of ' Lectures on Light, Visible 

 and Invisible.' 



The sessions of the general meeting be- 

 gan on Thursday morning, April 5, in the 

 historic hall of the Society in Independ- 

 ence Square, with an address of welcome 

 by the president of the Society, General 

 Isaac J. Wistar, in which he pointed 

 out the broad and liberal character of 

 the Society as indicated by the plans of 

 its founder and the subsequent history of 

 the Society, and also the important part 

 which the Society has taken in the 'pro- 

 motion of useful knowledge.' This ad- 

 dress, which will be published in full else- 

 where, was followed by the presentation of 

 the following scientific papers, most of 

 which will appear in the Proceedings and 

 Transactions of the Society: 



Professor John B. Hatcher, of Pitts- 

 burgh, in a paper on the 'Origin of the 

 Oligocene and Miocene Deposits of the 

 Great Plains,' called attention to the great 

 deposits of bones at various localities in 

 the "White River beds. He described them 

 as literally covering the ground in places 

 where they have weathered out over areas 

 frequently of more than an acre in extent. 

 It is not only difficult, but Professor 

 Hatcher thinks impossible, to account for 

 these accumulations of bones of terrestrial 

 animals at the bottom and in the very 



