44 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



" Resolved, That the Academy entertain the hope that the President of the 

 United States will favor the foregoing proposition, that he will delay the dis- 

 persion of the exhibit from the several Executive Departments until Congress 

 has assembled, and that he will recommend to that body to provide for the transfer 

 of the Government Exhibit to the City of Washington, and for its subsequent 

 permanent support." -^ 



The autumn meeting of 1872 was held in Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, that of 1873 in New York City, and those of 1874, 

 1875 and 1876 in Philadelphia. In the latter year the Academy 

 having been asked by the British Minister to suggest names of 

 persons considered eligible to receive the Albert Medal of the 

 Society of Arts for " distinguished merit in promoting arts, 

 manufacture, or commerce," suggested the name of Joseph Henry 

 " as most worthy of all living Americans to receive that recogni- 

 tion." '' 



The original constitution of the Academy provided for four 

 series of publications, reports, memoirs, annals and proceedings. 

 While the reports and annals began to be issued soon after the 

 organization of the Academy, the memoirs were delayed three 

 years from lack of funds, and the first part of the first volume 

 of Proceedings did not appear until 1877. This part comprised 

 120 pages and contained the constitution and by-laws, a sum- 

 mary of the important business operations of the Academy, 

 resolutions relating to scientific matters, the programs of the 

 scientific sessions, reports of committees and other miscellaneous 

 information. Though more or less fragmentary and incomplete, 

 it is valuable as a continuous record of the proceedings of the 

 Academy during the first 14 years of its existence. A second part 

 carried the record to 1884, and a third to 1895. No further parts 

 have been issued. 



Another publication which first appeared in 1877 was the 

 Biographical Memoirs. The first volume, in octavo form, con- 

 tained memoirs of fifteen deceased members. Some of these 

 sketches had already appeared in the Annual, and the series, for 



^ Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, p. ii8. 

 ''' Loc. cit., p. 114. 



