REPORT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 
391 
The resignation of Mr. Frost was accepted and Mr. A. O. Leuschner was 
elected a member of the Trustees of the Watson Fund. 
Mr. William Trelease was appointed to represent the Academy at the 
inauguration of Walter Albert Jessup, as President of Iowa State University. 
The report of the Home Secretary was presented as follows : 
The President of the National Academy of Sciences. 
Sir: I have the honor to present the following report on the publications and member- 
ship of the National Academy of Sciences for the year ending April 18, 1917. 
The following publications have been issued and distributed : the Memoirs of the National 
Academy of Sciences, Volume 14, Memoir 1, entitled "Report on Researches on the Chemical 
and Mineralogical Composition of Meteorites, with Especial Reference to Their Minor 
Constituents," by George Perkins Merrill; Biographical Memoirs of Edward Singleton 
Holden, by W. W. Campbell; Theodore Nicholas Gill, by William Healey Dall; George 
William Hill, by Ernest W. Brown; and Alfred Marshall Mayer, by Alfred G. Mayer and 
Robert S. Woodward; also the Annual Report for 1915. 
Two members have died since the last annual meeting: Cleveland Abbe, elected in 1879, 
died October 28, 1916; and Josiah Royce, elected in 1906, died September 14, 1916. Two 
foreign associates have also died: Sir William Ramsey, elected 1904, died July 24, 1916; and 
Gaston Darboux, elected in 1913, died March, 1917. There are 147 active members on the 
membership list, one honorary member and 37 foreign associates. 
(Signed) Arthur L. Day, Home Secretary. 
The report of the Foreign Secretary was presented as follows : 
On April 6, 1917, a cablegram was prepared by the Foreign Secretary of the Academy, 
with the approval of the five members of the Council: 
"The entrance of the United States into the war unites our men of science with yours 
in a common cause. The National Academy of Sciences, acting through the National Re- 
search Council, which has been designated by President Wilson and the Council of National 
Defense to mobilize the research facilities of the country, would gladly co-operate in any scien- 
tific researches still underlying the solution of military or industrial problems. 
Hale, Foreign Secretary, 
The cablegram was sent to the Royal Society, London, England; to the Academie des 
Sciences, Paris, France; to the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, Italy; and to the Academie des 
Sciences, Petrograd, Russia. (Signed) George E. Hale, Foreign Secretary. 
The report of the Treasurer was presented in its printed form and approved : 
REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES ON TRUST FUNDS 
A report was received from the Directors of the Bache Fund, signed by 
Edwin B. Frost (Chairman), stating that since the annual meeting of the 
Academy in April, 1916, grants Nos. 196-201 (as announced in the Pro- 
ceedings, vol. 2, p. 743) and Nos. 202-204 (as announced below, p. 398) had 
been made; and that reports on previous grants had been received as follows: 
No. 186, J. Voute, Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. From a letter dated 
January 15, 1915, it appears that about 13,000 transits had then been observed for the 
purpose of determining stellar parallaxes. From a letter dated July 22, 1916: "The 
parallax work on the transit circle is nearly finished, but I have started a small series of about 
125 stars on the astrographic refractor." 
No. 187, H. H. Lane, University of Oklahoma. Preliminary report on "The Structure 
and Function in the Development of the Special Senses in Mammals," Science, New York, 
N. S., 43, 1916, (179). 
