xxxviii Trans. Acad. Set. of St. Louis. 



A petition of nine members of the Academy that the 

 creation of an Entomological Section be authorized, was 

 read and such a section approved. 



Mr. James Newton Baskett presented a paper on 

 ''Heads and Tails in Nature." 



The death of Mr. Francis D. Hirschberg was re^Dorted. 



EEPORTS OF OFFICERS. 



Peesident's Report. 



The year 1908, the fifty-third year of the Academy's existence, has 

 been relatively uneventful. The legitimate work of the Academy has 

 gone on without interruption; valuable papers have been read, and 

 our library of exchange proceedings has grown steadily; our building 

 and grounds have been kept in order; and no great calamity has fallen 

 upon us. For detailed reports I beg to refer to the reports of the 

 various oflBcers. 



We have had sixteen regular meetings with the following list of 

 papers and discussions: 



Approximate Determination of Latitude — G. 0. James." 



Planet Mars— C. B. Curtis." 



Eosinophilia and Indicanuria — C. H. Neilson. 



Color Photography — G. Cramer" 



Glacial Drift under the St. Louis Loess — J. A. Drushell." 



Transplantation of Ovaries in Chickens — C. C. Guthrie. 



Radioactivity — L. McMaster. 



Growing Old, and the Attempts to Prevent it — A. C. Eycleshymer." 



Oil and Gas in St. Louis and Vicinity — H. A. Wheeler." 



Measurement of the Acceleration of a Freely Falling Body — L. 

 Pyle." 



Electric Furnace in Industrial Chemistry — S. A. Douglass." 



Momentum Effects of an Electric Discharge — F. E. Nipher." 



Fatigue of Insulation — A. S. Langsdorf." 



Cranial Surgery among the Primitive Races — H. M. Whelpley." 



How We Learn to Do Things— E. J. Swift. 



Heads and Tails in Nature — J. N. Baskett." 



Our attendance record has preserved the even tenor of last year. 



Total attendance 1908 472 



Average attendance 1908 30 



Smallest attendance 10 Dec. 7 



Largest attendance 110 Jan. 20 



Total attendance 1907 482 



Average attendance 1907 30 



" Member. 



