1908.1 NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 627 



REPORT OF THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. 



With regret the Corresponding Secretary records the death during 

 the past year of the following named correspondents of the Academy: 

 Henry Benedict Medlicott, Lord Kelvin, Henry Clifton Sorby, Prof. 

 Spiridion Brusina, Prof. Gustav Mayr and Prof. William Kieth Brooks. 

 No corresponding members were elected. During the year a few 

 additional photographs and biographical sketches of correspondents 

 were received and have been added to our files. 



Invitations to the Academy to participate in the following notable 

 events were received : The Third International Botanical Congress and 

 the First Congress of Administrative Sciences, both to be held in Brus- 

 sels in 1910; the Prehistoric Congress of France, the Centenary Jubilee 

 of the Physico-Medical Society of Erlangen, the Inauguration of Dr. 

 Albert R. Hill as President of the University of Missouri, the opening 

 of the new Hall of the Physical Institute of Frankfort a. M., and the 

 University of Cambridge celebration of the centenary of the birth of 

 Charles Darwin and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the 

 Origin of Species. Suitable letters of acknowledgment or congratu- 

 lation were in each case forwarded, and as the Academy's representative 

 to the last named Dr. Arthur Erwin Brown has been appointed. In 

 this connection it may interest the members of the Academy to know 

 that Darwin was elected a correspondent on March 27, 1860, within 

 four months of the publication of the Origin of Species, and that 

 this Academy was therefore probably the first society to place its 

 official stamp of approval upon this epoch-making work. 



An invitation from the Section of Geology and Mineralogy of the 

 New York Academy of Sciences to join in organizing a series of general 

 geological meetings for the eastern United States was referred to the 

 Geological and Mineralogical Section of the Academy. A letter of 

 thanks for the use of the Academy's Hall for its session of 1907 was 

 received from the American Ornithologists' Union. Notices of the 

 death of seven scientific men of distinction were received and acknowl- 

 edged by letters of sympathy. 



Copies of resolutions approving of the movement to establish 

 White Mountain and Southern Appalachian forest reserves and com- 

 mending the purpose of the conference to consider the conservation of 

 natural resources were forwarded to members of Congress and other 

 persons concerned and brought numerous favorable responses. 



Pursuant to instructions of the Council the Corresponding Secretary 



