REPORTS OF OFFICERS 17 



anticipate the acceptance of the terms by the Academy, 

 by offering membership in the Academy and through the 

 Academy in the American Association, in accordance 

 with the terms of affiliation. About a month ago, the 

 Secretary sent a letter and circular to something over 

 seven hundred members of the A. A. A. S., lining within 

 the state, who are not members of the Academy inviting 

 them to become members of the Academy on the payment 

 of one dollar admission fee. As the report of the mem- 

 bership committee will show, a large number have ac- 

 cepted this invitation. It is hoped that many of the 

 present local members of the Academy ^Yill improve this 

 opportunity to become members of the Association. 



KECOMMENDATIOXS 



In the original constitution of the Academy, we find 

 the statement that the Council shall consist of certain 

 officers, and ^'a Chairman of each section that may be 

 organized." This provision was omitted from the con- 

 stitution by amendment, at the Joliet meeting when we 

 were in the depths of dispair, over continued failure to 

 secure proper recognition from the State. Conditions 

 have so reversed themselves, now however that it is the 

 belief of the Secretary that this provision should be re- 

 vived, and certain sections organized. It has been our 

 custom to have three half-day sessions and an evening 

 session. I believe that one of these half day sessions 

 might well be devoted to section meetings and that suit- 

 able sections should be organized for this purpose. Bot- 

 any, zoology, and geology have usually furnished large 

 numbers of papers, and we could surely have strong 

 section meetings in these, but it seems to me that we 

 should have almost equally strong sections representing 

 other sciences if we had a suitable organization. Phy- 

 sics and chemistry might go together, physiology might 

 join with zoology' or botany, geogTaphy and geology 

 might go together. In our general programs, we have 

 paid a good deal of attention to medicine and public 

 health, we ought to have a section representing this. We 

 have also had a good many papers on the science of edu- 



