Judge SHARSWOOD, Vice-President, in the Chair. A letter was read from the Scientific Association at Riga, dated October 26, 1857, transmitting a copy of its proceedings. The following donations for the Library were announced: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Soc., Vol. XX, March 9. [lishers. Medical News and Library, No. 209, May, 1860.-From the pubProc. Am. Ass. Adv. of Sci., 13th meeting at Springfield, Aug., 1859. Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc., 1859, '60. Boston, 8vo., 460 pages. Cat. of Lib. Mass. H. S., Vol. II, M-Z. Boston, 1860, 650 pages. Astronomical Journal, No. 113 (VI, No. 13). Cambridge, Mass. Evangelical Repository, May, 1860, XVIII, No. 12.-From Mr. Young. Mr. Lesley invited the attention of the members to the occurrence on both sides of the Atlantic, in Ireland and in Pennsylvania, and at the same geological horizon, of certain VOL. VII.-2 R beds of copper slates. In volume VIII of the Journal of the Dublin Geological Society, page 86, the gray copper ores, which characterize the red slates at the base of the socalled Carboniferous formation in the North and South of Ireland, are said to lie two thousand six hundred and forty feet below the base of the carboniferous limestone. Whether these rocks be Devonian or Carboniferous has been discussed by Mr. Jukes and Dr. Griffith, and decided by the latter, with the concurrence of Prof. Haughton and other British geologists, in favor of their classification as Carboniferous, on the ground of their containing fossils of that type. It is remarkable that, along the base of the Alleghany Mountains, where our Pennsylvanian sub-carboniferous formations X and XI, so immensely thick at Pottsville, have thinned away to a few hundred feet, and also in northeastern Pennsylvania, where the three formations IX, X, XI, are all together reduced to a thickness of not much more than two thousand feet, bringing the undeniably Devonian formation VIII, up to within that distance of the coal, there occurs a copper-ore slate horizon a few feet thick, which will exactly correspond in position to the copper-slates of Ireland. The Society was then adjourned. Stated Meeting, May 18, 1860. Present, fifteen members. Dr. WOOD, President, in the Chair. The following donations for the Library were announced: Annales des Mines, Vol. XV, 3d part, and Vol. XVI, 4th pt. of 1859. Journal of the Franklin Institute for May, 1860. Centennial Anniversary of the Foundation of the Germantown Academy, 1860. 8vo. pamphlet, 58 pages. Philadelphia. The Motion of Fluids and Solids relative to the Earth's Surface; comprising Applications to the Winds and the Currents of the Ocean. By W. Ferrel. 8vo. pamphlet, 72 pages. New York. Taken from the 1st and 2d vol. of the Mathematical Monthly. Dr. Franklin Bache announced the decease of Judge Thomas Sergeant, a member of the Society, who died on the 5th of May, in the 79th year of his age; and, on motion, E. Spencer Miller, Esq., was appointed to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased. Mr. Dubois offered, for the inspection of the Society, a specimen of the Washoe ore, which is now attracting so much attention; with a report of its content in silver and gold, just ascertained by Mr. Eckfeldt. The ore is a galena, interspersed with pyrites and siliceous matter, and, in general appearance, altogether different from the forms of galena which we are accustomed to see. Nor would its physical characters lead any one to suspect that it could be so rich in the precious metals. The specimen is from the Comstock vein; and it may be stated (although probably known to the members present) that the centre of these mining operations is about three hundred and thirty miles in a northeasterly direction from San Francisco, within the line of the territory of Utah, in a country destitute of vegetation, and very scantily supplied with water. From a careful assay, the specimen yields to the pound avoirdupois, silver to the amount of $2 35, and gold to the amount of 26 cents; altogether $2 61 per pound, or, in the usual language of valuation, five thousand two hundred and twenty dollars to the ton. A considerable quantity of this silver has already been sent to the Mint for coinage. Dr. Wood, the President of the Society, delivered, in conformity with the laws of the Society, the following discourse:— Among the regulations of the Society is one directing that "the President shall, at some time within the year, deliver to the Society a discourse on some literary or scientific subject, accompanied by such suggestions with regard to the affairs of the Society as he shall judge proper." In the novelty of my position last year, I overlooked the exact purport of this law; and I must now offer an apology for the apparent neglect. My object in addressing you, on this occasion, is to fulfil the duty for the present year. Two things are required by the regulation; one, a discourse on some literary or scientific subject; the other, suggestions on the affairs of the Society. I shall follow the order here laid down. As the length of the communication is left to the discretion of the President, I shall study to make it brief; so that, if it have no other merit, it may at least lay claim to that of wasting but little of your time and attention. 1. There is a point in philosophy which, I think, deserves more consideration than it ordinarily receives: I allude to the evil of too hasty generalization; of leaping to general conclusions inconsiderately from one or a few experiments or observations. This habit has, in my opinion, more than any other one cause, since the general acceptance of the inductive system of philosophy, contributed to the disturbance of admitted truth, and to the introduction of crude and unsound hypotheses, incapable of standing the test of time, yet productive, while they lasted, of no little practical mischief. I will cite a few examples. A fact in geology is observed which, at first sight, seems to be in conflict with the Mosaic account of creation; and the inference is hastily drawn that we must surrender our faith in Scripture. Further observation reconciles the seeming discrepancies; but, in the meantime, much evil has been done by unnecessarily disturbing settled modes of thought, and, to some extent, even the existing relations of society. Under certain experimental arrangements, living organized beings have been apparently produced out of inorganic matter, through the influence of electricity; and the conclusion is inconsiderately arrived at, that the general opinion of science as to the necessary propagation of vegetables and animals from pre-existing germs is unsound. Men are thrown into confusion as to their own origin and responsibilities, which interferes materially with their mental health, if it produce no more serious consequences. Subsequent observation shows that all this disturbance is baseless, by proving the experiment not to have been conducted with due care. Under what have been called Mesmeric influences, which I believe to be nothing more nor less than means of producing a certain degree of irregular mental action, a curious morbid condition of the system sometimes takes place, accompanied with unusual and seemingly wonderful phenomena; and many minds, not content with the simple facts observed, have pushed them into absurdities of an exciting character, which, in their practical operation, have led to great evil, the corruption of morals, the peopling of Insane Asylums, and sometimes even to suicide. A closer scrutiny limits the observed wonders within the ordinary recognized course of nature; and a better philosophical habit of thought would have obviated all the mischief. It was found, upon feeding dogs exclusively on gelatin, that life could not be supported by this principle; and the inference was drawn that gelatin is not nutritious, and that all our notions relative to the nutritive properties of calf's-foot jelly, and the usefulness of soup societies, were based upon a great error of fact. Further experiments have shown that there is scarcely a single proximate organic principle which is capable of maintaining life, when used exclusively as food; and that it is by the combination of such principles that nutrition is effected. The same remark applies to all those hasty conclusions, which, from the result of one or a few experiments, would exclude from the category of nutritive food, many other substances which have always formed a part of the habitual diet of man. It is well known that many chemists, founding their opinions upon similar partial observations, maintain that starch and other analogous substances do not nourish the system, but are useful simply by generating heat, through their oxidation or combustion in the body. The necessary conclusion is, that all physicians have labored under an egregious error, when they have used starch in the form of barleywater, rice-water, arrow-root, tapioca, sago, &c., for the support of the sick and feeble, and must surrender the experience of their professional lives and that of ages before them, to these presumed results of scientific induction. But they who reason thus do not sufficiently consider that, in certain hot climates, where the habitual temperature is often above that of the human body, and where the great struggle is to keep cool enough, millions upon millions of people live mainly on rice or sago, the former of which consists chiefly of starch, and the latter is pure starch. It is inconceivable that the prominent article of diet of such numbers, persons too in good health, and often of great powers of enduring fatigue, should consist of a substance having no nutritive power, and fitted only for generating animal heat, which, under the circumstances, is not needed, and is, indeed, often in excess. |