254 



1741. Mr. Street began his paper witb a minute account 

 of tbe constitution of tbe courts of law of tbat period, 

 giving personal sketcbes of tbe judges wbo occupied tbe 

 bencb. Tbe plot which created so mucb excitement, and 

 gave so mucb employment to tbe courts, first became 

 rumored in tbe spring of 1741. A rumor became prevalent 

 tbat a plot existed among tbe slaves of New York city to 

 burn tbe city and massacre tbe wbite inhabitants. The 

 occurence of several fires in rapid succession, and robberies 

 attending tbem, gave rise to tbe rumor. Mr. Street tben 

 described in detail tbe suspicions, arrests and trials arising 

 from tbese circumstances. Tbe excitement continued in all 

 during eighteen months, and 150 persons were committed 

 for connection with the conspiracy. 



As in all such panics, it appeared in the end that the 

 matter had been grossly exaggerated, and if there ever had 

 been any conspiracy among the negroes, it had never ex- 

 tended beyond a few desperate persons. 



On invitation of the president, Mr. Warner of New York, 

 who was present, gave some account of the ground to be 

 covered by the proposed Central park of New York city. 

 He also gave a description of the plan which he had sub- 

 mitted to the park commissioners for treating the various 

 portions of the ground in preparing it for the park. 



Mr. David E. E. Mix proposed to tbe Institute the fol- 

 lowing problem, witb a request for solutions for it, and 

 promising to furnish a simple general solution by his father, 

 Ebenezer Mix. 



Problem : — Three points, A, B and C, being given, their 

 distances apart being A, B, 60 ; B, C, 70 ; A, C, 90 ; re- 

 quired the location of a point, the aggregate distances from 

 which to the given points shall be a minimum. 



Dr. Hough described with the aid of blackboard dia- 

 grams, the appearance of a lunar halo seen by him at Phil- 

 adelphia, on the evening of April 27, 1858, at ]1 o'clock. 

 It consisted of a circle around the moon of the size of a 



