494 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
The new members are : 
Louis Denton Bliss. Charles Matthews Manly. 
Thomas Jefferson Jackson See. Robert Henry Strother. 
Milton Updegraff. 
The following members were transferred from the active to the 
absent list: 
Rogers Birnie. Rene de Saussure. 
The following members resigned membership : 
Walter Hough. Daniel Webster Prentiss. 
The General Committee held 15 meetings, at which the aver¬ 
age attendance was 11. 
The Society held 17 meetings, of which 14 were devoted to 
reading and discussion of papers, one to the President’s annual 
address, one to a banquet, and one to the annual meeting for 
reports and election of officers. The average attendance was 31, 
the largest being at a joint session with the Chemical Society on 
November 28, at which 100 were present. 
The 500th meeting of the Society was celebrated by a banquet 
at Rauscher’s, participated in by 39 members. 
Forty papers were presented by 25 members. Biographical 
notices of two deceased members were read as follows : 
George Brown Goode. Edward Goodfellow. 
Five papers were published during the year, viz: Recent 
progress in geodesy, by E. D. Preston ; Secular change in the 
direction of the terrestrial magnetic field, by G. W. Littlehales ; 
On the comparison of line and end standards, by L. A. Fischer ; 
Function of criticism in the advancement of science, by F. H. 
Bigelow ; Constitution, rules, and list of members. 
E. D. Preston, 
J. Elfreth Watkins, 
Secretaries . 
The report of the Treasurer was read, accepted, and referred 
to an auditing committee, consisting of Messrs. Brockett and 
Hayford, 
