452 RECORDS. 



Chapter I, to add Article 4 : " The number of Fellows shall 

 be limited to 100." 



Chapter V, Article I, to add : '' Past Presidents of the Acad- 

 emy, residents of New York City, shall be advisory members 

 of the Council, with a right to be present at the meetings and 

 to serve on committees, but without vote. They shall be 

 notified of all meetings." 



The Section of Astronomy and Physics then organized. 



James F. Kemp, 



Secretary. 



SECTION OF ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS. 

 February 7, 1898. 



The meeting was called to order with Mr, P. H. Dudley in 

 the chair, twenty-one members and guests being present. The 

 reading of the minutes of the last meeting was omitted, and 

 the section proceeded with the programme of the evening. 



H. Jacoby took the chair ; and P. H. Dudley read a paper, 

 illustrated by lantern views, entitled The Use of the Dudley 

 Stremmatograph for Determining the Strains Produced 

 IN Rails by Moving Trains." He described the use of the 

 instrument in recording tensional and compressive stresses 

 in steel rails under various kinds of traffic, and stated that 

 much greater stresses exist in steel rails than are commonly 

 supposed to be caused by locomotives and cars standing on or 

 moving over them. After a few supplementary remarks in reply 

 to questions, Mr. Dudley resumed the chair, and W. S. Day 

 read a paper entitled Recent Experiments Concerning the 

 Specific Heat of Water. He discussed the results obtained 

 by Rowland, Schuster, Bartoli, Griffiths and Miculescu, in 

 measuring the mechanical equivalent of heat, and compared the 

 results obtained by these scientists by means of curves. The 

 paper was discussed by W. Hallock, H. Jacoby and others. 

 After a few concluding remarks by Professor Jacoby, the meet- 

 ing adjourned. 



R. Gordon, 



Secretary of Seetiuii. 



