706 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



more or less accidentally, and then practiced empirically for a long time. 

 When, however, scientific investigation discloses the laws and principles 

 upon which it is founded, improvement takes place, as it has in steel 

 making, by leaps- and bounds. In the future, science should lead, not 

 follow. Our Academy formed in 1780 brought together the leaders in 

 scientific thought of the time, and it was organized for the spread of 

 scientific knowledge. Can it not go on from this, its thousandth meet- 

 ing, doing its part under improved auspices, adding to its influence 

 and importance and assisting in those inevitable great advances which 

 are the promise of the future of science ? 



The Toastmaster : " The next toast I propose to you is ' The 

 First Research Undertaken by the Academy.' I offer this toast 

 with pleasure, partly because of its professional interest to me, 

 and partly because, as I have already said, I believe that the 

 principal function of this Academy should be research. I will 

 ask my colleague, Professor Robert W. Willson, to respond to 

 this toast." 



The First Research Undertaken by the Academy. 



From the records of the Academy it appears that it was " Voted 

 August 30, 1780, that the Hon. Thomas Gushing, Esqr., The Hon. 

 Henry Gardner, Esqr., and Cotton Tufts, Esqr., be a Committee to con- 

 fer with the Reverend and Honorable Congregation of the University 

 of Cambridge upon pursuing measures to procure an accurate observa- 

 tion of the Solar eclipse in October next, in the eastern part of this 

 State, and, in case it should be judged expedient, to join with the con- 

 gregation aforesaid in an application to the Great and General Court 

 for such assistance as may in the best manner affect the design." 



Some years ago Dr. B. A. Gould, the founder of the Astronomical 

 Journal, told me that its publication was delayed for six months, to 

 await the completion of a research by Professor Benjamin Peirce on the 

 Development of the Perturbative Function, in order that the issue 

 of the first number, which was wholly occupied by this paper, might 

 show that it was to be a worthy rival of the great European Journal 

 whose field it entered. 



In like manner we may look on this first research undertaken by the 

 Academy, as foreshadowing the important place which this Society has 

 since occupied in the development of the Sciences in America. 



It may be of interest to know that the first number of the Journal, 

 treating, as it did, of a subject far beyond the comprehension of all but 



