70 



Stated Meeting, January 18. 

 Present, twenty -two members. 

 Mr. Du Ponceau, President, in the Chair. 

 The following donations were received: — 



FOR THE LIBRARY. 



Tijdschrift voor Natuurlijke Geschiedenis en Physiologie. Uitgegeven 

 door J. Van der Hoeven, M. D. Prof, te Leiden en W. H. de 

 Vriese, M. D. Prof, te Amsterdam. Ley den, 1838. — From the 

 Minister of the Interior of the Netherlands. 



Flora Batava, of afbeelding en beschrijving van Nederlandsche Ge- 

 wassen, door Jan Kops, en H. C. Van Hall. No. 115. Amster- 

 dam. — From the same. 



Verzeichniss der Koniglich Sachsischen Gem'alde-Galerie zu Dres- 

 den, von Friedrich Matthai, Director etc. Dresden, 1837. — 

 From Mr. Thomas Sully. 



Letter from the Secretary of War, the Hon. Lewis Cass, transmit- 

 ting Captain Turnbull's Report on the Survey and Construction 

 of the Alexandria Aqueduct. Document of the House of Re- 

 presentatives, No. 459. 1838. — From. Col. J . J . Abert. 



The Committee appointed to describe the Coins and Medals 

 presented by Colonel Linah, reported and was discharged. 



Professor A. D. Bache and Mr. Walker were added to the 

 Committee on the Observatory. 

 - Mr. John Vaughan was elected Librarian. 



The Standing Committees for the year were appointed. 



Professor A. D. Bache made a verbal communication rela- 

 tive to an extraordinary instance of the rapid corrosion of a 

 chain cable in sea-water, reported to him by Lieutenant George 

 M. Bache, of the United States Navy, and showed the Society 

 a link from a portion of the cable. 



The chain cable, of which this was a part, was used to anchor the 

 Light-boat off Bartlett's reef, near New-London, Connecticut. The 

 portion between the hawse-hole and the bridle of the anchors, about 

 eleven fathoms in length, is particularly exposed to corrosion. In a 



