RECORDS OF MEETINGS- 



557 



Nine hundred ninety-third Meeting. 



December 8, 1909. 



The President in the chair. 



There were fifty-six Fellows present. 



The Corresponding Secretary read the following letters : — from 

 the President of the 8th International Zoological Congress, in- 

 viting delegates to the congress ; from the family of Henry 

 Charles Lea, announcing his death ; from the Comite Ge*ologique 

 de la Russie, announcing the death of M. Serge Nikitin ; from 

 the Koniglich Bb'hmische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, an- 

 nouncing the death of Phil. Dr. Karl Domalep. 



The death of Henry Charles Lea, an Associate Fellow in Class 

 III. , Section 3, was announced by the Chair. 



On motion of E. C. Pickering the following Resolution was 

 passed : Resolved, That the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences desires to express its entire approval of the recom- 

 mendations of the President of the United States, in his annual 

 message to Congress, regarding the administration of the Naval 

 Observatory. The Academy believes that the scientific work of 

 the Observatory should be under the direction of a scientific 

 man, and that in this way its efficiency will be greatly increased. 



Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to 

 the President of the United States, by the Secretary. 



On motion of Mr. Webster it was 



Voted, To give the above Resolution to the public press. 



It was suggested by the Corresponding Secretary, that Stand- 

 ing Vote No. 10 precluded giving the above Resolution to the 

 public press. 



On motion of Mr. Bowditch, it was 



Voted, That in the opinion of the Academy, Standing Vote 

 No. 10 does not apply to making public the vote just passed. 



The President read the names of the Committee appointed at 

 the last meeting to consider the general plan suggested by Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz, viz. : Dr. H. P. Walcott, Professor John C. Gray, 

 and President A. Lawrence Lowell. 



The President re-read the letter of Professor Agassiz, read at 

 the last meeting of the Academy, and after considerable discus- 

 sion the following votes were passed : — 



