American Association. 249 



by Jonah — all showing that there was a well understood standard, 

 and it is supposed that this standard was computed by the avoir- 

 dupois weight. The avoirdupois weight is supposed not to have 

 been introduced into England from Europe until 1335. Mr. 

 Gibbon then went on to speak of the standards of value established 

 at different times in the U. S. and British mints, stating that the 

 coin had a somewhat depreciated value, established by an arbi- 

 trary rule adopted for the purpose of convenience, as compared 

 with the original standard in Spain. According to the present 

 value of the ounce avoirdupois, the shekel would be worth 63 

 cents, or about an Enghsh half-crown. He then spoke of the 

 origin of the word dollar, which he derived from the Greek word 

 for image, the word coin being attributed to a similar de- 

 rivation. This derivation arose from the fact of coins being issued 

 from the temples, the image stamped upon them being a guarantee 

 of the purity and due weight of the coin. Mr. Gibbon then 

 made some remarks upon the relative value of gold and silver, 16 

 ounces of silver being equal to 1 of gold. He then went on to 

 speak of the certainty, drawn from observations already stated, 

 that a regular coinage must have existed in very early times, and 

 of the fact that some ancient process of mintage must have existed 

 of a simple and inexpensive nature, as it is known that wherever 

 there was a Greek colony there was a Greek coinage. A compa- 

 rison between the present process and that of the past induces a 

 conviction that the same means were adopted before the days of 

 Moses which were afterwards contrived by Sir Isaac Newton, 

 Master of the British mint during the reign of George the 1st. 

 The following quotation from Deuteronomy, chap. 25, v. 15, is 

 the conclusion of the paper : " Thou shalt have a perfect and a 

 just weight, and a perfect and a just measure shalt thou have, 

 that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord, 

 thy God, giveth thee." 



Our old nursery idea that fire will not burn well in sunlight, was 

 overthrown by Prof. Le Conte, in a paper on 



SOLAR INFLUENCE ON COMBUSTION. 



" He gave a sketch of various experiments tried by other scientific 

 men with regard to this subject. He then explained the experi- 

 ments by which he had endeavoured to ascertain whether the 

 influence of Solar light on combustion was such as had been 

 indicated by previous experiments, especially those of Dr. Mc- 

 Keever. The result of bis experiments was a negative one 



B 



