IQO 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Table II. gives the designation of each society, the country it repre- 

 sents, the year of its foundation, the number of resident members, the 

 number of foreign members and the number of members represented in 

 Table I. The latter sometimes exceeds the present number of foreign 

 associates, owing to deaths and the election of resident members. The 

 care taken by each society in electing members is shown in the last four 

 columns. They give the number first elected by each society, the num- 

 ber first elected of the members of the seven societies, the number last 

 elected of the members of seven societies, and the number not yet elected 

 of the members of six societies. When a member is elected in two so- 

 cieties in the same year, both are included. 



Table II 

 Societies 



The Lincei is the oldest of the societies, and the Institute of France 

 has the largest number of foreign associates. The Eoyal Society, the 

 next oldest, has much the largest number of resident members, in fact 

 nearly as many as all the others put together. If any rigid system were 

 adopted for the election of members, each would evidently be elected 

 first into the Institute of France, then into the Lincei, and so on, in the 

 order of numbers. The skill shown by the Russian Academy and the 

 Lincei in selecting members is indicated by the large number of first 

 elections. It was a great triumph for each of them to have elected five 

 men who were not members of either of the other societies, and then to 

 be followed by all of the others. The small number elected by the Na- 

 tional Academy is not justified by the number of foreign associates. 

 On the other hand, it is not creditable to a society to have been the last 

 to elect, or to have failed to elect those whose ability had already se- 

 cured their memberships in the other six societies. Judged by this 

 standard, Austria has overlooked 13 men, the United States 7 and Ger- 

 many 5. Of the 13, Austria has overlooked 5 astronomers, 3 physicists 

 and 2 mathematicians. 



The results of a grouping according to countries are contained in 

 Table III. The name of the country is given in the first column, fol- 

 lowed by the number of memberships of 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2, by the total 

 number, the total number of societies, and the number of societies per 



