1014 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
they have allowed the printing of the plates to he done by the 
engraver when so desired. This policy will enable the Acad¬ 
emy to secure the best obtainable illustrations for papers of¬ 
fered to it. 
The most serious obstacle now in the way of making the 
Transactions a first-class medium of publication for papers of¬ 
fered to it, lies in the form in which they are issued and the 
ruling of the printing commissioners which requires that all 
the copy for a part shall be in the hands of the printer before 
work may be begun. This ruling, and the fact that the state 
printer usually takes his own time for the printing, has been the 
cause of the most vexatious delays and has been in some cases 
the cause of the loss of some excellent material which otherwise 
would have been given to the Academy. This delay might be 
obviated and the appearance of the Transactions much im¬ 
proved if a ruling could be secured from the printing commis¬ 
sioners allowing the Academy to receive a permit to have its 
papers printed as soon as they are presented. Separates could 
then be issued within a reasonable time and either the matter 
stereotyped for later printing or the whole two thousand cop¬ 
ies printed and distributed as a numbered part of the volume. 
In this connection, the secretary would also recommend that 
the form of the Transactions be so changed that one of the two 
parts shall be devoted to papers in science and mathematics, 
and the other, separately paged, to letters, the term letters to in¬ 
clude language, history, political economy, political science and 
allied subjects. If this were done, it would be necessary under 
the present law to keep each part open for two years and to 
complete the two parts simultaneously. It may be that an act 
of the state legislature will be required to make these changes. 
I recommend, therefore, that a committee of three members 
be appointed whose duty it shall be to try to secure such ruling 
from the printing commissioners and, if need be, such action 
from the legislature, as will enable the Academy to secure the 
prompt printing of papers offered for publication and to 
change the form of the Transactions by the establishment of 
one or more fairly homogeneous series or parts as may seem 
