ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY 77 



The fourth President of the Academy, Professor O. C. Marsh, 

 who had held that office since 1883, declined re-election in 1895, 

 and the Academy passed the following resolution unanimously: 

 " That the thanks of the Academy be tendered to the retiring 

 president for the zeal and ability with which he has admin- 

 istered in succession the offices of vice-president and president 

 of the Academy during a period of seventeen years." 74 Pro- 

 fessor Marsh was succeeded by Professor Wolcott Gibbs who 

 held the office of President until April, 1900, when he resigned. 

 He was succeeded in 1901 by Dr. Alexander Agassiz. 



In this same year, 1895, which we have been considering, the 

 Academy expressed its gratification at the completion, under 

 the direction of two of its members, of extensive publications 

 calculated to be of great benefit to science and to the people. 

 These were the reports on the geology of Pennsylvania and the 

 catalogue of the library of the Surgeon-General's Office. The 

 resolution was as follows : 



"Whereas, since 1874, Prof. J. P. Lesley, as the director of the second 

 geological survey of Pennsylvania, has, with the cooperation of a band of assist- 

 ants, published 127 octavo volumes of reports, which will remain a monument of 

 his scientific and literary activity: 



" Resolved, That the National Academy of Sciences, at a session held in Phila- 

 delphia on the 3Oth of October, 1895, while expressing their regret at the absence 

 of their fellow-member, J. P. Lesley, wish at the same time to congratulate him on 

 the successful completion of his reports on the geological survey of Pennsylvania, 

 and further to express their appreciation of the services he has rendered to science 

 in devoting his life to the interest of the survey, a task to which he has brought 

 an unsurpassed knowledge of the geology of the State. 



" 2. The Academy congratulate their fellow-member, Dr. John S. Billings, on 

 the completion of his Catalogue of the Army Medical Library, and on the issue of 

 the final^sixteenth volume of this unequaled gift to the medical scholars of the 

 world." 75 



In 1896, when a bill was pending in the Senate calling for the 

 restriction of experiments on the lower animals in the District 

 of Columbia (Senate no. 1552), a letter was addressed to Sen- 

 ator Jacob H. Gallinger by the Chief of the Bureau of Animal 



"Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1895, P- 23. 

 Loc. dt., p. 31. 



