ACT OF INCORPORATION.

AN ACT To incorporate the National Academy of Sciences.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Louis Agassiz, Massachusetts; J. H. Alexander, Maryland; S. Alexander, New Jersey; A. D. Bache, at large; F. B. Barnard, at large; J. G. Barnard, United States Army, Massachusetts; W. H. C. Bartlett, United States Military Academy, Missouri; U. A. Boyden, Massachusetts; Alexis Caswell, Rhode Island; William Chauvenet, Missouri; J. H. C. Coffin, United States Naval Academy, Maine; J. A. Dahlgren, United States Navy, Pennsylvania; J. D. Dana, Connecticut; Charles H. Davis, United States Navy, Massachusetts; George Engelmann, Saint Louis, Missouri; J. F. Frazer, Pennsylvania; Wolcott Gibbs, New York; J. M. Gilless, United States Navy, District of Columbia; A. A. Gould, Massachusetts; B. A. Gould, Massachusetts; Asa Gray, Massachusetts; A. Guyot, New Jersey; James Hall, New York; Joseph Henry, at large; J. E. Hilgard, at large, Illinois; Edward Hitchcock, Massachusetts; J. S. Hubbard, United States Naval Observatory, Connecticut; A. A. Humphreys, United States Army, Pennsylvania; J. L. Le Conte, United States Army, Pennsylvania; J. Leidy, Pennsylvania; J. P. Lesley, Pennsylvania; M. F. Longstreth, Pennsylvania; D. H. Mahan, United States Military Academy, Virginia; J. S. Newberry, Ohio; H. A. Newton, Connecticut; Benjamin Peirce, Massachusetts; John Rodgers, United States Navy, Indiana; Fairman Rogers, Pennsylvania; R. E. Rogers, Pennsylvania; W. B. Rogers, Massachusetts; L. M. Rutherford, New York; Joseph Saxton, at large; Benjamin Silliman, Connecticut; Benjamin Silliman, junior, Connecticut; Theodore Strong, New Jersey; John Torrey, New York; J. G. Totten, United States Army, Connecticut; Joseph Winlock, United States Nautical Almanac, Kentucky; Jeffries Wyman, Massachusetts; J. D. Whitney, California; their associates and successors duly chosen, are hereby incorporated, constituted, and declared to be a body corporate, by the name of the National Academy of Sciences.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the National Academy of Sciences shall consist of not more than fifty ordinary members, and the said corporation hereby constituted shall have power to make its own organization, including its constitution, by-laws, and rules and

1 The official list of members gives the name of F. A. P. Barnard.

2 The official list of members gives the name of J. M. Gilliss.

regulations; to fill all vacancies created by death, resignation, or otherwise; to provide for the election of foreign and domestic members, the division into classes, and all other matters needful or usual in such institution, and to report the same to Congress.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the National Academy of Sciences shall hold an annual meeting at such place in the United States as may be designated, and the academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art, the actual , expense of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports, to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose, but the academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any services to the Government of the United States.

Approved, March 3, 1863.

AMENDMENTS.

AN ACT To amend the act to incorporate the National Academy of Sciences. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act to incorporate the National Academy of Sciences, approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to remove the limitation of the number of ordinary members of said academy as provided in said act.

Approved, July 14, 1870.

AN ACT To authorize the National Academy of Sciences to receive and hold trust funds for the promotion of science, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the National Academy of Sciences, incorporated by the act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and its several supplements, be, and the same is hereby, authorized and empowered to receive bequests and donations and hold the same in trust, to be applied by the said academy in aid of scientific investigations and according to the will of the donors.

Approved, June 20, 1884.

AN ACT To amend the act authorizing the National Academy of Sciences to receive and hold trust funds for the promotion of science, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act to authorize the National Academy of Sciences to receive and hold trust funds for the promotion of science, and for other purposes, approved June twentieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows:

"That the National Academy of Sciences, incorporated by the act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be, and the same is hereby, authorized and empowered to receive, by devise, bequest, donation, or otherwise, either real or personal property, and to hold the same absolutely or in trust, and to invest, reinvest, and manage the same in accordance with the provisions of its constitution, and to apply said property and the income arising therefrom to the objects of its creation and according to the instructions of the donors: Provided, however, That the Congress may at any time limit the amount of real estate which may be acquired and the length of time the same may be held by said National Academy of Sciences."

SEC. 2. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act is hereby expressly reserved.

Approved, May 27, 1914.

ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

MEETINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY.

During the year 1914 the academy held two stated meetings, the annual meeting in April at Washington and the autumn meeting in December at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

The conspicuous events of the year have been two, the inauguration of the William Ellery Hale lectures and the initial awards of the Medal for Eminence in the Application of Science to the Public Welfare.

The William Ellery Hale lectures were established through a foundation, generously offered by the children of William Ellery Hale, which provides for a course of two or three lectures at each semiannual meeting of the academy, to be delivered by some scientist of distinction. As at present arranged by the committee in charge, the lectures will be devoted to a presentation of the general subject of evolution and the effort will be made to choose lecturers who have been leaders in the development of some conspicuous phase of this subject.

In pursuit of this plan, the first course of lectures, delivered at the April meeting of the academy in Washington, was devoted to the general subject of the evolution of matter, the lecturer being Sir Ernest Rutherford of Manchester, England, whose studies of radium and its related elements and derivatives have done much to create a new epoch in our knowledge of matter in its ultimate forms and relations.

The second course of lectures, given at the autumn meeting of the academy in Chicago, was presented by William Wallace Campbell, on the evolution of our stellar system, in which the effort was made to establish a genetic relationship through all the stages of development from tenuous nebulæ to cold, solid bodies like our planet.

The third course is to carry the same subject somewhat further, and treat of the earth, its geologic history and its present stage of progress. This course will be delivered at the April meeting in 1915,