mark of confidence most keenly, and notwithstanding some twinges of a New England conscience about receiving credit for work done by some one else, I have been very grateful to the Council for its complimentary action.

More recently, it may have come to your ears that I have undertaken a very much greater war responsibility than any with which I have heretofore had to do. It is in connection with the Corning Glass Works at Corning, N. Y., and I have accordingly decided to move my family there.

It is a very necessary though unwritten law that the Home Secretary should be a resident of Washington, which after October 1 I shall no longer be. I therefore respectfully offer a final request to be relieved of the duties of Home Secretary from October 1, 1918. With kindest regards, believe me,

Very sincerely yours,

ARTHUR L. DAY, Home Secretary.

The recommendation of the Council that the resignation of Mr. A. L. Day as Home Secretary be accepted with an expression of appreciation of his valuable services in that office and that the election of a Home Secretary as provided for under the Constitution be held at the next stated meeting of the Academy was approved.

The President presented the following communication from the President of the United States relative to the National Research Council:

Executive Order Issued by the President of the United States, May 11, 1918

The National Research Council was organized in 1916 at the request of the President of the National Academy of Sciences, under its Congressional charter, as a measure of national preparedness. The work accomplished by the Council in organizing research and in securing coöperation of military and civilian agencies in the solution of military problems demonstrates its capacity for larger service. The National Academy of Sciences is therefore requested to perpetuate the National Research Council, the duties of which shall be as follows:

1. In general, to stimulate research in the mathematical, physical and biological sciences, and in the application of these sciences to engineering, agriculture, medicine and other useful arts, with the object of increasing knowledge, of strengthening the national defense, and of contributing in other ways to the public welfare.

2. To survey the larger possibilities of science, to formulate comprehensive projects of research, and to develop effective means of utilizing the scientific and technical resources of the country for dealing with these objects.

3. To promote coöperation in research, at home and abroad, in order to secure concentration of effort, minimize duplication, and stimulate progress; but in all coöperative undertakings to give encouragement to individual initiative, as fundamentally important to the advancement of science.

4. To serve as a means of bringing American and foreign investigators into active cooperation with the scientific and technical services of the War and Navy Departments and with those of the civil branches of the government.

5. To direct the attention of scientific and technical investigators to the present importance of military and industrial problems in connection with the war, and to aid in the solution of these problems by organizing specific researches.

6. To gather and collate scientific and technical information at home and abroad, in coöperation with Governmental and other agencies and to render such information available to duly accredited persons.

Effective prosecution of the Council's work requires the cordial collaboration of the scientific and technical branches of the Government, both military and civil. To this end

representatives of the Government, upon the nomination of the President of the National Academy of Sciences, will be designated by the President as members of the Council, as heretofore, and the heads of the departments immediately concerned will continue to cooperate in every way that may be required.

THE WHITE HOUSE, May 11, 1918.

WOODROW WILSON.

The President read the following resolutions adopted at the Inter-Allied Conference, held at London, October 9, 1918, received from the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Hale, who was also Chairman of the Delegation, the other members being Messrs. A. A. Noyes, Durand, Flexner, Bumstead, and Carty.

RESOLVED THAT: A Committee of Enquiry be constituted by the Conference, the Academies of the countries at war with the Central Powers having power to add further members. This Committee shall prepare a general scheme of international organizations to meet the requirements of the various branches of scientific and industrial research including those relating to national defence. (The Committee will meet in Paris during the second fortnight in November.)

Each of the Academies represented at the Conference shall be invited to initiate the formation of a National Council for the promotion of the researches specified in Resolution 4.

An International Council, having as nucleus the Committee specified in Resolution 4, shall be formed by the federation of the National Councils.

The Conference being of opinion that all industrial, agricultural and medical progress depends on pure science, draws the attention of] the various governments to the importance of theoretical and disinterested researches, which after the restoration of peace should be supported by large endowments. The Conference urges similarly the creation of large laboratories for experimental science, both private and national.

The action of the Academy delegates in having the above resolutions adopted by the Inter-Allied Conference in London was approved by the Academy.

On the recommendation of the Council the Academy placed itself on record as welcoming the publications of a scientific and technical character to go into the building that is contemplated.

Mr. Davis presented the following forms, asking that the members of the Academy sign the petition. Many members present did so, and after the meeting, with the approval of the President of the Academy, additional signatures of members were obtained by correspondence to a total number of about 100.

The undersigned Members of the National Academy of Sciences, meeting in Baltimore November 18, 1918, petition the Congress of the United States to take action in consultation with the governments of many other countries, toward the formation at as early a date as possible of a League of Nations for the maintenance of Peace.

The undersigned Members of the National Academy of Sciences, meeting in Baltimore November 18, 1918, having petitioned the Congress of the United States to take action, in consultation with the governments of many other countries, toward the formation at as early a date as possible of a League for the maintenance of Peace, hereby urge the members of other learned societies in the United States to do likewise.

The following motion was offered:

MOVED: That the Home Secretary be requested to transmit the thanks of the Academy to the President and Trustees of Johns Hopkins University, the members of the Johns Hopkins Club and the members of the Academy resident in Baltimore serving as the local committee, for the courtesies extended to the members of the National Academy of Sciences at the Autumn Meeting, 1918. (Adopted.)

SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS

Three public scientific sessions were held on November 18 and 19 at which the following papers were presented.

C. G. ABBOT: Cloud reflection and the albedo of the earth and Venus.

A. H. PFUND (introduced by J. S. AMES): Colorimetry of white surfaces.

F. W. CLARKE and G. STEIGER: The inorganic constituents of lobster shells.

R. W. HEGNER (introduced by H. S. JENNINGS): Quantitative relations between chromatin and cytoplasm in the genus Arcella, with their relations to external characters.

D. R. HOOKER (introduced by W. H. HOWELL): The physiological effects of air-concussion.

W. H. HOWELL: Two new factors in blood coagulation.

C. B. DAVENPORT and Albert G. LOVE: Comparative morbidity of white and colored troops.

A. G. WEBSTER: Theory of wind instruments.

A. G. WEBSTER: On the ballistic resistance function.

A. G. WEBSTER: On the dynamics of the rifle fired from the shoulder.

G. P. MERRILL: Second report on the researches on the chemical and mineralogical composition of meteorites.

W. E. DANDY (introduced by W. S. HALSTED): Hydrocephalus: experimental and clinical study. Illustrated.

W. S HALSTED: Clinical and experimental observations in cases of arteriovenous and lymphatico-venous fistulae. Illustrated.

W. E. CASTLE: Is the arrangement of the genes in the chromosome linear? Illustrated. E. F. SMITH: Cause of Phyllomania in Begonia. Illustrated.

W. G. MACCALLUM (introduced by H. S. JENNINGS): Recent epidemics of pneumonia in army camps. Illustrated.

G. A. BLISS: Differential corrections of ballistics.

S. B. WOLBACH: Some results of studies of Influenza at an army camp.

V. C. VAUGHAN: Communicable diseases in an army camp.

R. W. WOOD: Physiological effects of light of short wave-length.

*G. N. LEWIS: Kinetics and thermodynamics.

* A. O. LEUSCHNER: Perturbations and tables of the minor planets discovered by James C. Watson, Part II.

*C. E. VAN ORSTRAND: Mathematical tables.

*F. SLATE, Jr.: Biography of Eugene Waldemar Hilgard.

*W. W. CAMPBELL: Biographical memoir of George Davidson.

*C. R. Cross: Biographical memoir of James Mason Crafts.

*T. D. A. COCKERELL: Biographical memoir of Alpheus Spring Packard.

* F. SLATE, Jr.: Biographical memoir of Eugene Waldemar Hilgard.

*The asterisk denotes presentation by title.

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

AT THE NATIONAL RESEARCH Council Building, December 21, 1918, at 10 a.m.

Present: Messrs. Bogert, Cross, Flinn, Howe, Hussey, Johnston, Manning, Mendenhall, Merriam, Millikan, Pupin, Walcott, Washburn, Welch, Woods, Woodward. and Yerkes.

The Chairman presented a report of the Committee on Reconstruction Problems. This Committee at its first meeting on August 18, 1918, adopted a program calling for research into the agencies and activities dealing with after-war problems. It appears that many organizations have taken up, or are about to take up, some phase of this far-reaching matter; so that, in theory at least, there are relatively few points not being covered. The Committee decided therefore to limit its efforts to a specific undertaking; and recommends the preparation of a comprehensive report on the whole question of the supply and control of water in relation to food and power production and other industries, a question which enters largely into all reconstruction plans throughout the world. In the compilation of data and preparation of this report it is proposed that each member of the Committee should cover one of the major topics, and that experts in Government service be invited to cooperate; and that the whole should be edited by some one person, with due credit to the several collaborators and sources of information.

Moved: That the plan presented by the Committee on Reconstruction Problems be approved, provided that it does not conflict with similar activities of present Government organizations and that the manuscript of the report having to do with reconstruction be submitted to the Committee on Publicity and Publications for approval before it is sent to press. (Adopted.)

Mr. Merriam, Chairman of the Committee on Organization, presented a report, in substance as follows:

The period of the war emergency having come to an end, so far as activities in most phases of research are concerned, the National Research Council must take up for immediate consideration the extent of readjustment necessary in order to adapt its machinery most perfectly for functioning through the period of reconstruction and in normal times of peace.

In the evolution of the Research Council the first stage was that of a temporary organization intended to continue for a period not longer than one year, within which time it was assumed that the best mode of operation would become evident. The entrance of America into the war made necessary considerable modification of the temporary machinery in order to permit concentration of effort within the briefest limits of time and space. These shifts were not presumed to lead in all cases in the direction of permanent organization, and suggestions relating to the ultimate plan upon which the work of the Council was to be based continued under discussion through the period of the war. While it is not necesgary to assume that either the aims or the plan of operation of the Council must be materi

ally altered for the immediate future, it is certain that the tremendous change of conditions in the country incident to ending of the war makes necessary the immediate consideration of adaptability of the Council's present machine for handling the next problems to come before it. Not only must the question as to our present situation be answered for ourselves, but we must make clear to the research men of the country that the Council has fully considered this matter and that, recognizing changing conditions, it is fitting itself as rapidly as possible into the best position for future work.

The aims and purposes of the Research Council have from the beginning covered the broadest relations and applications of science. In recent months the work has been expressed in effort to assist in bringing science to bear upon problems of war. From this experience it has been clear that efficiency of the nation in war is in considerable measure dependent upon the most intimate correlation of scientific interests, such as is also needed in time of peace. With the cessation of hostilities, we find our problem differing largely in mode of application of results of research and in the larger freedom to consider stimulation and correlation of scientific investigation and initiation of new enterprises.

The skeleton of the present war organization of the Research Council appears in general to furnish a satisfactory basis for operation in time of peace. The principal modifications needed involve:

(1) The placing of larger emphasis upon the initiation, stimulation, and correlation of fundamental researches.

(2) Reorganization of the Divisions so as to secure a wide representation of the major research interests in the country regardless of geographic location of the members.

Owing to the immediate need for securing assistance of science in handling emergency problems, the work of the Council has recently tended toward the extreme of application of results of research, rather than toward the stimulation or initiation of work on new problems. With relief from urgent requirements for application of available research data in war, it becomes possible for the investigator to concern himself more particularly with researches in science and technology, depending upon his cooperation with the engineer for application of results secured. At the same time that we are relieved from extraordinary requirements in application of research we are given the possibility of bringing into conference with the Research Council a considerable group of men whose participation in the work of this organization has been difficult because of geographic situation.

Accordingly it is considered that the organization of the National Research Council should be such as to render it an effective federation of the research agencies of the country. To this end a large proportion of the membership of the Council will be nominated by the national scientific and technical societies. All members will be appointed for periods of three years, and will be grouped into a series of divisions each of which will deal with related branches of science and technology or with some specific phase of activity of the Council. Each Division will elect a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Executive Committee to administer the affairs of the Division. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of each of the several Divisions, together with certain other members, shall be the Executive Board of the Council; the officers of the Executive Board will be the officers of the Council as a whole. The Executive Board will determine the general policy of the Council; but each Division will be as autonomous as possible, and the policies of the several Divisions may differ in various respects provided that these do not conflict with the general policies of the Council..

Tentative plans, in accordance with the above general principles, were discussed at length; but no final conclusions were reached.

Moved: That the report of the Committee on Organization be approved with the recommendations contained therein. (Adopted.)

Moved: That the question of reorganization of the Divisions concerned with administrative, governmental and general relations, be referred to the Committee on Organization