af 
416 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [June, 
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SclENcES.—This body convened in 
Washington at the Smithsonian Institution, on Tuesday, April 16, 
and remained in session four days, adjourning on Friday the roth. 
The following papers were read before it: 
“ Formation and Structure of Alacrane Reef in the Yucatan 
Bank,” by Prof. Alexander Agassiz, of Harvard College, Cam- 
bridge, Mass.; the Theory of Water-Spouts,’ by Mr. William 
Ferrel, of the United States Coast Survey; “ Report on the 
Orbits of the Satellites of Mars,” by Professor Asaph Hall, of 
the Naval Observatory; Mr. Raphael Pumpelly read a paper 
on “the Relation of Loess and Drift to Secular Disintegration ; ” 
“the Characteristic Invertebrate Forms of the Central Zoo- 
Geographical Province ” by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr. rf B 
Hilgard, on “ An: Optical Ocean Salinometer.” ‘“ Plan -fog 
Measuring the Velocity of Light,’ by Prof. Simon New- 
comb, of Washington; “On the Force of Effective ae i 
Action, ” by Prof. Wm. A. Norton, of New Haven, Conn.; “ Re- 
marks on the value of the result obtained for the Bae: Paralia 
from the English Telescopic Observations,” by Prof. C. H. F. 
Peters, of Clinton, N. Y.; “On the Vertebrate Sw of the 
Permian Period of the United States, by Prof. E. D. Cope, of 
Philadelphia, Pa.; “ On the discovery of Oxygen in the Sun,” by 
Dr. Henry Draper, of New York City; “ On Complex Inorganic 
Acids, by Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, of Harvard University, Mass. ; “ On 
improvements in methods of deep sea dredging, by Mr. Alexan- 
der Agassiz; “ On Boyle’s and Mariottes Laws,” by Prof. Wolcott 
Gibbs ; “ On the Abrasions of the N. W. Coast of America,” by 
Prof. Geo. Davidson, of San Francisco, Cal.; Photometric com- 
parison of the Components of Close Double Stars,” by Prof. E. 
C. Pickering, of Cambridge, Mass.; “On the Duplication of 
Geographical Names,” by Dr. F. V. ' Hayden, of Washington; 
“ Characteristics of some of the Lower Spectral tanes, by Prof. 
S. P. Langley, of Allegheny, Pa.; “A New Element of the 
Cerium Group, Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, Kec se 
the Primary Zoo-Geographical Divisions of the Globe and ee 
Relations,” by Dr. Theodore Gill, of Washington; “On the 
Law 
ws Governing the Movements of the Rocky Mountain Locusts,” 
by Prof. C. V. Riley, Entomologist of the Department of Agri- _ 
culture; ‘Photometric Measures of Certain Faint Stars and 
Satellites,” -by Prof. on C. Pickering; “ Recent Displacements in 
. K. Gilber 
At the conclusion of Mr. Gilbert’s paper, the Secretary read 
-the address of the venerable and revered President, Professor 
iss cp no notice on the paper whence came the inner 
_. Satellite of Mars?” read at the October session, 1877, by t 
- venerable iep Stephen Alexander, of the Coll ege of New 
J. 
Fey, Princeton, N 
