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SCIENCE. 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The National Academy of Sciences met on Tuesday, 

 the 16th inst., at Columbia College, New York city, and 

 continued in session during- the three following- days. 

 The President, Dr. William B. Rogers, was prevented by 

 sickness from being present, and the chair was occupied 

 by Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, the Vice- 

 President of the Society. 



Among- the members present were : John H. C. 

 Coffin, U. S. N.; Professor George F. Barker, Philadel- 

 phia; James Hall, Albany ; Samuel H. Scudder, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass.; Professor Charles F. Chandler, Columbia 

 College ; Professor Walcott Gibbs, Cambridge. Mass.; 

 J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford ; J. Sterry Hunt, Mon- 

 treal ; Professor B. Silliman, Yale College ; Professor E. 

 C. Pickering. Cambridge, Mass.; Professor C. A. Young, 

 Princeton ; Louis M. Rutherford, New York ; E. H. F. 

 Peters, Hamilton College ; Edward S. Morse, Salem, 

 Mass.; Professor Edward D. CoDe, Philadelphia; 

 Professor H. A. Newton, New Haven ; Professor 

 Alfred M. Meyer, Hoboken ; Professor J. S. Newberry, 

 Columbia School of Mines ; Professor Henry Morton, 

 Hoboken ; Professor John W. Draper, Hastings, N. Y. 

 Professor Ogden N. Rood, and Professor Eggleston, 

 New York ; Professor S. F. Baird, Washington ; Pro- 

 fessor William H. Brewer, of Yale College, and 

 Professor A. Guyot, of Princeton, N. J.; Professor 

 George J. Brush, of New York. 



Professor Marsh, after ca'ling the Academy to order, 

 stated that the present session was for the reading 

 of scientific papers only. 



We postpone until next week the report of the papers 

 read at this meeting of the Academy, to enable authors 

 to prepare abstracts, or correct those already rendered. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The Anthropological Society of Washington met 

 November 16, in the Smithsonian Insti'ution, Dr. J. Mere- 

 deth Toner in the chair. Two papers were read : " Ab-> 

 original Remains in the Vallev of the Shenandoah 

 River," by Dr. Elmer R. Reynolds, and " Tuckahoe or 

 Indian Bread-root," by Professor J. Howard Gore. Dr. 

 Reynolds was one of a company sent out last Summer 

 to examine the celebrated Luray cave. While upon this 

 journey he was so fortunate as to discover in the vicinity 

 of Luray a group of three very interesting mounds, one 

 of which he examined in person and received the report 

 of the exploration of others from some of the residents 

 of the valley. The tumulus opened by Dr. Reynolds 

 was identical in its strata with many opened in the 

 Mississippi valley, and refutes the oft-repeated theory 

 that no mounds are to be found on waters emptying into 

 th" Atlantic ocean. Tnere were in this mound forty- 

 three chipped implements, four tablets, pieces of pottery, 

 four plates of mica, charred bones (indicative of crema- 

 tion), quartz cnstals, lumps of white quar zite and rude 

 flakes. The^e objects were groups d about the head of the 

 bur'u rl chieftain. 



In regard to the second paper, Mr. Gore first men- 

 tioned the circumstances which suggested the subject 

 for investigation, and the unsettled condition of the 

 various theories now held concerning the nature and 

 use of Tuckahoe. The early writers attributed to it 

 great nutritive qualities, and nearly every author writ- 

 ing upon the subject since then has made the same 

 rtion. In order to determine its exact value as an 

 article of sustenance to the Indians, it was necessary to 

 tain the geographical distribution, and the pre- 

 valence of Tuckahoe in ilu.se localities. 



This was accomplished by sending circulars of inquiry 

 through the Smithsonian Institution to nearly ever) 

 Cryptogamic Botanist in the United States, to the news- 



papers along the Atlantic coast and in the Mississippi 

 valley. 



It is found that it is more or less abundant in the 

 States from New Jerssy to Florada, in Kansas and 

 Arkansas. 



The question " Does its growth depend upon circum- 

 stances always existing? "was answered by giving an 

 outline of the process of its development, and specimens 

 were exhibited by way of proof. Likewise the means by 

 which it could have been found by the natives, if its value 

 as food was sufficient to pay for the trouble. 



Its exact nutritive value was determined by an elabo- 

 rate analysis made by Dr. Parsons, which gave only 

 three-fourths of one per cent, of nitrogenous matter ; this 

 being insufficient to repair the waste in the animal tis- 

 sues it was pronounced valueless as food. 



The speaker then sugges'ed that there must have been 

 other roots or tubers called Tuckahoe, and quoted from 

 a number of histories, showing that a root by this name 

 was frequently described, which was entirely different 

 from the one in question, finally succeeding in identify- 

 ing five roots, which were once known as Tuckahoe, or 

 similar to roots known as such. Also the derivation of 

 the word Tuckahoe given the speaker by the distinguished 

 Ethnologist, Dr. Trumbull, shows that it is from " pluck- 

 qui," meaning something round, or rounded, and not 

 from a word meaning bread as heretofore supposed. 



The conclusion then given was, that Tuckahoe was a 

 term applied to all roots which were rendered esculent 

 by cooking, until all of these, except Pachyma cocos, 

 received a special name, this alone retaining the appella- 

 tion Tuckahoe ; and that when we read of Tuckahoe 

 contributing so largely towards the support of the abori- 

 gines, we can only know that an edible root was referred 

 to. The paper was illustrated by six large charts, giv- 

 ing twelve Botanical Synonyms, eight Affinities, five 

 roots once known as Tuckahoe ; an analysis of one of 

 these, showing that it was nutritious, ten Indian Syno- 

 nyms, and an analysis of Tuckahoe. 



ASTRONOMY. 



THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT. 



Vol. I, Part III, of the " Astronomical Papers pre- 

 pared for the use of the American Ephemeris and Nauti- 

 cal Almanac," containing the experiments upon the 

 velocity of light, made by Master A. A. Michelson, U. S. 

 N., has just been published. Mr. Michelson read a 

 paper upon this subj-ct at the St. Louis meeting of the 

 American Association in 1878, and has since published 

 the results of his work in the American 'Journal of 

 Science, Third Series, vol. 18, page 390, so that his 

 method of investigation (an improved form of Foucault's 

 method) may be considered not unfamiliar. In brief 

 this method is as follows : A beam of light is allowed to 

 pass through a slit and to fall upon the face of a mirror 

 free to move about a vertical axis. From this free 

 mirror the light passes through a lens of long focus, 

 and tails upon a fixed plane (or sl'ghtly concave) mirror, 

 from which it is returned through the lens to the movable 

 mirror, and thence, if tne mirror is at rest, to the slit. If, 

 however the movable mirror is made to revolve rapidly, 

 the light will not return directly to the slit, but will be 

 deviated by a certain amount which depends upon the 

 time it takes the light to transverse twice the space be- 

 tween the mirrors, and also upon the distance through 

 which the mirror has revolved during that time. 



It is upon the accuracy of the measurement of this 

 displacement that the value of the determination largely 

 depends ; and to render the displacement as great as 

 possible, Mr. Michelson placed the revolving mirror 

 within the principal focus of the lens, and increased the 

 speeed of rotation. The lens, having a focal length of 

 1 50 feet, was at a distance of about 80 feet from the re- 



