IN. 
ADDRESS 
OF THE 
HON. HENRY WILSON, 
DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE ati SESSION OF THE 
ACADEMY, APRIL 22, 1 
GENTLEMEN :—I hold in my hand the Act, passed in the 
closing hours of the Thirty-seventh Congress, “To incor- 
porate the National Academy of Sciences.” In compliance 
with many kind requests I am here to call the corporators to 
order. In rising to perform this agreeable task, I crave ie 
a moment your indulgence. 
This Act, under which you have met to organize, incor- 
porates in America, and for America, a National Institution, 
whose objects, ranging over the illimitable fields of science, 
are limited only by the wondrous capacities of the human 
intellect. Such an institution has been for years in the 
thought and on the tongue of the devotees of science, but its 
attainment seemed far in the future. Now it is an achieved 
t. Our country has spoken it into being, in this “ dark 
and troubled night” of its history, and commissioned you, 
gentlemen, to mould and fashion its organization, to infuse 
into it that vital and animating spirit that shall win in the 
boundless domains of science the glittering prizes of achieve- 
ment that will gleam forever on the brow of the nation. 
_ When, a few months ago, a gentleman whose name is 
known and honored in both hemispheres, expressed to me 
the desire that an Academy of Physical Sciences should be 
- 
