the investigation for which it (the Henry Draper medal) is awarded, or the completed publication thereof, shall have been made since the time of the last preceding award and presentation of said medal." In consequence, the committee recommends the award to Professor Pickering, for the specific investigations in stellar photometry and photography above mentioned, which have been made since the month of April, 1885, the time of the last preceding award and presentation of said medal. This comprises, it is believed, the whole of the photographic work done at the Harvard College Observatory, and a large and important part of the photometric work. In the opinion of the committee, Professor Pickering has displayed in these researches a skill, ingenuity, and vigor which entitle him to an honorable place among the scientific men of our own or any previous age. All of which is respectfully submitted. GEORGE F. BARKER, WOLCOTT GIBBS, SIMON NEWCOMB, CHARLES A. YOUNG, ARTHUR W. WRIGHT, Committee on the Henry Draper Medal. WASHINGTON, D. C., April 21, 1887. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE J. LAWRENCE SMITH MEDAL. To the National Academy of Sciences: In recognition of his eminent services in the investigation of the origin of meteors, the Academy, upon the unanimous recommendation of the committee on the Lawrence Smith medal, has awarded the first gold medal of this foundation to Prof. Hubert Newton, of New Haven. The report of the committee is as follows: Professor Newton's study of the subject has extended over a long series of years, and has led to results of very great popular interest as well as scientific importance. Meteors, in the sense in which the word is now used, have from the remotest ages attracted the attention of mankind. Observations of greater or less value have long been accumulating. Chemists had shown that meteoric bodies which fell upon the earth contained no element not already known as a constituent of the crust of the earth, but astronomy had not yet brought the wanderers of the heavens into a system, and shown that they are moving in definite orbits, and are not distributed by chance in the celestial spaces. Professor Newton's first paper was published in 1860, and was succeeded by a number of others. From a careful analysis of the early observations of the Arabo, going back to the year 902, as well as of modern observations, Professor Newton showed that the connection between the November star-showers of 1799 and 1833 had been concealed by the fact that the day of the shower was moving from October 12, A. D. 902, to November 13, 1833. The shower was thus traced back over nine hundred years, and the persistence of the thirty-three year period was distinctly shown. It was also proved that the paths in which the meteors are moving about the sun must be one of five sharply-defined orbits. A method of deciding which of these was the true one was suggested. Professor Adams, of Cambridge (England), then showed in the manner indicated which orbit was the correct one, and so prepared the way for proving beyond question, as soon as Oppolzer published the orbit of the comet of 1886, that this comet and the November meteors belonged to one system. Schiaparelli had first shown that the August meteors belonged to the same system as another comet. In a memoir on shooting-stars, published in the memoirs of the National Academy (read August 6, 1864), Professor Newton for the first time proved that the orbits of these bodies are not approximately circular like those of the planets, but that they resemble more the parabolic orbits of comets. This was the first step toward the establishment of a relationship between comets and meteors. In the same memoir, Professor Newton undertook to show how many shooting-stars enter the air each day. The result of the discussion was the number 7,500,000, but later observations increase this number materially, and perhaps even double it. Another interesting and suggestive question also considered was this-as the earth moves round the sun, how thickly filled with meteorites is the space which it traverses? To this question the answer given is, as a first approximation, 13,000 in each unit of space. of the size of the earth itself. In a subsequent paper, Professor Newton made an attempt to determine whether comets come originally from the solar system or from outside of it. The investigation was based upon observed facts, and the results obtained are still under consideration by astronomers. The argument that the meteoric stones of our cabinets were all fragments of comets was again brought out in a lecture delivered at the Sheffield Scientific School. This again was followed by a paper on the effect upon the earth's velocity produced by small bodies passing near the earth. In this paper it is shown that while small bodies which pass near the earth but do not meet it have a real effect in stopping the earth or the moon, this effect is much too small to be sensible. In a discussion of the Biela meteors of November 27, 1885, Professor Newton, among other facts, brought out the very interesting and important one that the meteors left the comet since 1840, and that the disintegration of the comets furnishing meteor streams is a more rapid process than has been usually supposed.* In a paper read before the National Academy of Sciences, April 19, 1888, Professor Newton has further established the following propositions: (1) The meteorites which we have in our cabinets, and which were seen to all, In the judgment of the committee these researches are of a very high order of merit and of interest. WOLCOTT GIBBS, GEORGE J. BRUSH, RAPHAEL PUMPELLY, ASAPH HALL, LEWIS M. RUTHERFURD, Committee on the J. Lawrence Smith Medal. TREASURER'S REPORT. The treasurer presented the following report, which had been examined by the auditing committee, Messrs. Meigs, Hague, and Abbe, and approved: 1. General account, April 20, 1887, to April 17, 1883. Balance April 20, 1887. Fees for 1887.. RECEIPTS. Interest on $500 District of Columbia bonds, 3.65 per cent. $167.46 480.00 18.26 83.27 748.99 535.43 Balance on hand April 17, 1888 213.56 Available balance 798.56 were originally (as a class, and with a very small number of exceptions) moving around the sun in orbits that had inclinations less than 90-; that is, their motions were direct and not retrograde. (2) The reason why we have only this class of stones in our collections is not one wholly or even mainly dependent on the habits of men, nor on the times when men are out of doors, nor on the places where men live, nor on any other principle of se lection acting at or after the arrival of the stones at the ground. Either the stones which are moving in the solar system across the earth's orbit move in general in direct orbits, or else, for some reason, the stones which move in retrograde orbits do not in general come through the air to the ground in solid form. (3) The perihelion distances of nearly all the orbits in which these stones moved were not less than 0.5, nor more than 1.0, the earth's radius-vector being unity. 2. The Bache trust fund. RECEIPTS. Balance on hand April 20, 1887. Interest on $42,100 United States bonds at 44 per cent Total receipts..... $2,350.73 1,894.48 154.00 54.74 4,453.95 DISBURSEMENTS. Professor Newcomb, photographing eclipse of sun in Japan .......... $2,000.00 500.00 DISBURSEMENTS. T C. Chaplain, Newton medal Balance April 17, 1883 JOHN S. BILLINGS, Treasurer National Academy of Sciences. $202.90 939.10 The following report of the committee appointed to examine the securities held by the Academy was read and approved. WASHINGTON, D. C., April 18, 1888. The committee, Messrs. Remsen and Wright, appointed to examine the securities in the hands of the treasurer, report that they have examined the said securities and find that they are as follows: Deed for 160 acres of Missouri lands to A. D. Bache, not transferred to the Academy. 3. Invested income of the Bache fund. District of Columbia 3.65 bonds 4. Joseph Henry fund. An agreement with the Pennsylvania Company for insurance on lives and granting annuities, as to the final disposition of the Joseph Henry fund of $40,000. The above will not be available until the decease of all of Professor Henry's children. $1,500 5. Watson trust fund. United States 44 per cent. bonds, registered.... $6,200 United States 4 per cent. bonds, registered 850 6,700 13,750 6. Henry Draper Medal fund. United States 4 per cent. bonds, registered 5,000 Deed of trust of Mary Anna Palmer Draper to the National Academy of 7. J. Lawrence Smith Medal fund. United States 44 per cent. bonds, registered 7,200 Deed of trust of Sarah Julia Smith to the National Academy of Sciences. Amount of available securities...... 75, 500 |