6i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



United States, the British Ambassador, 

 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Dr. W. W. Keen, 

 president of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society, and Senator Burton. 



THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY 



The National Academy of Sciences 

 was founded under the shadow of the 

 civil war in order that the government 

 might have the benefit of expert scien- 

 tific advice and — as has usually been 

 the reward of scientific research — ob- 

 tain it free of cost. In February, 1863, 

 the secretary of the navy appointed a 



''permanent commission," consisting 

 of Joseph Henry, secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution ; Alexander 

 Dallas Bache, superintendent of the 

 Coast Survey, and Charles H. Davis, 

 chief of the Bureau of Navigation, to 

 report on "matters of science and 

 art. ' ' This commission led to the es- 

 tablishment of the National Academy 

 of Sciences through a bill introduced 

 in the senate by Henry Wilson, of 

 Massachusetts, on February 20, 1863, 

 and signed by President Lincoln on 

 March 3. 



The idea of a national academy was 



