ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY 79 
of the Commission, Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, upon his re- 
turn to this country, addressed a letter, dated April 21, 1896, 
to the President of the Academy, requesting that one of its 
members be appointed to serve on an advisory board to which he 
could submit propositions which he intended to present to the 
Congress of 1898. The President appointed Dr. Theodore N. 
Gill as the representative of the Academy. 
To the five trust funds for the promotion of science, already 
administered by the Academy, a sixth was added in 1897, when 
Alice Bache Gould presented the sum of $20,000, to create a 
fund in honor of her father, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, “ for the 
prosecution of researches in astronomy.” In a letter addressed 
to the Academy and dated November 17, 1897, Miss Gould 
explained the objects which she had chiefly in mind in estab- 
lishing this fund. In this letter she writes: 
“My object in creating the fund is two fold—on the one hand to advance the 
science of astronomy, and on the other to honor my father’s memory and to 
insure that his power to accomplish scientific work shall not end with his life. 
“Throughout my father’s lifetime his patriotic feeling and scientific ambition 
were closely associated, and I wish, therefore, that a fund bearing his name should 
be used, primarily, for the benefit of investigators in his own country or of his own 
nationality. I recognize, however, that sometimes the best possible service to 
American science is the maintenance of close communion between the scientific 
men of Europe and of America, and that, therefore, even while acting in the spirit 
of the above restriction, it may occasionally be best to apply the money to the aid of 
a foreign investigator working abroad. 
“Tn this connection I must also refer to the strong interest felt by my father in 
the National Academy of Sciences," and to his belief in the importance of creating 
and maintaining a single national scientific body, whose preeminence should be 
unquestionable and of concentrating power in its hands. ... . 
“ T wish that in all cases work in the astronomy of precision should be distinctly 
preferred to any work in astrophysics, both because of my father’s personal pref- 
erence and because of the present existence of generous endowments for astro- 
physics.” 8° 
This fund was accepted by the Academy by a unanimous 
vote, and three trustees were appointed to take charge of it. 
“Dr. Gould was one of the incorporators of the Academy. 
© The letter is given in full, together with the deed of trust, in the Annual Report for 
1897, pp. 14-16. 
