30 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
sented, ten papers on geological subjects were presented, four 
papers on zoology, two papers relating to anthropology, etc. 
The Academy lost one of its original members this year, 
James Melville Gilliss, who died on February g, 1865. It was 
also unfortunate as regards the presiding officers, President 
Bache having been in ill health, and the Vice-President, James 
Dwight Dana, having been forced to resign on August 23, from 
the same cause.” The report to Congress on the operations of the 
Academy during 1865 was submitted by Professor Henry. 
As in the preceding year, the Washington meeting of the 
Academy was held in the Capitol. The August meeting was 
held at Northampton, Massachusetts. Few details have been 
recorded regarding either of these meetings. From Lesley’s 
letters we learn that the Northampton session opened with 13 
members present, which number increased to 20 on the follow- 
ing day. This session opened on August 23, and closed on the 
afternoon of the 26th. 
The division of the membership between the two classes 
“Mathematics and Physics” and “ Natural History” under- 
went few changes in 1865, but the section of “ Ethnology ” came 
into actual existence through the assignment of one member 
thereto. Advantage was also taken in several sections of a 
provision of the constitution whereby members assigned to the 
* Professor Dana’s reasons for resigning are mentioned in letters written by him to Pro- 
fessor Baird and Professor Guyot. On December 10, 1864, he wrote to Professor Baird: 
“As the time for our January (1865) meeting of the National Academy approaches, I 
become more and more convinced that I ought not to encounter the labor and fatigue of the 
occasion. Had I no duties but those of a private in the Academy I should have less fear. 
But with the cares of President, which involve meetings of council, as well as all 
business meetings, at least, of the Academy, and much more of an outside nature, I am sure 
I should be unwise to risk attendance. .... I should much prefer now to throw up the 
position; for besides my incapabilities from imperfect health, I should enjoy myself far more 
if I could have my time and strength to mingle socially with the members present.” (The 
Life of James Dwight Dana, by D. C. Gilman, 1899, pp. 362, 363.) 
To Professor Guyot he wrote on February 14, 1865: “I wish most heartily I were out 
of the office of Vice-President, and I think I shall take an early opportunity to abdicate. 
It makes the meetings, now that Bache is unwell, times of great fatigue for me, and of no 
satisfactory intercourse with friends on the ground. I dislike the duty, and care nothing 
for the honor of it. You will not be surprised, therefore, if my resignation is handed in not 
long hence.” (Of. cit., p. 329-) 
