1908.] 
NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
627 
REPORT OF THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. 
With regret the Corresponding Secretary records the death during 
the past year of the following named correspondents of the Academy : 
Henry Benedict Medlicott, Lord Kelvin, Henry Clifton Sorby, Prof. 
Spiridion Brusina, Prof. Gustav Mayr and Prof. William Kieth Brooks. 
No corresponding members were elected. During the year a few 
additional photographs and biographical sketches of correspondents 
were received and have been added to our files. 
Invitations to the Academy to participate in the following notable 
events were received : The Third International Botanical Congress and 
the First Congress of Administrative Sciences, both to be held in Brus- 
sels in 1910; the Prehistoric Congress of France, the Centenary Jubilee 
of the Physico-Medical Society of Erlangen, the Inauguration of Dr. 
Albert R. Plill as President of the University of Missouri, the opening 
of the new Hall of the Physical Institute of Frankfort a. M., and the 
University of Cambridge celebration of the centenary of the birth of 
Charles Darwin and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the 
Origin of Species. Suitable letters of acknowledgment or congratu- 
lation were in each case forwarded, and as the Academy’s representative 
to the last named Dr. Arthur Erwin Brown has been appointed. In 
this connection it may interest the members of the Academy to know 
that Darwin was elected a correspondent on March 27, 1860, within 
four months of the publication of the Origin of Species, and that 
this Academy was therefore probably the first society to place its 
official stamp of approval upon this epoch-making work. 
An invitation from the Section of Geology and Mineralogy of the 
New York Academy of Sciences to join in organizing a series of general 
geological meetings for the eastern United States was referred to the 
Geological and Mineralogical Section of the Academy. A letter of 
thanks for the use of the Academy’s Hall for its session of 1907 was 
received from the American Ornithologists’ Union. Notices of the 
death of seven scientific men of distinction were received and acknowl- 
edged by letters of sympathy. 
Copies of resolutions approving of the movement to establish 
White Mountain and Southern Appalachian forest reserves and com- 
mending the purpose of the conference to consider the conservation of 
natural resources were forwarded to members of Congress and other 
persons concerned and brought numerous favorable responses. 
Pursuant to instructions of the Council the Corresponding Secretary 
