8 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Executive, who furnish the means for the inquiries. The detail of such an 

 organization could be marked out so as to secure efficiency without centralization, 

 and constant labor with its appropriate results. The public treasury would be 

 saved many times the support of such a council, by the sound advice which it 

 would give in regard to the various projects which are constantly forced upon 

 their notice, and in regard to which they are now compelled to decide without 

 the knowledge which alone can ensure a wise conclusion. The men of science who 

 are at the seat of government either constantly or temporarily, are too much 

 occupied in the special work which belongs to their ofScial occupations to answer 

 such a purpose ; besides, the additional responsibility which, if they were called 

 together, they must necessarily bear, would prove too great a burthen, considering 

 the fervid zeal, and I might almost say fierceness, with which questions of interest 

 are pursued and the very extraordinary means resorted to to bring about a 

 successful conclusion 



" Our country is making such rapid progress in material improvements, that it 

 is impossible for either the legislative or executive departments of our Government 

 to avoid incidentally, if not directly, being involved in the decision of such 

 questions. Without specification, it is easy to see that there are few applications 

 of science which do not bear on the interests of commerce and navigation, naval 

 or military concerns, the customs, the light-houses, the public lands, post-offices 

 and post-roads, either directly or remotely. If all examination is refused, the 

 good is confounded with the bad, and the Government may lose a most important 

 advantage. If a decision is left to influence, or to imperfect knowledge, the worst 

 consequences follow. 



" Such a body would supply a place not occupied by existing institutions, and 

 which our own is, from its temporary and voluntary character, not able to 

 supply." " 



This declaration, which foreshadows so much of the program 

 of the National Academy organized twelve years later, must 

 have been well known to Admiral (then Lieutenant) Davis. 

 Indeed, it is probable that he listened to Professor Bache's ad- 

 dress when delivered in Albany, as he was present at the meeting 

 and read a paper himself on the solar eclipse of July 28, 1851. 

 The claim of Davis, therefore, was not that he was the first to 

 detect the need of a national academy of science, or to outline its 

 proper character and scope, but that he first hit on a practical 

 plan for bringing it into existence and for securing the initial 

 membership. 



" Proc. Amer. Assoc. Advanc. Sci., 6th Meeting, 1851 (1852), pp. xlvii-Ii. 



