770 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 960 



third class was composed of heads of na- 

 tional institutions such as the United States 

 Naval Observatory, Naval Academy, Mili- 

 tary Academy and Coast Survey. 



Section 2 of the act of incorporation pro- 

 vides that the academy "shall consist of 

 not more than fifty ordinary members," 

 and that the academy "shall have power 

 to make its own organization, including its 

 constitution, by-laws and rules and regiila- 

 tions." Nothing is said in regard to the 

 qualifications for membership. This is 

 equally true of the constitution and rules 

 except that Article I., Section 1, of the 

 constitution requires that "members 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, at the time of election, 

 be accompanied by a written list of the original 

 works of the nominee. 



The reference is to nominations for mem- 

 bership, and the inference 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. But our predecessors did not in- 

 tend to bind themselves to this meaning, as 

 is clearly shown by the election of James 

 Hadley in 1864, who, though a brilliant 

 scholar, was certainly not distinguished for 

 work in natural sciences ; of G. P. Marsh in 

 1865; and later of Francis A. "Walker and 

 Richard Mayo-Smith. 



As regards engineers who were promi- 

 nently recognized in the early days of the 

 academy the change of attitiide that is 

 worthy of notice is briefly this: While one 

 who had accomplished some engineering 



feat was formerly regarded as worthy of 

 membership by virtue of that fact, now the 

 view appears to prevail that only such 

 engineers as have advanced their subject 

 by original contributions should be recog- 

 nized. 



And, finally, it is no longer held that the 

 heads of scientific bureaus or departments 

 of the United States government should 

 necessarily be made members of the acad- 

 emy, no matter whether they have been 

 actively engaged in scientific research or 

 not. It is evident therefore that the field 

 of choice has gradually become narrower. 



What was perhaps regarded as the most 

 important part of the act of incorporation 

 is contained in Section 3 and reads as fol- 

 lows: 



The academy shall, whenever called upon by any 

 department of the government, investigate, ex- 

 amine, experiment and report upon any subject of 

 science or art, the actual expense of such investi- 

 gations, examinations, experiments and reports to 

 be paid from appropriations which may be made 

 for the purpose, but the academy shall receive no 

 compensation whatever for any services to the 

 government of the United States. 



This clause is still valid. The United 

 States government may at any time call 

 upon the academy for investigations, opin- 

 ions and advice on any subject of science 

 or art and this without charge for services. 



In order the more clearly to understand 

 the situation that existed in 1863 we should 

 bear in mind two facts. First, there were 

 at that time but few scientific bureaus 

 forming part of the national government; 

 and second, it was a time of war. 



Perhaps it would be better to state these 

 facts in the other possible order. Service 

 to the government was uppermost in men's 

 minds. If they could not help in one way, 

 they could in another. What more natural 

 than this willingness to place their knowl- 

 edge and skill in scientific matters at the 

 disposal of the government? This was an 



