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SCIENCE. 
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
The National Academy of Sciences met on Tuesday, 
the 16th inst., at Columbia College, New York city, and 
continued in session during the three following days. 
The President, Dr. William B. Rogers, was prevented by 
sickness from being present, and the chair was occupied 
by Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, the Vice- 
President of the Society. 
Among the members present were : John H. C. 
Coffin, U. S. N.; Professor George F. Barker, Philidel- 
phia; James Hall, Albany ; Samuel H. Scudder, Cam- 
bridge, Mass.; Professor Charles F. Chandler, Columbia 
College; Professor Walcott Gibbs, Cambridge, Mass.; 
J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford ; J. Sterry Hunt, Mon- 
treal ; Professor B. Silliman, Yale College ; Professor E. 
C. Pickering. Cambridge, Mass.; Professor C. A. Young, 
Princeton ; Louis M. Rutherford, New York ; E. H. F. 
Peters, Hamilton College ; Edward S. Morse, Salem, 
Mass.; Professor Edward D. Cone, Philadelphia; 
Professor H. A. Newton, New Haven ; Professor 
Alfred M. Meyer, Hoboken ; Professor J. S. Newberry, 
Columbia School of Mines ; Professor Henry Morton, 
Hoboken ; Professor John W. Draper, Hastings, N. Y. 
Professor Ogden N. Rood, and Professor Eggleston, 
New York; Professor S. F. Baird, Washington; Pro- 
fessor Wdliam H. Brewer, of Yale College, and 
Professor A. Guyot, of Princeton, N. J.; Professor 
George J. Brush, of New York. 
Prolessor Marsh, after calling the Academy to order, 
stated that the present session was for the reading 
of scientific papers only. 
We postpone until next week the report of the papers 
read at this meeting of the Academy, to enable authors 
to prepare abstrac's, or correct those already rendered. 
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The Anthropological Society of Washington met 
November 16, in the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. J. Mere- 
deth Toner in the chair. Two papers were read : “ Ab- 
original Remains in the Valiev of the Shenandoah 
River,” by Dr. Elmer R. Reynolds, and “ Tuckahoe or 
Indian Bread-root,” by Professor J. Howard Gore. Dr. 
Reynolds was one of a company sent out last Summer 
to examine the celebrated Luray cave. While upon this 
journey he was so fortunate as to discover in the vicinity 
of Luray a group of three very interesting mounds, one 
of which he examined in person and received the report 
of the exploration of others from some of the residents 
of the valley. The tumulus opened by Dr. Reynolds 
was identical in its strata with many opened in the 
Mississippi valley, and refutes the oft-repeated theory 
that no mounds are to be found on waters emptying into 
the Atlantic ocean. Tnere were in this mound forty- 
three chipped implements, four tablets, pieces of pottery, 
four plates of mica, charred bones (indicative of crema- 
tion), quartz crystals, lumps of white quar zite and rude 
flakes. These objects were grouped about the head of the 
buried chieftain. 
In regard to the second paper, Mr. Gore first men- 
tioned the circumstances which suggested the subject 
for investiga’ion, and the unsettled condition of the 
various theories now held concerning the nature and 
use of Tuckahoe. The early writers attributed to it 
great nutritive qualities, and nearly every author writ- 
ing upon the subject since then has made the same 
assert’on. In order to determine its exact value as an 
article of sustenance to the Indians, it was necessary to 
ascertain the geographical distribution, and the pre- 
valence of Tuckahoe in those localities. 
This was accomplished by sending circulars of inquiry 
through the Smithsonian Institution to nearly every 
Cryptogamic Botanist in the United States, to the news- 
papers along the Atlantic coast and in the Mississippi 
valley. 
It is found that it is more or less abundant in the 
States from New Jerssy to Florada, in Kansas and 
Arkansas. 
The question “Does its growth depend upon circum- 
stances always existing? “was answered by giving an 
outline of the process of its development, and specimens 
were exhibited by way of proof. Likewise the means by 
which it could have been found by the natives, if its value 
as food was sufficient to pay for the trouble. 
Its exact nutritive value was determined by an elabo- 
rate analysis made by Dr. Parsons, which gave only 
three-fourths of one per cent, of nitrogenous matter ; this 
being insufficient to repair the waste in the animal tis- 
sues it was pronounced valueless as food. 
The speaker then sugges'ed that there must have been 
other roots or tubers called Tuckahoe, and quoted from 
a number of histories, showing that a root by this name 
was frequently described, which was entirely diffc-rent 
from the one in question, finally succeeding in identify- 
ing five roots, which were once known as Tuckahoe, or 
similar to roots known as such. Also the derivation of 
the word Tuckahoe given the speaker by the distinguished 
Ethnologist, Dr. Trumbull, shows that it is from " pluck- 
qui,” meaning something round, or rounded, and not 
from a word meaning bread as heretofore supposed. 
The conclusion then given was, that Tuckahoe was a 
term applied to all roots which were rendered esculent 
by cooking, until all of these, except Pachyma cocos, 
received a special name, this alone retaining the appella- 
tion Tuckahoe; and that when we read of Tuckahoe 
contributing so largely towards the support of the abori- 
gines, we can only know that an edible root was referred 
to. The paper was illustrated by six large charts, giv- 
ing twelve Botanical Synonyms, eight Affinities, five 
roots once known as Tuckahoe ; an analysis of one of 
these, showing that it was nutritious, ten Indian Syno- 
nyms, and an analysis of Tuckahoe. 
ASTRONOMY. 
THE VELOCITY OF LIGHT. 
Vol. I, Part III, of the “ Astronomical Papers pre- 
pared for the use of the American Ephemeris and Nauti- 
cal Almanac,” containing the experiments upon the 
velocity of light, made by Master A. A. Michelson, U. S. 
N., has just been published. Mr. Michelson read a 
paper upon this subj-ct at the St. Louis meeting of the 
American A'soci ition in 1878, and has since published 
the results of his work in the American fournal of 
Science, Third Series, vol. 18, page 390, so that his 
method of investigation (an improved form of Foucault’s 
method) may be considered not unfamiliar. In brief 
this method is as follows : A beam of light is allowed to 
pass through a slit and to fall upon the face of a mirror 
free to move about a vertical axis. From this free 
mirror the light passes through a lens of long focus, 
and falls upon a fixed plane (or slightly concave) mirror, 
from which it is returned through the lens to the movable 
mirror, and thence, if tne mirror is at rest, to the slit. If, 
however, the movable mirror is made to revolve rapidly, 
the light will not return directly to the slit, but will be 
deviated by a certain amount which depends upon the 
time it takes the light to transverse twice the space be- 
tween the mirrors, and also upon the distance through 
which the mirror has revolved during that time. 
It is upon the accuracy of the measurement of this 
displacement that the value of the determination largely 
depends ; and to render the displacement as great as 
possible, Mr. Michelson placed the revolving mirror 
within the principal focus of the lens, and increased the 
speeed of rotation. The leps, having a focal length of 
1 50 feet, was at a distance of about 80 feet from the re- 
