496 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



IV. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. National Academy of Sciences. — The following is a list of 

 the papers presented at the meeting held at Columbia College, 

 New York, Nov. 8-10, 1887. 



T. C. Mendenhall : Seisinoscopes and Seismological investigations. 



E. D. Cope : On the primary specializations of the True Fishes ; On the me- 

 chanical origin of the structures of the hard parts of the Mammalia. 



Wm. A. Rogers: A study of the behavior of metals under variations of tem- 

 perature. 



T. Sterry Hunt: Chemism in its relations to temperature and pressure; Pro- 

 gressive series in Chemistry. 



J. D. Dana: Kilauea, a Basalt Volcano. 



Henry Mitchell: Circulation of the Sea through New York Harbor. 



Ogden N. Rood : On a study of Color Contrast. 



W. K. Brooks: Ou the relative variability of men and women; On a new form 

 of reproduction in Medusae; On the Lucayan Indians. 



A. M. Mayer: Experiments in measurements of statical electricity in absolute 

 units ; On Potential as measured by work, a mathematical discussion. 



Theo. Gill: A comparison of Antipodal Faunas. 



W. P. Trowbridge: On a discovery recently made in connection with the flight 

 of birds. 



E. C. Pickering : Ou the determination of star magnitudes by photography. 



A. Hall : On the constant of aberration. 



J. S. Newberry : The Cretaceous Coals of Western North America ; The future 

 of Gold and Silver Production. 



S. P. Langley: The Temperature of the Moon. 



A. A. Michelson and E. W. Morley : On a Method of making the wave-length 

 of Sodium light the absolute standard of length. 



OBITUARY. 



Gttstav Robert Kirchhoff, Professor of Physics at Berlin, 

 died on the 17th of October, in his 64th year. His death removes 

 from the ranks of physicists one who has long held a foremost 

 place and to whom the world of Science owes some of the most 

 important steps of progress it has made. His first paper was 

 published in 1845, and from that time until the later years of his 

 life, when his health was seriously impaired, his contributions 

 were numerous, varied in subject, and of a high order. First of 

 all in importance come his contributions to spectrum analysis, a 

 department of Physics largely created by him and by Prof. 

 Bunsen, his colleague at Heidelberg where the work was done; 

 this was in 1859 and 1860. Prior to this date his attention had 

 been largely devoted to electrical subjects, and his papers upon 

 Ohm's law, the discharge of the Leyden Jar and kindred topics, 

 are all of great value. Still another series was devoted to investiga- 

 tions on the equilibrium and motion of elastic solids, and his work 

 entitled Lectures on Dynamics (1876), is well known. A collec- 

 tion of his papers was issued at Leipzig in 1882. 



Oscar Harger, assistant in the Paleontological department of 

 Tale University, died on November 6th. A notice is deferred until 

 a later number. 



