28 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Another interesting member — just to mention one of the 

 many men connected with educational institutions — has the 

 habit of picking up medals! He is the second man in the 

 United States to receive the Copley Medal given by the English 

 government (the first being Benjamin Franklin). A few years 

 ago he received the Nobel Prize for the best contribution in 

 physics — the only Illinoisan thus far to receive this prize. We 

 are hoping that each member of the academy will take his turn 

 at this prize. 



What the relationship between the Academy and the State 

 should be can best be determiined by comparing past and pres- 

 ent practice in this regard and by conceding the services which 

 each may render the other. 



Not until recently did I happen to notice that Alexander the 

 Great gave to the Academy of Aristotle at Athens, 800 talents 

 — a large sum of money — and sent men to distant countries 

 to collect plants, animals and oter natural history objects. 

 The result of this was the production of the best natural his- 

 tory of those times. 



The first Ptolemy founded the Academy of Alexandria, 

 housed it in a palace, supplied it with instruments, natural his- 

 tory objects and books. Its library of 700,000 volumes was 

 the mOst famous of antiquity. In its walls studied Euclid, the 

 father of geometry; Archimedes, the mathematician, who in- 

 vented the spiral screw used to raise the waters of the Nile for 

 irrigation; and Eratosthenes, who studied the elevation of 

 lands, measured the circumference of the earth and pursued 

 other geological and astronomical subjects. For seven hundred 

 years this academy with its library and museum, was the 

 center of learning for all Africa and Europe. 



Italy has had many academies. They were supported by 

 such rulers as the Medici, and by Prince Fredrico Cesi, who 

 founded and supported the Academia of Lincei in 1603 — 

 the oldest of the Italian academies and the one to which that 

 famous academician, who was the subject of a charming ad- 

 dress by one of our presidents, Galileo, belonged. 



Every European country in fact has one or more state acad- 

 emies of science. Just to mention a few of the most prom- 

 inent we may note the English Academy, the Royal Society, 

 which was founded in 1662 by Charles II. Four years later 

 Louis XIV started the French Academy. Thirty-four years 

 later (1700) Frederick I started the Berlin Academy with its 

 libraries, museums, and laboratories. A magnificent new build- 



