486 
REPORT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 
It was agreed in general to adhere to the present policy of the Proceedings in retard to 
having the bulk of its contents made up of numerous short articles of first-class quality, fall 
ing in general under the 6-page limit. It was thought desirable, however, to continue the 
policy of accepting longer articles under special circumstances, 12 to 15 pages being regarded 
as a proper maximum length for such articles. It was agreed that the Managing Editor 
and the Chairman of the Board should have all reasonable freedom in exercising their judg- 
ment on the administration of policy as to length of articles in particular cases. 
A special joint committee of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings on the one hand, 
and the National Research Council on the other hand, met and considered the general ques- 
tion of the future relations of the National Research Council and the Proceedings. The 
special committee was constituted as follows : For the Editorial Board : the Chairman, the 
Managing Editor, and Dr. Day; for the National Research Council: Doctors Hale, Merriam 
and Yerkes. The general policy worked out by this joint committee was agreed to by the 
Editorial Board. It was in effect this, that the Proceedings of the National Academy of 
Sciences should become in a broader sense than had been true in the past, representative of 
the activities of the National Research Council, as well as of the National Academy. It was 
understood that the National Research Council should offer to the Proceedings as ofl&cial 
communications of the Research Council of the National Academy such material (intended 
for publication as bulletins of the Council) as the Council considered to be of permanent scien- 
tific value in the Proceedings. It was felt that in view of the proposed enlargement of the 
scope of the Proceedings to represent the activities of the National Research Council that 
some changes in the typography of the Proceedings might be desirable and it was agreed 
that changes looking to the improvement of the Proceedings in this regard would be inaugu- 
rated as soon as agreement on the matter had been reached between the conferees from the 
two interested bodies. 
Although no formal report can be made on the matter at this time, the Editorial Board is 
in possession of information which leads it to hope that the financial support of the Proceed- 
ings will be more adequately provided for in the near future. In this event, the Editorial 
Board expects to inaugurate, with the approval of the Council of the Academy, certain changes 
in details of policy which will be in the direction of more liberal arrangements between the 
Proceedings and its contributors, particularly in the matter of providing a certain number 
of free reprints to authors. The wisdom of such policy has always been clear to the Editorial 
Board, but the simple fact of lack of available funds in the past has made it impossible for 
the Board to carry out its wishes in this matter. 
Respectfully submitted, 
Raymond Pearl, Chairman.^ 
The following organization of the National Research Council was presented 
and, upon motion, was adopted as a whole, with power of amendment vested 
in the Council of the National Academy of Sciences. 
Organization of the National Research Council 
Preamble 
The National Academy of Sciences, under the authority conferred upon it by its charter 
enacted by Congress, and approved by President Lincoln on March 3, 1863, and pursuant to 
the request expressed in an Executive Order made by President Wilson on May 11, 1918, 
hereto appended, adopts the following permanent organization for the National Research 
Council, to replace the temporary organization under which it has operated heretofore. 
Article I. — Purpose 
It shall be the purpose of the National Research Council to promote research in the mathe^ 
matical, physical, and biological sciences, and in the application ot these sciences to engineer- 
