4 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
“March 7. ... . If the plan we first pitched upon had been followed, that 
of creating the Academy with a dozen or twenty members, and allowing them to 
organize and fill up the whole number by usual system of ballot, then the odium 
of exclusion would have been divided and distributed. ... . You will perceive 
at once that, on the plan I proposed, not only would the odium (if any) of 
exclusion be numerously shared, but a wider and broader opinion and control 
would have been brought to bear on selection, which would then have become 
election. And this was due to the interests of the government and to the claims 
of men of science” (p. 292). 
In these letters the chronological order of the events narrated 
is largely inverted, and, on the first perusal of them, the actual 
sequence is not readily comprehended. They inform us that 
Admiral Davis, having come to Washington in November, 1862, 
heard and participated in various discussions among his scientific 
associates of the need of a national scientific organization. Hav- 
ing served as a member of various advisory boards, the idea 
occurred to him not long before February 2, 1863, that the 
organization might take the form of a Permanent Commission. 
He at once broached the subject to Bache and Henry who agreed 
that the plan was meritorious, while at the same time clinging 
to the idea of founding an academy. Henry was so favorably 
impressed with the commission plan that he immediately pre- 
sented it to the Navy Department. This plan received the 
prompt attention of the Secretary of the Navy, who issued an 
order on February 11, creating the Permanent Commission. 
While awaiting the result of the Navy Department’s con- 
sideration of the plan to establish a scientific commission, the 
idea occurred to Admiral Davis that an academy might be 
organized by the simple process of asking Congress for its incor- 
poration “in the name of some of the leading men of science 
from different parts of the country.” ‘This idea was also pre- 
sented to Bache and Henry, who, however, were not immediately 
convinced of its merits. About this time Louis Agassiz, having 
been nominated by Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, came to Washington 
and met him on February 19, at the house of Professor Bache, 
where were also assembled Professor Peirce, Dr. B. A. Gould 
