2 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Fifty names are included in the Act of Incorporation. Among 

 these are several members of the United States Army and Navy, 

 as for example J. G. Barnard, J. A. Dahlgren, Charles H. Davis, 

 John Rodgers, J. G. Totten, and others holding positions in the 

 United States Military Academy and the United States Naval 

 Observatory and the Naval Academy. 



A careful scrutiny of the list of incorporators will show that 

 they can be classified under three heads. The majority were 

 engaged in scientific researches and had reached results of value. 

 They were the leaders among the scientific investigators of that 

 day. Then there were those who had gained distinction by their 

 services as engineers, either in the army or navy; and a third 

 class was composed of heads of the national institutions, such as 

 the United States Naval Observatory, Naval Academy, Military 

 Academy and Coast Survey. 



Section 2 of the Act of Incorporation provides that the Acad- 

 emy, " . . . . shall consist of not more than fifty ordinary mem- 

 bers, and .... shall have power to make its own organization, 

 including its constitution, by-laws, and rules and regulations."' 



Nothing is said in regard to the qualifications for member- 

 ship. This is equally true of the constitution and rules, except 

 that Article I, Section 1 of the constitution, requires that," Mem- 

 bers must be citizens of the United States." It should, however, 

 be noted that Article IV, Section 4, of the constitution, contains 

 this clause: " . . . . Each nomination shall be accompanied by 

 a list of the principal contributions of the nominee to science." 

 The reference is to nominations for membership, and the infer- 

 ence is clear that the nominee was assumed to have original works 

 to his credit. 



Whatever may have been the views of the incorporators, it 

 has gradually come to be held that membership should stand 

 for successful activity in the field of scientific research, the word 

 " scientific " as here used meaning that which pertains to the 

 natural sciences, and physical sciences, if there is a difference. 

 But our predecessors did not intend to bind themselves to this 



