112 Academies and Societies 



limited, and nobody can join the Academy without a formal invitation after a regular 

 election."' The annual congresses are far more democratic; their purpose is to 

 bring together each year in one place as many men of science as possible. 



The initiative of those annual congresses was taken in Switzerland. In 1797, 

 some scientist? of Bern invited Swiss men of science to meet at Herzogenbuchsee, and 

 they constituted the Societe generale helvetique des amis des sciences physiques et 

 naturelles. Political events ofiscouraged further meetings. In 1801 a similar effort 

 was made, by German men of science, in Stuttgart and was equally abortive. 



The Swiss idea was renewed and realized in 1815 by Henri Albert Gosse and 

 meetings held on Oct. 6 at Mornex and Geneva. We may thus place the Swiss 

 Society at the head of our list. 



J) 1815: Societe helvetique des sciences naturelles (the title occurs also in 

 German, Italian, and Romansh). Since 1915, annual meetings have taken place 

 each year in a different city. The centenary was celebrated at the birthplace of 

 the society, Geneva, in 1915. The proceedings of that centenary appeared in vol. 

 L of the Nouveaux memoires de la Societe helvetique (Ziirich 1915); they contain 

 a history of the Swiss organization. Shorter account by Theophile Sttjder in Paul 

 Seippel (editor): La Suisse au dix-neuvieme siecle (3 vols., Lausanne 1899-1901; 

 vol. 2, 195-200, 1900 ) . — The 129th annual meeting occurred in Lausanne, 1949. 



Inspired by the Swiss organization, Lorenz Oken ( 1779-1851; editor of Isis 

 from 1817 to 1848) proposed in 1820 to the Kaiserlich Leopoldinische Akademie der 

 Naturforscher to constitute a similar one in Germany. The Leopoldina dechned to 

 do so, but the German society was constituted two years later. 



2) 1822: (GDNA) Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte. — First 

 meeting in Leipzig in 1822. Accounts of meetings 1 to 8 appeared in Oken's Isis; 

 reports of later meetings in the Amtlicher Bericht, Tageblatt der Versammlung, etc.; 

 since 1924, they appear as supplements to Die Naturwissenschaften. Karl Sud- 

 hoff: Hundert Jahre Deutscher Natiu-forscher Versammlungen (80 p., Leipzig 

 1922). This booklet, published to celebrate the centenary of the German society, 

 contains a history of the society and a list of its meetings, the main discourses of 

 each being mentioned, from the first, Leipzig 1822 to the 86th, Bad Nauheim 1920. 

 The centennial meeting of Leipzig 1922 was not the hundredth one, but the 87th, 

 some annual meetings having been omitted because of war or unrest. 



5) 1831: (BAAS) British Association for the Advancement of Science. This 

 association met for the first time at York in 1831, and has met almost every year 

 since in a different town of Great Britain, the British Empire or Ireland. The Re- 

 ports pubhshed annually in separate volumes since 1831, constitute a valuable col- 

 lection for the historian of science (as opposed to the German reports which being 

 scattered and irregularly published are so difiicult to consult in their entirety that 

 one does not try to do so). Vols. 1 to 108 of the Reports were published from 

 1831 to 1938 (no meetings in 1917, 1918); two volumes of general indexes cover 

 respectively the years 1831-60, 1861-90. From 1939, the Reports appear under a 

 new title "The advancement of science" in the form not of an annual but of a 

 quarterly. Vol. 1, part 1, Oct. 1939, part 4, July 1940. 



Address: Burlington House, London W.l. The official residence of the Perma- 

 nent Secretary is now at Down House, at Downe, Kent, formerly Darvitn's home 

 (Isis 23, 533, 534). 



4) 1848: (AAAS) American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Proceedings published in annual volumes since the first meeting (Philadelphia 1848) 

 until 1910. Since then the full proceedings appear in Science, and only Sum- 

 marized Prooceedings from time to time in book form. E.g., summarized Proceed- 

 ings for the period from Jan. 1934 to Jan. 1940 with Directory of members as of 

 July 1, 1940 (1120 p., Washington, D. C, 1940). That volume contains a brief 

 history of AAAS from 1848 to 1940 (p. 1-87). 



Address of the Permanent Secretary: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 



^ In America, the name "academy" has been assumed by at least one society of vi^hich 

 almost anybody can become a member by paying the annual subscription. That form of exploita- 

 tion of snobbishness is certainly wrong. 



