68 NATIOxXAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



the said medal." A recommendation was therefore adopted 

 that the donors of these medals should be asked to cancel the 

 clause. 



The second award of the Watson Medal was also made in 

 1888 to Professor Edward Schonfeld, director of the observ- 

 atory at the University of Bonn, Germany, " for his services in 

 cataloguing and mapping the stars visible in our latitudes, and 

 especially for his recently published Southern Durchniusterung." 

 " As Professor Schonfeld was not present at this meeting, the 

 Foreign Secretary was instructed to forward the medal and one 

 hundred dollars in gold to him through the German Embassy at 

 Washington." '" 



A committee appointed by the Academy reported in 1890^* 

 in favor of the re-adoption of the plan of classifying the mem- 

 bership. The constitution of the Academy, in the form in which 

 it was originally adopted in January, 1864, provided that the 

 membership should be divided into two classes, namely, (a) 

 Mathematics and Physics, and (b) Natural History, and that 

 the members should arrange themselves in sections, according 

 to the subjects which they represented. The organization was 

 then, as follows: 



Class A Class B 



Mathematics and Physics Natural History 



Sections Sections 



1. Mathematics. I. Mineralogy and Geologj'. 



2. Physics. 2. Zoology. 



3. Astronomy, Geography, and Geodesy. S- Botany. 



4. Mechanics. 4. Anatomy and Physiology'. 



5. Chemistry. S- Ethnolog)'. 



This arrangement continued in force until 1872, when the 

 whole system of classes was abolished. The matter came up 



"Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, p. 323. 



"This year a committee, consisting of Professor S. P. Langley (chairman), Professor 

 T. C. Mendenhall, and Professor E. C. Pickering, was appointed, at the suggestion of the 

 chairman, "to secure such uniformity of measures in physical apparatus as will promote 

 interchangeability of their parts." The committee appears not to have reported. (See 

 Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1890, p. 13.) 



