648 RECORDS. 



forms not having lived long enough under ground to have lost 

 all color. It was shown that loss of coloration in pigmentation 

 was a slow process and had not yet been completed with these 

 forms. 



Lantern slides and drawings illustrated the paper. 



Mr. Harrington described the work of the expedition which was 

 directed to the lower Nile. The campaign of the E^nglish against 

 Khartum made it impossible to visit the upper Nile. Short 

 descriptions of a number of the fish of the region visited, and of 

 the method of fishing used by the natives were illustrated, to- 

 gether with the work of the party, by specimens and lantern 

 slides. 



A communication from Dr. Bashlord Dean was read recom- 

 mending Mr. Francis B. Sumner as the recipient of the grant 

 of the Newberr>^ Research Fund for 1899. This recommenda- 

 tion had previously been approved by the sectional committee 

 on nominations. 



Francis E. Lloyd, 



Secretary. 



SECTION OF ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS. 

 April 10, 1899. 



Section met at 8.15 P. M., Professor M. I. Pupin presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting of Section were read and ap- 

 proved. 



The following program was then offered : 



Cope Whitehouse, Solar Radiation. 



A. S. Chessin, On the Temperature of Gaseous Celestial 

 Bodies. 



W. C. Kretz, On the Positions and Proper Motions of 

 Stars in Coma Berenices, from Rutherfurd Photographs. 



Su.mmarv of Papers. 



In the second paper, Dr. Chessin showed that Dr. See's so- 

 called law, RT=:^ a constant, was not a law at all, and was the 

 result of erroneous calculations. He also called attention to the 

 calculations of A. Ritter on the same subject, in " Wiedemann's 



