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might be entirely remedied by supplying an additional cup, n, Fig. 2,

Fig. 1.

within the other; the inner cup

being of such capacity that the

d

mercury expelled from the measuring-tube during an experiment would be certain to cause an overflow of mercury (no matter how little) from the inner into the outer cup. With such an arrangement it is obvious that at the time of measurement the inner cup would be always full of mercury, and consequently that the latter would always stand at the same level on the measuring-tube; hence that this level may be previously ascertained, once for all, and thus obviate the necessity of making this reading during an experiment. It will then only be required to make the single reading at the upper level of the mercurial column. The difference between this level and the constant level, previously

ascertained, at the top of the mercury in the inner cup, will give diFig. 2. rectly the height of the column of mercury, which, corrected for temperature, is to be deducted from that of the barometer to find the pressure to which the vapor is subjected.

P-

With this slight alteration of Bunsen's apparatus, it appears to me far preferable to the more complicated and expensive apparatus of Gay-Lussac. It has not only the advantage of greater simplicity, and of economy in the quantity of mercury required, but recommends itself also for its convenience, and the facility with which the vapor may be brought to and maintained at a constant tempera

ture.

Five hundred and sixty-sixth Meeting.

April 24, 1866. SPECIAL MEETING.

The PRESIDENT in the chair.

The President read a letter from Mr. Samuel F. Dalton, administrator of the estate of the late Jonathan P. Hall, transmitting to the Treasurer the sum of one hundred dollars, the bequest of Mr. Hall to the Academy, " to be expended in publishing its memoirs and transactions."

On the motion of Professor Lovering it was voted, That the thanks of the Academy be communicated to the representatives of Mr. Jonathan P. Hall for this acceptable bequest.

On the motion of Professor Bowen a committee of six was appointed to act with the Finance Committee on the subject of the purchase or lease of a Hall for the use of the Academy. The following gentlemen were appointed on this committee: Mr. Loring, Dr. J. Bigelow, Mr. E. B. Bigelow, Mr. J. A. Lowell, Mr. Andrews, and Professor Rogers.

Five hundred and sixty-seventh Meeting.

May 1, 1866. - SPECIAL MEETING.

The PRESIDENT in the chair.

Dr. J. Bigelow presented a report from the committee to consider the purchase or lease of rooms for the Academy.

On the motion of Professor Lovering it was voted to consider the subject of this report at the meeting to be held on the 8th of May; and the same committee was requested to investigate the subject further.

Mr. Loring was excused from further service on this committee, and Professor Eliot was appointed in his place.

Five hundred and sixty-eighth Meeting.

May 8, 1866.- MONTHLY MEETING.

The PRESIDENT in the chair.

The Corresponding Secretary read letters relative to exchanges; also letters from the Reverend Barnas Sears, President of Brown University, and from Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in acknowledgment of their election into the Academy.

Professor Lovering reported, from the Committee of Publication, that Volume VI. of the Proceedings had been completed and was ready for distribution.

On the motion of Professor Lovering it was voted, That the sum of one hundred dollars bequeathed to the Academy by the late Jonathan P. Hall, for the publication of its memoirs and transactions, be appropriated to the publication of Mr. Hall's meteorological observations.

Dr. Bigelow reported, from the committee to consider the purchase or lease of rooms for the use of the Academy, that no further action had been had on the subject.

On the motion of Mr. Bowditch the subject of this committee's previous report was indefinitely postponed, and the committee was discharged.

The whole subject of the accommodation of the Academy was then referred to a new committee, consisting of Dr. Bigelow, the Treasurer, Mr. Bowditch, Professor Cooke, Professor Eliot, and Mr. J. A. Lowell.

Five hundred and sixty-ninth Meeting.

May 29, 1866.- ANNUAL MEETING.

The PRESIDENT in the chair.

The Treasurer presented his report, which was accepted and referred to the Auditing Committee.

The Treasurer reported, from the committee to consider the subject of a building for the accommodation of the Academy,

that negotiations were pending for the further lease of the Hall now occupied by the Academy. The subject was recommitted.

The Corresponding Secretary read, in abstract, the following

Report of the Council.

Through a wholly unprecedented mortality, the Academy has lost during the past year seventeen members, among them its Vice-President and its Treasurer. Six of our deceased brethren were Resident Fellows, three were Associates, and eight Foreign Honorary Members.

Of the Resident Fellows thus removed, five were of the Third Class, comprising the honored names of Sparks, Beck, Livermore, Worcester, and Fitzpatrick, and one, Mr. J. Patten Hall, was of the Second Class. JARED SPARKS was born at Willington, Connecticut, in 1789. boyhood was passed in the then usual pursuits, and with no more than the then wonted opportunities and privileges of boys in the country. He, however, early manifested a strong inclination and capacity for mathematical study, and, with such aid as he could derive from stray books on navigation that fell in his way, he attained to the calculation of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena, and in one instance furnished the mutanda for the year's almanac. He learned a carpenter's trade, and connected with it the profession of a district schoolmaster. With no distinct purpose other than that of qualifying himself for the successful and honorable discharge of this last-named calling during the winter months, he sought the tuition of his pastor, Rev. Mr. Loomis, (afterward President of Shurtleff College, Illinois, and still living,) and under his direction commenced a course of classical study, undertaking to pay Mr. Loomis by shingling his barn. One day, when he was at work on the barn, his teacher asked him to come into the house, and construe a passage in Virgil in the hearing of Rev. Mr. Abbot, then minister of Coventry. Mr. Abbot perceived at once the rich promise that there was in the young carpenter, and wrote to his brother-in-law, the principal of Exeter Academy, to solicit a scholarship for him. The application was successful, and young Sparks walked to Exeter, more than a hundred miles, in three days, Mr. Abbot (who with his wife was meditating a visit to his brother and sister) conveying his trunk behind his own chaise.

After a novitiate, in which he showed masterly power of acquisition,

he entered Harvard College in 1811. Though his straitened circumstances made long absences for school-keeping necessary, and his health at one time was greatly impaired, he yet maintained a high college rank, and, in mathematics especially, was regarded as at the head of his class. After graduating in 1815, by invitation of the late Stephen Higginson, Esq., he taught a private school at Lancaster, Massachusetts, in the parish of Rev. Dr. Thayer, with whom he commenced the study of theology while engaged in the instruction of his sons. About this time he thought seriously of devoting himself to the scientific exploration of unknown regions. Mungo Park's Travels had interested him peculiarly in Africa, and arrangements were nearly completed for his entering the service of an English society for African research. The negotiation failed through no backwardness on his part, and from causes which he never fully understood.

In 1817 he was recalled to Cambridge, as Tutor in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and during the two years for which he held this appointment he completed his preparation for the ministry. In 1819 he was ordained pastor of a new Unitarian Church in Baltimore. Here he found himself unwillingly drawn into two separate controversies, one with Rev. Mr. Wyatt, of Baltimore, on "The Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal Church"; the other with Rev. Dr. Miller, of Princeton, on the "Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines." The letters written in these controversies respectively were published in separate volumes, which, while they are monuments of their author's extensive learning and marked polemic ability, are admirable for their genial temper, their uniform courtesy, and their entire freedom from bitterness and invective. It is worthy of emphatic notice, that both of the divines who were then his earnest antagonists became his warm personal friends. He at the same time edited a monthly theological magazine, for which he furnished the greater part of the materials. He also commenced the editorship of a Collection of Theological Essays and Tracts by various authors, with biographical and critical notices by his own hand,— a work undoubtedly suggested by that well-known series of tracts bearing the name of Bishop Watson. This work was continued through six volumes. During a portion of his residence in Baltimore he served as Chaplain to the House of Representatives in Congress, at a period when that office was not, as now, scrambled for by greedy seekers, but conferred unsought on the best man.

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