74 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



entitled to the honor of an election." 68 This plan was not 

 adopted, but though various changes in the method of electing 

 members were introduced subsequently, the number of members 

 has remained about one hundred. 



The Home Secretary reported in 1890 that the fourth volume 

 of the Memoirs of the Academy had been completed " after 

 long delays." The first part of this volume was printed in 1889, 

 but only 177 copies were distributed that year owing to a 

 difficulty in obtaining the plates for the whole edition. The 5th 

 and 6th volumes were printed and distributed in 1892 and i893- 69 



The delays in publication during these years caused much 

 dissatisfaction. The committee on amendments to the consti- 

 tution which reported in November, 1892, took occasion to com- 

 ment in quite emphatic language on the subject. They remarked 

 with much truth: 



" A scientific society usually is esteemed, both at home and abroad, in propor- 

 tion to the number and value of its publications. 



" Under existing conditions few members of the Academy use it as a medium 

 for reaching the public. Life is too short. Yet it is evident that it cannot rank 

 with similar societies in other countries until its publications represent the best 

 work of its members." 70 



The suggestion was made that a semi-annual publication 

 issued soon after each meeting of the Academy, and containing 

 at least abstracts of the various papers presented, might serve 

 to make the work of the Academy known to the scientific world, 

 but this idea has never been followed out. 



1893-1897 



Awards of the Draper and Watson medals were again made 

 in 1893 an d 1894, d 16 fourth Draper Medal being awarded to 



68 Loc. cit., p. 375. 



69 In his report for 1894, the Home Secretary remarked, "The bill providing for the 

 printing of all reports and memoirs of the Academy passed the House last year, and is now 

 (April 17, 1894) in the hands of the Senate." (Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1894, p. 7.) 



The Act of Congress, approved January 12, 1895, providing for the public printing and 

 binding and the distribution of public documents contains the following item: "Of the 

 Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, two thousand five hundred copies: five hun- 

 dred for the Senate, one thousand for the House, and one thousand for distribution by the 

 Academy of Sciences." (Stat. at Large, vol. 28, p. 616, 53d Congress, 3d Session, chap. 23.) 



70 See Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, pp. 375, 377, where the report is given in full. 



