78 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



asked to turn over to the government the 'Calendar' monopoly it had 

 so long enjoyed. This it was not inclined to do until the order of the 

 king rendered it imperative. 



In 1811 William von Humboldt was sent as ambassador to Vienna, 

 but his views and plans for the academy were left with his friend 

 Nocolovinus, who secured their adoption and their incorporation into 

 the constitution and by-laws of 1812. This was the last year in which 

 the reports of the academy appear in French. The income actually ob- 

 tained was a little less than $7,000, but the expenses of the institutions 

 which it had previously met were now met from other funds. The new 

 statute was confirmed by the king on January 24, 1812, and the next 

 year the last volume of the 'Memoires,' bearing the date of 1801, was 

 published. In offering prizes Latin and French were still used, but 

 henceforward the language of the academy, for its publications as 

 well as its discussions, was German. 



In its management there was now neither president, curator, nor 

 director. The management of its work was in the hands of four secre- 

 taries. There were the usual classes of members, active, foreign or 

 honorary, and corresponding. It was decided that only twenty-four 

 foreign members should be chosen, eight for each of the scientific 

 classes and four for each of the other two classes. There was no limit 

 to the number of corresponding members. Regular sessions were hence- 

 forth held every Thursday afternoon, and every fourth Monday each 

 class had an extra meeting in order to render its special work more 

 effective. There were to be three public meetings each year, one of them 

 in July in honor of Leibniz, another on the king's birthday, the third on 

 January 24, or Frederick's day. Each member was required to read at 

 least one paper every year until he had been in the academy twenty-five 

 years ; after that time, at his own pleasure. The subjects were to be as- 

 signed by the class to which the member who was to write belonged. Each 

 class was permitted to choose its own members, subject to the approval 

 of the entire academy and of the king. Each volume of the proceed- 

 ings or transactions, was to be divided into four parts, so that reports 

 of the work of each class might appear together. 



In 1811-12 twenty- four foreign members were chosen, among them 

 William von Humboldt, now residing in Vienna, Jacobi, the philosopher, 

 and Professor Dugald Stewart of Edinburgh. There were twenty-one 

 honorary members and ninety corresponding members, forty-eight of 

 them in the scientific classes. More than half the entire number was 

 German. Up to this time the academy had given more attention to 

 reports of what had been done by others than to original research and 

 the diffusion of knowledge. In scientific work it was at least a genera- 

 tion behind the academies of England, France and Sweden. All this 

 was now changed. Under the new order each secretary became in a 



