ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. Mr. W. H. Howell and Mr. J. M. Coulter were chosen members of the council to succeed Mr. W. T. Councilman and Mr. R. S. Woodward. ELECTION OF NEW MEMBERS. The following were elected members of the academy on April 21, 1915: Henry Seely White, mathematician, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Charles Greeley Abbot, astrophysicist, Astrophysical Observatory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Robert Andrews Millikan, physicist, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Alexander Smith, chemist, Columbia University, New York City. Samuel Wendell Williston, paleontologist, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. William Ernest Castle, zoologist, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Frank Rattray Lillie, zoologist, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. Graham Lusk, physiologist, Cornell University Medical College, New York City. Victor Clarence Vaughan, pathologist, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Granville Stanley Hall, psychologist, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. The draft of the constitution as amended and unanimously adopted in the committee of the whole at the Chicago meeting, printed in full on pages 30-37, Annual Report for 1914, was presented by the president as chairman of the committee of the whole, and adopted. RULES. The rules revised and arranged in groups to correspond with the articles and sections of the new constitution were presented and adopted as printed on pages 56-61 of this report. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF COMMITTEE PERSONNEL. The president announced the appointment of the following new members of standing committees: Wright. The Henry Draper fund: J. S. Ames in place of A. W. The Comstock fund: Elihu Thomson to succeed himself. The Marcellus Hartley fund: George F. Becker, appointed chairman in place of Elihu Thomson, resigned; Theobald Smith to succeed Elihu Thomson, resigned. ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE AUTUMN MEETING. The president announced that an invitation had been received from the members of the academy living in New York City asking that the autumn meeting be held there, and that this invitation had been accepted. SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS. The following program of scientific sessions was carried out in full at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, 1915: PROGRAM, Annual Meeting, APRIL 19, 20, 21, 1915. Monday, April 19, 1915. [2.30 p.m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] Thomas H. Morgan: Localization of the hereditary material in germ cells. (30 minutes.) PROBLEMS OF NUTRITION AND GROWTH. Jacques Loeb: Stimulation of growth. (30 minutes.) Lafayette B. Mendel: Specific chemical aspects of growth. (30 minutes.) Eugene F. Du Bois, medical director, Russell Sage Institute of Pathology (by invitation of the program committee): Basal metabolism during the period of growth. (30 minutes.) I. S. Kleiner and S. J. Meltzer: Retention in the circulation of injected dextrose in depancreatized animals and the effect of an intravenous injection of an emulsion of pancreas upon this retention. (10 minutes.) [8 p. m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] First William Ellery Hale lecture, by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, of the University of Chicago. Subject: The evolution of the earth. (Illustrated.) The lecture will be followed by a conversazione in the art gallery of the Museum. All members of the scientific societies of Washington, with ladies, are cordially invited to attend both lecture and conversazione. No cards are necessary. Tuesday, April 20, 1915. [10 a. m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] Joel Stebbins, Draper medallist: The electrical photometry of stars. (30 minutes. illustrated.) George E. Hale: A vortex hypothesis of sun spots. (20 minutes, illsutrated.) Edwin B. Frost: The spectroscopic binary, mu orionis. (10 minutes, illustrated.) Robert W. Wood: One-dimensional gases and the experimental determination of the law of reflection for gas molecules. (10 minutes, illustrated.) Robert W. Wood: The relations between resonance and absorption spectra. (15 minutes, illustrated.) Edward L. Nichols and H. L. Howes: On the polarized fluorescence of ammoniouranyl chloride. (15 minutes, illustrated.) Robert A. Millikan (by invitation of the program committee): Atomism in modern physics. (30 minutes, illustrated.) [2.30 p.m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] William Morris Davis: Problems associated with the origin of coral reefs, suggested by a Shaler memorial study of the reefs of Fiji, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides, Queensland, and the Society Islands, in 1914. (60 minutes, illustrated.) F. W. Clarke: Inorganic constituents of marine invertebrates. (15 minutes.) Roy L. Moody (introduced by H. F. Osborn): Amphibia and reptilia of the American Carboniferous. (15 minutes, illustrated.) Henry Fairfield Osborn and J. Howard McGregor: Human races of the old stone age of Europe, the geologic time of their appearance, their racial and anatomical characters. (15 minutes, illustrated.) Charles A. Davis, geologist, Bureau of Mines (by invitation of the program committee): On the fossil algae of the petroleum-yielding shales of the Green River formation. (15 minutes, illustrated.) Nathaniel L. Britton: The forests of Porto Rico. (10 minutes.) J. Walter Fewkes: Pictures on prehistoric pottery from the Mimbres Valley in New Mexico and their relation to those of Casas Grandes. (20 minutes, illustrated.) Charles B. Davenport: Inheritance of temperament. (15 minutes.) Charles B. Davenport: Inheritance of Huntington's chorea. (12 minutes.) E. E. Barnard: A singular dark marking on the sky. (5 minutes, illustrated.) E. W. Brown (introduced by R. S. Woodward): Biographical memoir of George William Hill. (Read by title.) Wednesday, April 21, 1915. [2.45 p. m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] George H. Parker, official representative of the academy upon the special commission appointed by the President of the United States to study and report upon the Alaskan fur seals during the summer of 1914. Subject: The fur-seal herd of the Pribilof Islands. (Illustrated.) [4 p. m.-Auditorium, National Museum.] Second William Ellery Hale lecture, by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, of the University of Chicago. Subject: The evolution of the earth. (Illustrated.) PRESENTATION OF THE HENRY DRAPER MEDAL. At the annual dinner of the Academy, held at the Hotel Raleigh April 20, 1915, the Henry Draper medal, provided by the Henry Draper fund, was awarded to Joel Stebbins, of the University of Illinois, in recognition of his work on application of the selenium cell to stellar photometry. AUTUMN MEETING. The autumn meeting of the academy was held in the American Museum of Natural History at New York City, on November 15, 16, 17, 1915. Forty-eight members were present, as follows: Abbot (C. G.), Becker, Boas, Boltwood, Britton, Castle, Cattell, Chittenden, Clark (W. B.), Clarke (F. W.), Clarke (J. M.), Conklin, Coulter, Crew, Cross, Davenport, Day, Donaldson, Hague, Harper, Harrison, Hillebrand, Holmes, Howell, Iddings, Lindgren, Loeb, Lusk, Mall, Mendel, Michelson, Morgan, Morse, Noyes (A. A.), Osborn (H. F.), Osborne (T. B.), Pickering, Ransome, Reid, Richards, Rosa, Schuchert, Smith (Theobald), Van Hise, Walcott, Webster, Wheeler, White, (H. S.). BUSINESS SESSION. The home secretary made the following announcements: DEATHS SINCE THE ANNUAL MEETING. Members.-John Ulric Nef, elected 1904, died August 13, 1915; Frederick W. Putnam, elected 1885, died August 18, 1915. Foreign associates.-Theodor Boveri, elected 1913, died October 15, 1915; Paul Ehrlich, elected 1904, died August 20, 1915. PUBLICATIONS ISSUED SINCE THE LAST ANNUAL MEETING. Proceedings, volume 1, numbers 1-11. Memoirs, volume 12, part 2, memoirs 2 and 3, volume 13, as follows: Volume 12, part II. Second memoir, Charles C. Adams: The variations and ecological distribution of the snails of the genus Io. Third memoir, Joseph E. Pogue: The Turquois; a study of its history, mineralogy, geology, ethnology, archæology, mythology, folklore, and technology. Volume 13, Oliver Cummings Farrington: Catalogue of the meteorites of North America to January 1, 1909. Biographical memoirs: John Huntington Crane Coffin, by G. C. Comstock; Miers Fisher Longstreth, by Rebecca C. Longstreth; Charles Anthony Schott, by Cleveland Abbe; Henry Morton, by Edward L. Nichols; John Wesley Powell, by William M. Davis; Peter Lesley, by William M. Davis. COMMITTEE CHANGES. The election of Edwin B. Frost to be chairman of the board of directors of the Bache fund, and of Arthur Gordon Webster to succeed Ira Remsen as a member of the board. The board is now constituted as follows: E. B. Frost, chairman; A. G. Webster, R. G. Harrison. The election of Theodore William Richards to succeed Ira Remsen as a member of the board of directors of the Wolcott Gibbs fund. The board is now constituted as follows: C. L. Jackson, chairman; T. W. Richards, Edgar F. Smith. The ad interim appointments of acting chairmen of the sections of the academy are as follows: Mathematics: E. H. Moore, acting chairman. Astronomy: G. C. Comstock, acting chairman. Physics and Engineering: R. S. Woodward, acting chairman. Geology and Paleontology: Arnold Hague, acting chairman. Botany: J. M. Coulter, chairman, 1915-1918. Zoology and Animal Morphology: E. G. Conklin, acting chair man. The ad interim appointments of acting chairmen-Continued. Physiology and Pathology: R. H. Chittenden, acting chairman. Anthropology and Pscyhology: W. H. Holmes, acting chair man. The following members were appointed a committee to audit the accounts of the treasurer in accordance with Rule V, 5: William H. Dall, chairman; Arthur L. Day, F. W. Clarke. The division of the members of the editorial board of the Proceedings into three groups, one-third of them retiring annually, in accordance with Rule V, 1 was announced as follows: December 1, 1916.-W. B. Cannon, J. McK. Cattell, J. M. Coulter, Simon Flexner, R. G. Harrison. December 1, 1917.-C. B. Davenport, E. G. Conklin, E. B. Frost, W. H. Holmes, E. H. Moore. December 1, 1918.-J. M. Clarke, J. J. Abel, R. A. Millikan, Alexander Smith, J. P. Iddings. DELEGATES. Mr. Arthur L. Day represented the National Academy at the inauguration of Dr. F. J. Goodnow as president of Johns Hopkins University and at the dedication of the new University buildings on March 20, 1915. Mr. T. H. Morgan represented the National Academy at the fiftieth anniversary of Vassar College and the inauguration of Dr. H. N. MacCracken as president on October 13, 1915. COMMITTEE ON PANAMA CANAL. The president announced that in accordance with the request of the President of the United States he had appointed the following a committee of the academy to consider and report upon the possibility of controlling the slides which are seriously interfering with the use of the Panama Canal: C. R. Van Hise, chairman; H. L. Abbot, G. F. Becker, J. C. Branner, Whitman Cross, Arthur L. Day, J. F. Hayford, H. F. Reid, R. S. Woodward, R. C. Carpenter, Arthur P. Davis, John R. Freeman. MARSH FUND. The treasurer reported that Mr. W. W. Farnam, executor of the estate of O. C. Marsh, deceased, had transmitted to the academy on July 23, 1915, the final payment of $750, completing the legacy of $10,000 left by Mr. Marsh to the National Academy of Sciences. CONSOLIDATION OF FUNDS. The treasurer reported that the plan for the consolidation of certain funds of the academy for investment purposes had been approved by the fiscal advisers of the academy, Messrs. Spencer Trask |