an Naturalist. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
United States National Academy of Sciences. — 
The annual stated session of the National Academy of Sciences 
was held in Washington, D. C, beginning Tuesday, April i6, 
1889, at II A. M. 
The following officers were elected to serve for six years: 
President, O. C. Marsh; Vice-President, S. P. Langley ; Home 
Secretary, Asaph Hall. 
Six members of the council of the academy were also chosen, 
those elected being Gen. F. A. Walker, Boston Mass., for- 
merly Commissioner of the Census Bureau; Gen. M. C. Meigs 
and Prof. Simon Newcomb, of Washington; Prof. Ira Rem- 
sen, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. ; Prof. G. J. 
Brush, New Haven, Conn., and Dr. B. A. Gould, Cambridge, Mass. 
New members of the academy were elected as follows: 
Prof. Sereno Watson, botanist, Cambridge, Mass. ; Prof. Lewis 
Boss, director Dudley Observatory, Albany, N. Y. ; Prof. C. 
S. Hastings, physics, Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven, 
Conn.; Prof. Arthur Michael, chemist. College Hill, Mass., 
Dr. C. A. White, United States Geological Survey. 
The following papers were read : 
On Composite Coronagraphy,' D. P. Todd, introduced by 
S. Newcomb; Notice on the Method and Results of a System- 
atic Study of the Action of Definitely Related Chemical Com- 
pounds upon Animals,' Wolcott Gibbs and Hobart Hare; On 
Sensations of Color,' C. S. Pierce ; Determinations of Gravity, 
C. S. Pierce; On the Pliocene Vertebrate Fauna of Western 
North America," E. D. Cope; On the North American Prob- 
oscidia,- E. D. Cope ; On the Mass of Saturn,' A. Hall, Jr., 
introduced by G. J. Brush ; On the Rate of Reduction of Nitro- ' 
compounds,' Ira Remsen; On Some Connection Between Taste 
and Chemical Composition,' Ira Remsen; Recent Researches 
in Atmospheric Electricity ,=■ T. C. Mendenhall ; Measurement 
by Light Waves,' A. A. Michelson ; On the Feasibility of the 
Establishment of a Light-wave as the Ultimate Standard of 
Length,* A. A. Michelson and E. W. Morley; On the Gener- 
al Laws pertaining to Stellar Variation/ S. C. Chandler; Re- 
view of the Trivial Names in Piazzi's Star Catalogue,' C. H. 
