SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 95 



established the gohl dollar piece as the standard unit of value and the 

 touchstone for all other kinds of monej', but has done nothing or worse 

 than nothing towards regulating or fixing its value. The value of 

 money, like that of every other article of commerce, is subject to the 

 law of supply and demand, which is as much a natural law as that of 

 gravitation. 



Interest is the premium paid for the use of money, and the rate of 

 interest indicates the ratio between the supply of and demand for 

 money. There is no fixed value to money while interest varies as to time 

 or place. A variable rate of interest is not creditable to a just money 

 system. Fixity in value and elasticity in volume to meet the demands 

 of commerce are prime requisites of a scientific money system. In place 

 of this we have elasticity in value to meet the demands of money- 

 lenders, to whom is intrusted the only means of regulating both the 

 value and the volume of money — the issue of coined credit — paper money, 

 now used under a special license of the government, as a device for 

 charging interest on what the money-lenders owe. Coiigress should re- 

 claim these sovereign prerogatives from the states and the banking 

 associations and, coining all the credit as well as the metal money, pro- 

 vide means for its issue to the people at a just and fixed rate of interest 

 and compel all other money-lenders to conform to the same rate, leaving 

 the demands of commerce alone to determine tlie volume. 



The lecture was followed by an interesting discussion, after which 

 the meeting stood adjourned. 



B. E. BAUMGARDT, Secretary. 



ASTRONOMICAL SECTION. 



Septeml)er 21, 190.3. 



Chairman Knight introduced the exercises of the evening by a 

 brief discussion of tlie facts relative to Borelly's comet, recently ob- 

 served, illustrating his remarks by a diagram on the blackboard. 



The discussion was pai'ticipatod in l_iy Mr. Baumgardt and Prof. 

 Larkin. 



Mr. Knight also gave some interesting facts relative to the return 

 of Brooks' comet, the most striking fact being that, notwithstanding 

 the absence of the comet for the past seven years, it was discovered 

 within five minutes of arc of the place at which it was predicted to 

 appear, a remarkable illustration of the accuracy of astronomical cal- 

 culations. 



(Jhairman Knight tlien took up the question of the white spot on 

 Saturn, showing that its apparent motion on the surface of the planet, 

 as observed by Prof. Barnard, had introduced a doubt as to the time 

 of rotation of the planet, which, however, is still believed to lie be- 

 tween ten and eleven hours. 



Prof. Larkin was then introduced and proceeded to address the Sec- 

 tion on Ether and Gravitational Matter through space. His remarks 



