264 
building stone, has been transferred to monu- 
mental stone, the class in which it more prop- 
erly belongs. New Hampshire, Vermont, Cali- 
fornia, Georgia, Rhode Island and Minnesota 
had values in excess of $100,000 in 1917. Of 
these Georgia made gains in the last two years, 
its value for 1917 nearly doubling that of 1915, 
and Rhode Island more than tripled its value 
for 1916. The other states named showed de- 
creases of 10 to 50 per cent. 
The reduced output during the last year was 
due to a marked increase in the cost of labor, 
material and freight. The general average in- 
crease was probably about 30 per cent., but 
some items increased, much more. 
, Prices increased, though in most places not 
in proportion to the increase in costs. Some 
producers reported an increase of 20 to 30 per 
cent. One company in Maine reported an in- 
erease of 50 per cent., and two companies in 
New Jersey an increase of 100 per cent. for 
rough stone. A few companies in New Hamp- 
shire, Maryland and the District of Columbia 
reported no increase in price. ‘ 
The demand was prevailingly small, owing 
to a general curtailment in the erection of 
both government and private buildings in 
which granite is ordinarily used. This cur- 
tailment in turn was caused by a shortage of 
labor for building, a shortage of other build- 
ing materials, and the increased price of these 
materials and of building stone. 
As building operations were very active early 
in 1917, the curtailment in them not becoming 
marked until about midsummer, the produc- 
tion in 1917 may be considered an average be- 
tween very good and very poor. The period of 
severe depression continued through the first 
six months of 1918, and as there is no prospect 
of early improvement the production of build- 
ing stone, as well as of other materials that are 
used mainly in buildings of the better classes, 
will probably be considerably less in 1918 than 
in 1917. The present abnormal period, in 
which most of the buildings erected are tem- 
porary, will probably be followed by a period 
in which permanent buildings of high archi- 
tectural merit will be constructed, and this 
change will be reflected in a rapid recovery of 
the building granite industry. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou. XLVIIT. No. 1237 
THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACAD- 
EMY OF SCIENCES 
Tue following report from the editorial 
board of the Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences was presented by the 
chairman, Raymond Pearl, at the spring meet- 
ing of the academy and is now printed in the 
Proceedings. 
1. Three volumes of the Proceedings have been 
completed, and four numbers of the fourth volume 
have been issued. 
The statistics as to the make-up of the third yol- 
ume, both in respect of subject-matter and of source 
of the contributions, have been printed in the An- 
nual Report of the Academy for 1917, and need 
not now be repeated except so far as covers one 
point. 
The statistics of articles by members of the 
academy as compared with articles by non-mem- 
bers are interesting mainly in showing a progres- 
sive diminution in the percentage of articles by 
members, despite the increase in membership of the 
academy. If there are obstacles which can be re- 
moved and which hinder members of the academy 
from printing in the Proceedings, would it not be 
well to make efforts to remove them? The academy 
represents the highest point in American research, 
and if the Proceedings should actually contain ar- 
ticles representing the totality of the investigations 
of members of the academy it would become 
thereby largely representative of all American re- 
search and of very high grade, and furthermore it 
would be more truly the proceedings of the acad- 
emy in the sense that corresponding publications of 
foreign academies are representative of their re- 
search. 
2. At the autumn meeting the terms of office of 
five members of the editorial board expired, and 
new appointments were made by the council as fol- 
lows: Jacques Loeb, W. M. Wheeler, E. B. Frost, 
H. L. Thorndike and E. H. Moore. 
3. At the autumn meeting the board decided to 
put into operation certain changes in the typo- 
graphical make-up of the Proceedings in the inter- 
est of economy. These changes have been made 
with satisfactory results. 
4. The editorial board is of the opinion that in 
view of the now established and recognized posi- 
tion of the Proceedings as a medium of scientific 
publication, the members of the academy might 
well contribute more of their own papers to its 
pages than they now do, both from the standpoint 
of self-interest as well as from a sense of duty to 
the academy and what it stands for. In this con- 
