1879. ] Scientific News. 409 
ington, D.C.; Lester Curtis, M: D., Chicago, Ill.; the San Fran- 
cisco society is represented on the committee, though not yet 
by a western man. The committee is already engaged in discus- 
sion of the large number of reports and letters that have been re- 
ceived on the subject. 
Leap CELts.—Cells may be made readily, and at small ex- 
pense, from the thin sheets of lead with which tea boxes are 
ordinarily lined. This material may be obtained from any grocer, 
and is prepared expeditiously by the following method: It should 
‘ be smoothed by rubbing and slightly moistened with water, so 
that when placed upon a turn table it will adhere sufficiently to 
be marked with a lead pencil. Using thin glass covers as patterns 
sharp point of a penknife. The rings thus formed may be fixed 
upon the slide with cement, and the depth of the cell increased 
by placing several of these upon each other, allowing a sufficient 
interval for partial drying. Shallow cells in particular are formed 
with the greatest ease by this method, and they seem to be dura- 
ble.—M. A. Veeder, Lyons, N. Y. 
[Cells of paper or cardboard are made with great success in the 
same way, on the modern turntables. Tin or lead cells are gen- 
erally attached to the slide with Kill’s cement or shellac varnish. 
—Ep] . 
—:0: — 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— The National Academy of Sciences, held its spring session. 
in Washington, commencing April 15th. A number of impor- 
tant papers were read, and election for officers was held. This re- 
sulted in the election of Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, of Boston, as presi- 
dent, and Prof. O. C. Marsh as vice-president; Prof. J. H.C. Coffin, 
home secretary; Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, foreign secretary; Fair- 
man Rogers, treasurer; Professors Baird, Agassiz, Newcomb, W. 
‘Gibbs and A. Hall, and General M. C. Meigs, members of council. 
The new members of the Academy elected at this meeting are 
Prof. Cleveland Abbe, distinguished for his researches in meteor- 
ology; Prof. J. W. Farlow, botanist, of Harvard University; Dr. 
Horatio C. Wood, of Philadelphia, prominent in biology; and 
Prof. J. Willard Gibbs, of New Haven, a student of mathematical 
physics. The following are among the papers read : S. H. Scudder, 
The Palzozoic cockroaches; S. Weir Mitchell, The relations of 
neuralgic pains to storms and to the earth’s magnetism; Joseph 
LeConte, On the extinct volcanoes about Lake Mono, and their 
relations to the glacial drift; E. D. Cope, On the extinct species 
of the rhinoceros and allied forms, of North America; E. W. Hil- 
gard, The loess of the Mississippi and the zolian hypothesis; G. 
K. Gilbert, On the stability and instability of drainage lines; C. V. 
Riley, The hybernations and migrations of Aletia argillacea (the 
parent of the cotton worm); A. Agassiz, Report on dredgings in 
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