56 



ment at the Source of the River St. Croix to the River St. John, 

 Surveyed in 1840 and 1841, under the direction of Major J. D. 

 Graham, U. S. Top. Engineers, 6sc. &c. Two Copies. — From 

 the same. 



Second Report of the Manufacture of Iron; addressed to the Gover- 

 nor of Maryland. By J. H. Alexander, late Topographical En- 

 gineer of the State. Printed by order of the Senate. Annapolis, 

 1844. Bvo. — From the Author. 



Miscellanies. By Stephen Collins, M.D. Philadelphia, 1842. 12mo. 

 From the Author. 



ADDITION TO THE LIBRARY BY PURCHASE. 



Astronomische Nachrichten. Nos. 493 and 494. Altona, January 

 6 and 13, 1844. 4to. 



Mr. Kane announced the death of Professor Sanderson, a 

 member of the Society, who died on the fifth of April, at the 

 age of 58; and, on motion, Professor Hart was appointed to 

 deliver an obituary notice of the deceased. 



Professor Hart stated, for the information of the Society, that 

 a Committee of the Controllers of the High School had re- 

 solved to mount the transit instrument in the Observatory of 

 that Institution. 



Dr. Hays, on the part of the Committee of Publication, pre- 

 sented the first part of the ninth volume of the Transactions of 

 the Society, and drew attention to its important contents and 

 improved appearance. 



Professor Henry made a verbal communication relative to 

 the cohesion of liquids. 



He stated that very erroneous ideas are given as to the constitution 

 of matter in the ordinary books on Natural Philosophy. The passage 

 of a body from a solid to a liquid state is generally attributed to the 

 neutralization of the attraction of cohesion by the repulsion of the 

 increased quantity of heat; the liquid being supposed to retain a small 

 portion of its original attraction, which is shown by the force neces- 

 sary to separate a surface of water from water in the well known ex- 

 periment of a plate suspended from a scale beam over a vessel of the 

 liquid. It is, however, more in accordance with all the phenomena 

 of cohesion to suppose, instead of the attraction of the liquid being 

 neutralized by the heat, that the effect of this agent is merely to neu- 



