57 

 Monday, February 4, 1861. 



Meeting this evening at 7.30 o'clock, A. 0. Goodell, Jr., 

 in the Chair. 



Records of preceding meeting read. 



Donations were announced as follows : 



To the Library — ^from L. A. Huguet-Latour of Montreal, 

 C.E.; New York State Library ; Editors of High School Ga- 

 zette ; John H. Stone. 



To the Cabinets — from James Bartlctt of Wenham ; Miss 

 Hannah G. Kimball. 



Letters were read from Chicago Historical Society ; Trus- 

 tees of New York State Library ; Maine Historical Society; 

 American Geographical and Statistical Society ; Henry R. 

 . Stiles of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; S. P. Fowler of Danvers. 



Moses G. Parmer read an interesting paper on the com- 

 bustion of coal — ^the amount of heat devolved from a given 

 quantity of the different varieties under similar influences. 

 This paper was considered a partial result of a series of ex- 

 periments in process of being performed. 



After some discussion, participated in by Messrs. Jacob 

 Batchelder, the chair and others ; — voted, that the thanks of 

 the Listitute be tendered to Mr. Farmer for his valuable 

 communication, and that he be requested to prepare the 

 results of his experiments for publication in the Proceeding's. 



H. Wheatland exhibited a piece of wood recently present- 

 ed by Mrs. T. Cole, purporting to be a piece of a coffin, in 

 which was deposited the remains of one of the victims of the 

 witchcraft delusion, and which was dug up by the late Hon. 

 Benj. Goodhue and Dr. Joseph Orne on Gallows Hill, on the 

 2d of May, 1783 ; also a letter from Jonathan Goodhue of 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. iii. 8. 



