ANNOUNCEMENT 
The National Academy of Sciences begins with this issue the 
publication of monthly Proceedings. 
The Proceedings, as the official organ of publication of the Acad- 
emy, will contain reports of its business and scientific sessions and 
of actions taken by its Council, notices of the Scientific and Bio- 
graphical Memoirs printed for the Academy by the United States 
government, announcements of the awards of medals and research 
grants made from its trust-funds, and statements as to other ac- 
tivities of the Academy. 
The Proceedings will also scrA^e as a medium for the prompt 
pubHcation of brief original papers by members of the Academy 
and other American investigators. Its aim will be to furnish a 
comprehensive survey of the more important results of the scien- 
tific research of this country. With this end in view the papers 
will, in general, be much shorter and less detailed than those pub- 
lished in journals devoted to special branches of science. It is 
indeed intended that publication in the Proceedings shall supple- 
ment, not replace, that in special journals. The Proceedings will 
aim especially to secure promptness of publication, wide circula- 
tion of the results of American research among foreign investi- 
gators, and fuller recognition of the advances made in the separate 
sciences by persons more directly interested in other sciences. The 
Proceedings will thus serve to draw wider attention to the detailed 
publications appearing in the special journals. 
The scientific papers appearing in the Proceedings, though neces- 
sarily brief, are expected to be precise and to contain some record 
of the experimental or observational results upon which the con- 
clusions are based; but such results are to be given in condensed 
summaries, reserving long tables of data, elaborate illustrations, 
and technical details of the work for publication in special journals. 
When practicable, the papers are to include an introductory state- 
ment of the general aspects of the research and of its relation to 
previous knowledge in thv^ same field, so that its significance ma}^ 
be appreciated by those engaged in other branches of science. 
