KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 11 



MEETINGS OF . SCIENTrPIC BODIES. 



The Board of Regents, at its meeting in January, 1881, formally tend- 

 ered the nse of the lecture-room and other accommodations in the Na- 

 tional Museum to the National Academy of Sciences, and authorized 

 the executive committee to grant a similar courtesy to other national 

 organizations having the advancement of science as their object. Un- 

 der this arrangement the National Academy met on Tuesdaj-, April 15, 

 and continued in session until Friday, April 18. 



In addition to the facilities afforded to the National Academy of 

 Sciences, mentioned above, it was thought quite in accordance with its 

 relationships to the Smithsonian, especially as established since the res- 

 olution of the Board, above referred to, to give to the Academy the 

 use of one of the new rooms in the extension of the Smithsonian build- 

 ing for its archives, library, and other property. This has accordingly 

 been done, and two rooms have been assigned for the purpose. It has 

 proved to be a very great convenience to the officers of the Academj^, 

 especially during its meetings in the adjacent National Museum building. 



Among the most interesting meetings of 1884 in the National Museum, 

 of the national scientific societies, was that of the American Fish Cultu- 

 ral Association, which took i^lace in May, it being the first convocation 

 it has ever held in the city of Washington. In addition to the association 

 itself, invitations were extended to the fish commissioners of nineteen 

 States, and a large attendance was the result. Many papers were pre- 

 sented, but the chief point of attraction was the opening to the public 

 of the fisheries section of the Museum, as arranged after the return of 

 a part of the collection from the International Fisheries Exhibition in 

 Loudon. The Brush-Swan Company kindly put in sufficient plant to 

 illuminate the entire building, especially the fisheries section, and a 

 very large attendance was present on the occasion. The annual address 

 Mas delivered by Hon. Theodore Lyman, who was followed by Hon. S. 

 S. Cox and others. The meeting was varied by an excursion on the 

 steamer Fish Hawk to the shad-hatching grounds near Fort Washing- 

 ton, where the processes of treating the fish were duly exliibited. 



LECTURES. 



The success of the course of lectures delivered in 1883, in the lecture- 

 room of the National Museum, under the auspices of the Anthropolog- 

 ical and Biological Societies, induced those bodies to establish a second 

 course for 1884, and, as before, these were attended by large audiences. 



The list of these lectures will be given under the head of National 

 Museum. 



Toner Lectures. — It is known to the Board that an endowment was 

 made by Dr. John M. Toner, of Washington, of a fund, the interest of 

 which was to be a])propriated in giving a series of lectures on some 

 subject pertaining to medicine, surgery, or public health ; and, by aq 



