, 1884-04-19
vOTiRiES OF SCIENCE
Interesting Public Meeting of the
Academy Last Night.
Several Able Papers Read on the
Occasion.
Another Session at the Baptist
Church This Evening.

CnufCn MS Evening.
The meeting of the Academy-of Sci
ences at the Baptist church last evening
proved to be an occasion of rare interest.
There was a fair audience in attendance.
The first paper of the evening was read by
Hon. John w. Hoyt. The subject was
The Practical Arts-Growth and Condi-
tons of Progress. Mr.. Hoyt began by
explaining that there were two different
theories as to the derivation of the term
art-both referring it to the seme deriva-
tive word. One theory adopted the sig
niicance Of to plough as the original idea
of art. The other theory attributed it to
the idea of to make or to put together.
The speaker adopted the latter as the cor
rect pathological explanation. He pro-
ceeded to explain that the practical incep-
ton of art was in the simplest forms of
utility, for clothing, shelter, food, defense.
That it developed further in the form of
pastoral life which was necessarily nomadic
and predatory. This explained the de-
velopment in very early ages of the war
like communities on the plateaus between
Tartary and China which for centuries
largely overran the low Asiatic countries
west of that line and Europe. The
civilization of these latter countries
checked and finally terminated these
nomadic military expeditions. Art de-
veloped in Egypt in its system of tillage,
irrigation, pyramids and monuments; in
Phenicia, as the great commercial COM
munity of ancient times; in Italy, in its
high condition of tillage, sculpture and
painting; in Spain, Portugal and Holland
in their colonial expansions. That England
and America were the fields which pre-
scented the highest advancement of utile
art. The speaker confined himself princi-
pally to the subject of utile as dis
tinguished from fine art, the latter relat-
ing especially and technically to music,
painting, sculpture, rhetoric and poetry.
Ex-Governor Hoyt's paper was a brief
but mastery review of his sub
JSNN' II DtduNltH Vi WHICH,
"a mere brief resume such as
this can give but Il poor conception. The
second paper of the evening ION Facts
Concerning the Massacre at Independence
Mountain, North Park, was read by its
author, Hon. J. r. Whitehead. The
Judge graphically described abe massacre,
which was perpetrated by the Arapahoes
and Cheyennes and referred in an interest
ing way to the narrow escape made by
other Cheyenne people, including j. c..
Abney, II. w. Rutledge, NJ. Sloan, Larry
Maginn, Peter Smith and H. CARBONATE.
The paper was well received. The CON
Guiding paper, by j. c. Baird, ESD, was
on the subject of THE Jury System-Its
Greatest Fault andthe Remedy Therefor. -
The speaker began his treatment of the
subject by stating the distinction between
the common law, which prevails in Eng
land and the United States, and the laws
of other governments in which jury sys-
ems prevail, namely, that in the two for
mer countries the rule requires
in civil. and criminal cases twelve as the
complement of a jury and unanimity as
necessary to a verdict. The rule in other
countries where the jury system obtains
differed as to the complement of the jury,
but recognized a majority upon a jury as
sufficient for a result. These other cOun-
tries differ as to the extent of the MAORI
ties, some allowing a simple majority,
Others Il two-thirds or three-fourths ma
jority. The speaker went back into Bibli-
cal days to discover the origin of the num-
Der twelve on juries and showed how
through the clergy the custom was intro
duced into England. He spoke about the
deep-roOted prejudice in favor of the jury
system and the difficulties in the way of
removing it. As a remedy he suggested
that juries be composed of fifteen persons,
twelve of whom could find a verdict.
The programme for this evenings exer-
cises at the Baptist church is as follows:
|. Influence of Forests ON Climate and
Public Health, by DR.. NJ. c. Barkwell.
,. A Natural History Study of the
Bluejay, with illustrations, by Frank
Bond.
3. The Hypothesis of the Dissipation of
Energy, and its Probability, by Prof. H.
w. Jansen.
Meeting will men promptly at
1870 p. NJ, at the Baptist church. The
public cordially invited.