THE RELATION OF THE ACADEMY TO THE STATE 

 AND TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE 



T. C. Mendenhall 



We are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of an insti- 

 tution whose existence is unknown to the great majority of the 

 people of Ohio. Yet it has enjoyed a prosperous life of a 

 quarter of a century during which it has held many meetings 

 in different parts of the state. At these meetings important 

 results of original research on the part of its members were pre- 

 sented, many of which have been published by the academy and 

 in various scientific journals, thus becoming a part of the great 

 store of learning which the world is accumulating. 



The academy can not be fairly charged with undue exaltation 

 of its own merit or importance in the past and, as an incorporated 

 institution of the state it has a right to think that some consider- 

 ation should now be given to the relations which it might and 

 should sustain to that state and to the people of the state. 



As a preface to such consideration it seems desirable to 

 refer to the views of a few persons who would naturally be 

 among its most active supporters did they not believe that under 

 present conditions there is no good reason for the existence of 

 such a society as the Ohio Academy of Science, contending that 

 other organizj^tions of a similar character, mostly national in 

 their scope, oft'er as good or better facilities for the accomplish- 

 ment of the principal ends the academy has in view. There is 

 enough ground for such a contention to justify a reply. 



Of the many reniarkal)le social evolutions that have marked 

 the last quarter of a century none is more curious and interest- 

 ing than the marvelous increase in the number of societies or 

 groups of people associated together for some special purpose 

 other than what is generally known as "business." It seems to 



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