RECORDS OF MEETINGS 293 



Herman Credner, Honorary Member since 1911, died 22 July, 1913, 

 Frederick A. Ober, Corresponding Member since 1879, died 1 June, 

 1913. 



The Kecording Secretary reported from tlie Council the resignation of 

 Mr. Emerson McMillin as President of the Academy. On motion the 

 Academy adopted the following resolution : 



The New York Academy of Sciences, in accepting President McMillin's resig- 

 nation of his oflSce, expresses its regret that circumstances prevent him from 

 serving to the completion of his term ; it would place on record its high appre- 

 ciation of his devotion to the Academy's interests during the two years in 

 which he has been President. 



The Academy then adjourned. 



E. 0. HOVEY, 



Recording Secretary. 



SECTION OF BIOLOGY 



13 October, 1913 



Section met at 8 :15 p. m., Vice-President W. D. Matthew presiding. 

 The minutes of the last meeting of the Section were read and approved. 

 The following programme was then offered : 



W. K. Gregory, H. F. Osborn, Conference on Convergent Evo- 

 A. W. Grabau, W. D. Matthew lution. Including a Summary of 

 and R. Broom. the Eecent Discussion Before 



THE British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



Summary of Papers 



Dr. Gregory spoke under the following headings : 



I. Examples and Definitions of Convergence and Parallelism. As an 

 example of convergence, he exhibited the resemblances and differences in 

 the skulls of the "Marsupial Wolf", Thylacynus, and the true or Pla- 

 cental Wolf, Canis lupus. He discussed the definitions of convergence 

 proposed by Osborn, 1906, Abel, 1911, and Gadow, 1913, accepting Os- 

 bom's view that the criterion of absolute non-homology between conver- 

 gent structures was not essential to the conception of convergence. His 

 own definition of convergence was "similar habitus evolved from diverse 

 heritages." 



II. Rectigradations (Osborn). These are new characters which appear 

 in earlier phyletic stages as very faint indications, and progressively 



