322 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. [Jan. I4, 



an optical expert. The interest in applied optics which has made 

 this city famous was already started and the work of the Microscopical 

 Society and its successor, the Microscopical Section of the Academy, 

 has certainly helped in making this the great center in manufacture of 

 optical goods. 



The annual, public exhibitions or Soirees given by the Society 

 were occasions of great popular interest. They were continued by 

 the Academy, and will be mentioned later in this writing. 



The Early Academy of Scie7ice. 

 Plan of Organization. Sections. 



The Rochester Academy of Science was a natural outgrowth of 

 the Rochester Microscopical Society. It was quite inevitable that the 

 interests of the earnest workers should widen out from objects micro- 

 scopic to things megascopic. It appears that there was an intention 

 from the first of forming the broader society. The introduction to 

 the catalogue of exhibits in a neat booklet published on the occasion 

 of the "Third Annual Reception" at the Free Academy Hall, June 

 20, 1 88 1, contains this sentence, "The question of organizing an 

 Academy of Science was considered ; (at time of organizing the 

 Microscopical Society) but it was deemed best to begin with that 

 department in which the most interest was then manifested, viz : 

 microscopy, and afterwards extend the scope of the society, if 

 desired." 



The change of organization was made March 14, 1881, and the 

 Academy was incorporated May 14, 1881. The names of the incor- 

 porators were Myron Adams, H. F, Atwood, Charles E. Rider, H. C. 

 Maine, Adelbert Cronise, S. A. Lattimore, William Streeter, Cyrus 

 F. Paine. The seal, familiar to the members of the Academy, was 

 designed by William M. Rebasz. and adopted Nov, 10, 1884. 



By the generosity of Mortimer F. Reynolds, and later by the 

 Trustees of the Reynolds Library, the Academy was provided, rental 

 free, with an assembly room in Reynolds' Arcade which remained the 

 home of the Society until the reorganization of the Society in 1889. 

 The room was furnished by the Academy through a subscription 

 fund. About 1886 or 1887, the Microscopical Section leased and 

 furnished a room in the Durand building for its own work. 



The early Academy was planned on broad lines and was intended 

 to cover a wide field of study. Sections Were organized in several 



