THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



217 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMY AND 

 OTHER SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 

 The annual stated meeting of the 

 National Academy of Sciences was held 

 in Washington in the third week in 

 April. Professor Woleott Gibbs, one of 

 the two surviving founders of the Acad- 

 emy and the distinguished dean of 

 American men of science, having re- 

 signed the presidency a year ago, Mr. 

 Alexander Agassiz, of Cambridge, was 

 elected to the office. It may almost be 

 said that Mr. Agassiz assumed the pres- 

 idency by right, as he exactly repre- 

 sents the hereditary distinction and 

 aristocratic preeminence of a small 

 and select National Academy. It is 

 possible that such an institution be- 

 longs to the past rather than to the 

 democracy of the twentieth century, but 

 there is perhaps less danger in America 

 from the preservation of precedents than 

 from their abolition. Mr. Asaph Hall 

 remains vice-president and Mr. Charles 

 D. Walcott treasurer of the Academy, 

 while the vacancy in the foreign sec- 

 retaryship, caused by Mr. Agassiz's ele- 

 vation to the presidency, was filled by 

 the election of Prof. Ira Remsen, 

 whose former office of home secretary 

 is now occupied by Mr. Arnold Hague. 

 Five new members were elected: George 

 F. Becker, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C; J. McKeen Cattell, 

 professor of psychology, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York City; Eliakim H. 

 Moore, professor of mathematics. Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, Chicago, 111.; Ed- 

 ward L. Nichols, professor of physics, 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., and 

 T. Mitchell Prudden, professor of pa- 

 thology, College of Physicians and Sur- 

 geons, Columbia University. An im- 

 provement has recently been made in 

 the manner of election to the Academy. 

 The members have been divided into 

 six standing committees, and a nomi- 



nee must be endorsed by the committee 

 having an expert knowledge of his qual- 

 having an expert knowledge of his qual- 

 1899 only thirteen new members were 

 elected, althougli twenty-seven vacan- 

 cies occurred through death, whereas 

 during the past three years fourteen 

 new members have been elected. Eight 

 foreign associates were elected: MM. 

 Janssen, Loewy, Bornet and Cornu, of 

 France; Professors Kohlrausch and 

 van't Hoff, of Germany; Professor 

 Kronecker, of Switzerland, and Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, of Great Britain. The 

 Henry Draper medal was awarded to 

 Sir William Huggins, president of the 

 Royal Society, for his investigations in 

 astronomical physics. In the scientific 

 sessions of the Academy eleven papers 

 were presented, as follows: 



'The Climatology of the Isthmus of 

 Panama': Henry L. Abbot. 



'The Effects of Secular Cooling and 

 Meteoric Dust on the Length of the 

 Terrestrial Day': R. S. Woodward. 



'The Use of Formulae in demonstra- 

 ting Relations of the Life History of an 

 Individual to the Evolution of its 

 Group': Alpheus Hyatt. 



'Artificial Parthenogenesis and its 

 Relation to Normal Fertilization': E. B. 

 Wilson. 



'Simultaneous Volumetric and Elec- 

 tric Graduation of the Condensation 

 Tube': Carl Barus. 



'Table of Results of an Experimental 

 Enquiry regarding the Nutritive Action 

 of Alcohol, prepared by Prof. W. O. 

 Atwater, of Middletown, Conn.': Pre- 

 sented by J. S. Billings. 



'The Significance of the Dissimilar 

 Limbs of the Ornithopodous Dinosaurs': 

 Theo. Gill. 



'The Place of Mind in Nature,' 'The 

 Foundation of Mind': J. W. Powell. 



'Conditions Affecting the Fertility 

 of Sheep and the Sex of their Offspring' : 

 Alexander Graham Bell. 



'The New Spectrum': S. P. Langley. 



DuEiNG the same week that our Na- 

 tional Academy was meeting at Wash- 

 ington, the recently established Interna- 



