526 
rangements for the celebration, was read. 
The publication committee reported the 
titles of papers presented for publication 
since the last meeting, and also announced 
the details of works to be issued in connec- 
tion with the centenary celebration: a 
quarto volume of memoirs, an index to the 
entire series of the Proceedings and Jour- 
nal, and a detailed history of the academy 
by the recording secretary, which will make 
a volume of not less than 400 pages and to 
which the ‘‘Short History’’ contributed to 
the Philadelphia Founders’ Week Memorial 
Volume may be regarded as a prodromus. 
The chair reported the death that morn- 
ing of Thomas Harrison Montgomery, 
Ph.D., the director of the zoological depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania. 
The occurrence supplied a pathetic note to 
the proceedings, as Dr. Montgomery had 
been deeply interested in the arrangements 
for the celebration, had been assigned a 
place on the program of exercises, and had 
contributed the first paper, under the title 
‘““Human Spermatogenesis, Spermatocytes 
and Spermiogenesis’’ to the commemora- 
tive quarto volume. 
At the place where ‘‘verbal communica- 
tions’’ are usually called for, Dr. Nolan, 
under the title ‘‘Reminiscences,’’ spoke of 
his connection with the academy as as- 
sistant librarian, librarian and recording 
secretary during the past fifty years, his 
earliest record of accessions to the library 
being dated February 4, 1862. He deeply 
regretted that he had not taken advantage 
of his acquaintanceship with certain con- 
temporaries of the founders, who were still 
alive when he entered on the scene, such as 
George Ord, Jacob Peirce, Isaac Hays and 
Titian R. Peale to make notes of their 
recollections of the early days, but it could 
readily be believed that in his most san- 
guine moments he had never contemplated 
the possibility of being called on fifty years 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 901 
later to record his regret before such an 
audience. He then spoke of the beginning 
of his work as an untrained assistant in the 
library and the unvarying kindness and 
consideration he had experienced from all 
the men met with at that time, but espe- 
cially from his dear chief, J. Dickinson 
Sergeant, and his beloved future preceptor, 
Joseph Leidy. 
It was an extraordinary epoch in the 
history of the academy, the beginning of 
its second half century, and the boy was 
associated with a stimulating group of men, 
including Leidy, Cope, Conrad, Tryon, 
Lea, Slack, Rand, Cassin, Heermann, Meigs, 
Gabb and Wilson, all men of marked indi- 
viduality, some of whom have made per- 
manent records as leaders of science in 
America. 
Continuing, Dr. Nolan gave his impres- 
sions of some of his contemporaries of later 
date—Allen, Horn, Meehan, Ruschen- 
berger, Ryder, McCook, Heilprin, Chap- 
man, Isaac Jones Wistar and Arthur Erwin 
Brown—not by any means dealing in 
laudation exclusively, but indulging in 
kindly personalities in a belief that a more 
intimate tone than would be entirely de- 
sirable in a published record would not be 
disagreeable to his auditors, many of whom 
were familiar with the work of the men 
whom he was describing. 
In the one hundred years of the acad- 
emy’s history four men had stood out 
prominently, with, of course, scores of 
associates, as dominant in its material and 
intellectual advancement. These were 
Thomas Say, Samuel George Morton, 
Joseph Leidy and the present chief execu- 
tive. The work of Say, Morton and Leidy 
formed part of the history of the academy, 
and if impression were desired of the ac- 
complishments of Samuel Gibson Dixon 
they had but to look around them. 
Closing his remarks the secretary was 
