THE SCIENCE OF THE PRESENT PERIOD. 27 



At the time of their foundation the older academies entirely con- 

 stituted the scientific world. In the universities, the so-called profes- 

 sional faculties had quite the upper hand over the philosophical, and 

 in them classical philology predominated. The academies had inter- 

 course with each other, but hardly exerted any influence on the outer 

 world, which was strangely out of sympathy with them, except 

 throuo-h their prize problems. Even in the comparatively idyllic 

 conditions of the first half of the century, they limited themselves 

 chiefly to the fulfillment of their inner calling, to their own scientific 



labors. 



In view of the constant pressure of forces of every kind and 

 deo-ree, of the atomistic division of labor around us, of the unregu- 

 lated assumptions, the short memory, of the overwhelmingly common- 

 place life of the present generation, the academies have an outer voca- 

 tion in addition to their inner one. It is their duty to preserve the 

 bond of connection in the division of labor, to have a look to the 

 welfare of knowledge in the flight of the phenomena of the day. 

 They should bring into competition with the dangerous enticements 

 of technics, the charm of pure knowledge. Her sacred instrument, 

 method, is in their care ; but in Germany, where the false gods of 

 perverted speculation are constantly finding willing Baal-servitors, it 

 is especially incumbent on them to throw these idols out wherever 

 they are smuggled in, and to drive away their priests. The necessary 

 complement of an externally acting influence of the Academy is a no 

 less vivid reaction from without upon the Academy, an interaction for 

 the maintenance of which an alert organ, ready for the combat, is 

 needed. The venerable but somewhat unwieldy form in which our body 

 has comfortably moved for some tens of years could not satisfy such a 

 demand of this "rapid, giddy-footed time." Our slowly and irregu- 

 larly appearing " Monatsberichte," which were overwhelmed in the 

 struggle for light and air with numerous active special journals, could 

 not perform this service. 



The Academy has, therefore, made some quite important changes 

 in its arrangements and in the course of its business, which last year 

 received the sanction of our immediate protector, his Majesty the Em- 

 peror and King. Among other things it has doubled the number of 

 its class sittings, at the expense of the general meetings, and, in order 

 to keep pace with the rise of new branches of science, it has quad- 

 rupled the number of its ordinary members. Following the time- 

 honored example of its renowned sister of Paris, it has decided, not 

 without opposition, on a kind of publication of its proceedings, which 

 by means of weekly reports of meetings (Sitzungsberichte) shall satisfy 

 the desire of members as well as of strangers for the most speedy in- 

 formation of its transactions. Our arrangement still leaves it possible 

 to afford a place also for the former more complete and less urgent 

 statements. The external appearance of the new " Berichte," and we 



