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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



election to membership in it of Hoffmann, the famous physicist of 

 Halle. In Ma}^, 1710, a quarto volume containing sixty treatises, 



twelfe of them by Leibniz, was 

 published. This indicated re- 

 newed life in the academy. 



This year Leibniz was dis- 

 credited by the king through the 

 appointment over him of Min- 

 ister von Printzen as president. 

 This was done without consult- 

 ing him and also without his 

 knowledge, and as if to annoy 

 him, a salary of seventy-five 

 dollars was ordered paid to the 

 heads of the four classes into 

 which the members of the acad- 

 emy were then divided. These 

 classes were physics, which in- 

 cluded medicine and chemistry ; 

 mathematics and astronomy ; 

 the German language, to which 

 the political and ecclesiastical 

 history of Brandenburg espe- 

 cially were attached, and litera- 

 ture, a department whose mem- 

 bers were also to consider methods 

 for spreading the gospel among 

 unbelievers. The government of 

 the academy remained in the 

 hands of a council formed by the 

 heads of these classes with the ad- 

 dition of the fiscus, who was ap- 

 pointed by the king. Other mem- 

 bers of the academy had no voice 

 in its management. It was now 

 decided that the sessions, which 

 had been rather irregular, should 

 henceforth be held on Thursday 

 every week at 4 p.m., and that 

 there should be a general meeting 

 once a month, so that the whole 

 work of the academy might be known to each one of its members. The 

 public recognition of the academy was given on January 19, 1711, by 

 the king himself. Leibniz excused his absence on the ground of ill 



