New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-04-18

PROF. MARSH REFLECTED PRESIDENT OF
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY.
THE WATSON MEDAL AND PRIZE AWARDED TO
GERMAN ASTRONOMER WHO HAS
cATALoGUED THE STARS.
Ter TELEGRAPH TO THE rRIBUxE.l

cATALoGUED THE STARS.
Ter TELEGRAPH TO THE rRIBUxE.l
Washington, April 17.-Ths was busy day for the
National Academy OF Sciences. Among the mornings
arrivals were Professor William II. Brewer OF Yale;
Dr. w. K. Brooks, OF Johns Hopkins University; Pro.
fessor George j. Brush, mneraogst OF Yale, Professor
George H. Cook, state Geologist OF NewJersey; Pro.
fessor Alfred NJ Mayer the physicist Of the Stevens
Institute of Technology, at Hoboken; the eminent
professor OF geology In Columbia College Dr. John 3.
Newberry Professor A. A. Nicholson OF Cleveland;
Professor Arthur W. Wright, Of Yale College. and
Captain c. T. Dutton the best known American student
Of earthquakes aud volcanoes
Tho business session OF the morning. lasting nom
10 to IL go was occupied in part in the election Of
president and vice president. Professor o. o. Marsh
Of New Haven the incumbent was reelected PRESIDENT
and Professor s. p Langley succeeds Professor emon
Newcomb as vice. president In 1856 PROFESSOR Marsh
was appointed to the chair of paeontology At faic,
which position he still occupies. He was lnade prcs
dent Of the American Association for the Advancement
Of Science In 1878. and six years ago receiVed the
highest honor within the gift of the scientific men OF
the country by his first election TO the presidency OF
the National Academy Of Sciences succeeding the late
Professor William d. Rogers.
Professor Samuel Pierrepont Langley the vcepresi-
dentelect, was born in Roxbury, Mass, August 2S,
1884, and graduated at the Boston Latin School.
In 1865 he was appointed an assistant in the Harvard
mometer known TO seiencethe bolometer-by which 1t
s possible measure the heat received not
only from the sum- but from the moon, the planets ana
even from the most distant stars. On the death Of
Professor Baird 1887 Professor Langley was called
TO tho secretaryshp Of the Smithsonian Institution, and
thus to-day controls tho most important Of the purely
scientific organizations within the United States Vice
President elect Langley, like his superior Officer Is
bachelor but unlike Mr. Marsh he Is virtually, In conse-
ouence OF his many wanderings, homeless walt upon
the social sea- He is one Of the most graceful and
forcbe writer's among the ranks Of the scientific mon
of the day. and his latest The New Astronomy" Is
by thousands Of readers voted TO be as Attractive as
a romance"
At IL 80 the Academy adjourned to call upon
President Harrison IN body. The members were
presented 70 the President by Professors Marsh and
Langley, and half hour was spont IN inc DUO
Room.
Only three papers were read in public this after
noon the first on Composite Chronology" BY Pro
fessor D. p Todd Of Amherst, which was illustrated
by means OF tho stereopticOn the second was on
Determination Of Gravity" by Professor G. s.
Pierce, and the third on "The North American
Proboscldaes by Professor E. d. Cope. Tho three
papers were largely technical but Professor Cope in
troduced popular elemtnt in pointing out that Just
as tho long ago CarbOnIferous Age was the age Of
plants, and the Devonan Age the age Of fishes, so
the tertiary ages characterized by huge mac>
mails which spread over practically the en-
tire earth but whose pygmy representatives
are now confined b parts Of Asia and Africa IN the
elephant, the hippopotamus and the rhlnocerOs The
proboscldae, whose descendants tho African and
Indian elephants roamed central North America
only less abdndantly than the buffalo roamed the
plains half century ago.
The second public session held in the even
ing for the purpose of presenting the Watson gold
medal worth 5000 as q recognition Of important re-
searches In astronomy during the past two years The
presentation made by President Marsh In grace
full speech, IN which he recounted the events which
led TO tho establishment of the watson Fund and
some OF the leading events in astronomy during the
last generation. The medal awarded to DR..
Edward sciioenfeldt, Of tho University Of Bonn and
was accepted IN bis name by Professor Asaph Hall
The circumstances which led 30 the award OF the
medal was tho completion of the Durchmlster1ng,'
or a great star catalogue begun IN the past eenMry
pairing this catalogue VIII be appreciated when it
Is understood that II includes every star IN the
hemisphero above thirty degrees destination from
the tonth magnitude upward-the number OF stars IN
the northern hemisphere being about 100000, and
IN the southern hemisphere nearly 100000.
An equally notable Incident Of the evening session
was memorial address upon the late PROFESSOR
Spencer 4. Baird, by DR.. J. s Billings OF the Army
Medical Museum. II was a touching tribute by one
OF his fellow-students not only 10 scientist who
always maintained n place In the foremost ranks,
but 10 a phlanthropist whose labors led TO tho
development Of q new food source, and so ameorated
tho condition of thousands Of people. Bairds NE
work IN science zoology, and he did more than
science: hut his best monument, which with last as
long as the noble sentiment OF gratitude warns the
human breast, and SO long as history survives, was
10 stock the rivers, the bays, the lakes ana the
fish which may be used for food by man