These Notices were chiefly derived from the ordinary correspondence of the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, from the important character of some of which Professor P. Smyth hoped that extracts from the best of the letters might be of interest to the Society.

He alluded first to the astronomers of the United States, a large and increasing body, of no mean order of excellence already, and of the richest promise. Professor Loomis' recent work, which was exhibited, gives sufficient facts to prove the above statements.