THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 419 



democratic methods, results of the most lasting national benefit 

 in the field of research in pure and applied science. For rea- 

 sons of the kind indicated above, it has not been thought ad- 

 visable to make it directly dependent upon the Government, 

 although it does enjoy an important measure of Government 

 recognition through its Government Division, through its con- 

 tact with the State Department, explained at a later point, and 

 through its relation to the National Academy of Sciences, 

 which possesses a federal charter, and which by the Executive 

 Order of President Wilson on May n, 1918, created the 

 Council as an official agency of the Academy. The Council 

 has achieved its democratic element by arranging that its mem- 

 bership shall be controlled by the great scientific societies, of 

 which upwards of forty are now represented in its constitu- 

 ency. These societies elect to the scientific and technical Divi- 

 sions of the Council a majority of their representatives, and 

 these representatives in turn select the administrative officers 

 who shall direct the actual scientific enterprises which the Divi- 

 sions undertake. These directing officers, known as Chair- 

 men, receive salaries from funds of the Council which have 

 been secured by private benefactions, and serve normally for 

 one year at a time with residence in Washington. 



Following the traditions of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences, the field of work of the National Research Council has 

 for the present been restricted to the physical and natural 

 sciences. The lines which divide the sciences from one another 

 in any generation are necessarily somewhat arbitrary, and the 

 organization of the Council reflects something of this arbitrary 

 character. There are accordingly seven sub-divisions devoted 

 to the following groups of sciences: (i) the physical sciences, 

 including physics, mathematics, and astronomy; (2) engineer- 

 ing in all its branches; (3) chemistry and chemical technology; 

 (4) geology and geography; (5) the medical sciences (both 

 the clinical aspects and those of the underlying pure sciences) ; 

 (6) biology and agriculture; (7) anthropology and psychology. 

 These groups may be conceived as furnishing the foundations 



