GENERAL MEETINGS. 
13 
301st Meeting. ' April 9, 1887. 
I 
The President in the Chair. 
Seventy-three members and guests present. 
Prof H. Carrington Bolton, of Hartford, Conn., read, by in¬ 
vitation, a paper on the 
COUNTING-OUT RHYMES OF CHILDREN, THEIR ANTIQUITY, ORIGIN 
AND WIDE DISTRIBUTION. 
[Published in a volume of same name by Elliot Stock, London. Also 
read before the New York Academy of Sciences.] 
This paper was discussed by Messrs. Eastman, Billings, Mus- 
SEY, Hazen, Ward, Mason, Edward Eggleston, Babcock, and 
by the author. In the course of the discussion several new rhymes 
were brought forward together with many interesting references to 
particular customs and formulse of speech. 
302d Meeting. April 23, 1887. 
The President in the Chair. 
Sixty members and guests present. 
Mr. Harkness presented a communication 
ON A DEVICE FOR VIEWING THE SUN BY LIGHT OF ANY DESIRED 
WAVE LENGTH. 
[Abstract.] 
If two precisely similar prisms are placed in contact, with their 
refracting angles facing in opposite directions, the outer surfaces of 
the combination will be parellel to each other, and light falling 
upon the first prism will emerge from the second parallel to its origi¬ 
nal direction and without suffering any dispersion whatever. So 
long as the two prisms remain in contact the combination is, in 
effect, a piece of thick piano-parallel glass, and objects seen through 
it present only their natural colors. If, however, the prisms are 
separated by a considerable interval a different action occurs. A 
