IGl 



At tlie close of Mr. Gregory's lecture, remarks were called 

 forth from the chair, Messrs. George D. Phippen and Jacob 

 Batchelder. 



Voted, that the thanlcs of the Institute be tendered to Mr. 

 Gregory, for his interesting and instructive observations, with 

 a request that he prepare a paper upon this subject, to take its 

 place in the published Proceedings of the Institute. 



Voted, to adjourn. 



Friday, May 8, 185T. 



Evening Meeting at 8 o'clock — Henry F. King in the chair. 

 Records of the preceding meeting read. Donations were an- 

 nounced as follows : 



To the library — from E. C. Webster, R. Edwards, Timothy 

 Davis, M. C., William Brown, Mrs. L. P. Robinson. 



To the Cabinets — from J. C. Howard, and G. F. Read. 



A letter from the Boston Natural History Society was like- 

 wise read. 



Jacob Batchelder, chairman of Committee on certain queries 

 proposed to the Institute, in a letter from Rev. G. B. Perry, 

 of Groveland, and read at the Field Meeting, in North Danvers, 

 Sept. 13, 1856, submitted the following elaborate and interest- 

 ing Report, which being, on motion of H. J. Cross, accepted 

 and ordered to be filed for publication, is here inserted. 



To understand the causes of the various forms of the devel- 

 opment of Electricity, an accurate knowledge of the facts and 

 the circumstances of each event is necessary ; and when such 

 knowledge can be obtained, it is not impossible to refer all the 

 even local phenomena of electricity to a few general laws. 

 But the philosopher is not the only one to notice and to com- 

 ment upon such events, and in the midst of the excitement and 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. ii 21. 



