261 



that time the laws of falling bodies have been well known. 

 There are three things to be considered in the phenomenon, 

 the velocity, the time, and the space. The velocity is in 

 proportion to the time of the fall, and the space in propor- 

 tion to the square of the time. 



Mr. Paterson then gave his method of proving this last 

 law. It differed from the ordinary demonstration, in dis- 

 pensing with the use of infinitesimal increments of time and 

 space, which according to Mr. Paterson, invalidate the per- 

 fect rigorousness of the ordinary method. 



After Mr. Paterson's paper, Mr. French of Syracuse read 

 a paper giving an original method of developing the co- 

 efficients in the expansion of a binomial, in which each of 

 the quantities have coefficients. 



Adjourned. 



December 12, 1858. 



The Institute met according to adjournment ; the follow- 

 ing members being present : Messrs. Anthony, Cruikshank, 

 Gavit, Gould, Hickcox, Hough, Hun, Homes, Johnson, Moli- 

 nard, Munsell, Murray, Paterson, Pease, Pruyn, Redfield, 

 Yanderpoel, Yon Steinwehr and Willard. 



The president, J. Y. L. Pruyn, presided. 



Under election of members, James Hendrick was elected 

 a resident member of the Institute, and W. C. Minor was 

 proposed as a resident member. 



C. H. Anthony then read his paper, entitled, The Early 

 History of Sun Painting. He began by pointing out, that 

 although scarcely twenty years had yet elapsed since the 

 first announcement of this art, yet already its results may 

 be witnessed in every land. The experiments of Wedge- 

 wood and Davy failed to produce pictures, because they 

 could devise no method of fixing the pictures. The first 

 public announcement of a method of rendering sun pictures 

 permanent, was made by Daguerre. Shortly afterward Mr. 

 Talbot published his method, essentially different from that 

 of Daguerre. Prof. Anthony gave an account of both me- 



[Trans. iv.] 35 



