PROCEEDINGS. 
403 
and cold storage; the cold-storage plants of the country are worth 
$100,000,000 and contain constantly an equal value of food sup¬ 
plies. The cheapest of all methods is the use of chemicals. The 
effects of these may be tested by artificial digestion, by experi¬ 
ments on lower animals, or by experiments on man. Under an 
appropriation from Congress, the speaker is beginning experi¬ 
ments on a number of volunteers whose food-supply and excreta 
will be fully analyzed to determine the effect, if any, of the usual 
preservatives; various details of the control-experiments were 
described. [Published in fuller form in U. S. Dept, of Agricul¬ 
ture, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin No. 84, part 1.] 
560th Meeting. December 20, 1902. 
THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING. 
President Rathbun in the chair. 
Seventeen persons present. 
The Minutes of the Thirty-first Annual Meeting were read and 
approved. 
The code of by-laws, as printed in the call for this meeting 
and recommended by the General Committee for adoption, was 
adopted by a unanimous vote. [See p. 340.] 
On recommendation of the General Committee, it was ordered 
that the meeting regularly falling on January 3 be omitted on 
account of the meetings during the preceding week of the Ameri¬ 
can Association for the Advancement of Science. 
The annual report of the Secretaries was read and ordered on 
file. 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARIES FOR 1902. 
Washington, D. C., December 20, 1902. 
To the Philosophical Society of Washington: 
The Secretaries have the honor to submit the following annual 
report: 
The number of active members at date of last report was 108. 
Of this number 4 have died, 1 has resigned, 2 have been trans- 
52—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 14. 
