March 25, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



409 



of obtaining a building for a common meet- 

 ing place of all the societies.' Thus, at the 

 very outset of the movement, the idea of 

 bringing the societies together under one 

 roof was prominent in the minds of those 

 who formed the Alliance. 



At the first meeting of the Council, Sep- 

 tember 28, 1891, the President was 're- 

 quested to appoint a committee of seven to 

 consist of himself as chairman and one 

 member from each of the allied societies to 

 consider the practicability of obtaining a 

 building for the use of the Alliance.' Thus 

 again the policy of seeking a common meet- 

 ing place was made one of its main objects 

 by the now fully organized federation. 



On October 10, 1891, the Building Com- 

 mittee was appointed, and from that time 

 to this it has not ceased to consider every 

 suggested scheme and to follow every pos- 

 sible clue which seemed to lead to the at- 

 tainment of its object. At the meeting of 

 the Council held January 22, 1892, the com- 

 mittee presented its first report, in which it 

 suggested three plans for consideration, as 

 follows : 



(I.) That the Alliance attempt to secure 

 enough money by subscription to purchase 

 land, erect a building and maintain it. 



(II.) That the Alliance endeavor to ob- 

 tain from the City or the State money to 

 erect a building on public land, which 

 would necessitate the raising of a guarantee 

 fund for the support of the building which, 

 obtained under these conditions, would be- 

 long to the City. 



(III.) An informal suggestion from 

 President Low, of Columbia College, that 

 the Alliance should cooperate with the Col- 

 lege in the erection of a building to be used 

 jointly by the Alliance and the College. 



The first of these plans was at the time 

 considered impracticable, chiefly because of 

 the financial depression then prevailing, and 

 the continuance of the same condition has 

 caused the committee to hold it in abeyance 



until now. The second plan had in con- 

 templation an attempt to place the Scientific 

 Alliance on a basis similar to that of the 

 Museum of Natural History, assuming that 

 the societies could render an equivalent for 

 public aid by the maintenance of a scientific 

 library and through courses of free lectures 

 upon popular scientific subjects. The third 

 plan, however, was the one which for the 

 time being seemed to hold out the most 

 hope of accomplishment and therefore met 

 with the approval of the Council. The idea 

 underlying it was that when Columbia Uni- 

 versity should remove to its new site and 

 should dispose of its property on Madison 

 Avenue it would still need a down-town 

 building for its ofi&ces and perhaps also as 

 a place for certain of its lecture courses, 

 The scheme the committee had.in mind was 

 to endeavor to raise a sum of money suffi- 

 cient to pay one-half the costs of such a 

 building, in consideration of which the 

 Council should have a perpetual use of a 

 fair proportion of the rooms for the con- 

 stituent societies, the title to the property 

 to be taken by Columbia University. The 

 Council authorized the committee to confer 

 with President Low upon some such basis, 

 and the matter was accordingly gone over 

 with him, but without definite result. 



Meanwhile the committee were informed 

 that the Trustees of the fund left by the late 

 Samuel J. Tilden, for the foundation of a 

 public library, would be willing to discuss 

 the question of devoting that fund to the 

 purposes sought to be accomplished by the 

 Scientific Alliance, namely, the erection of 

 a building for the use of the allied societies, 

 the establishment and maintenance of a 

 library of general science, the endowment 

 of original research and the publication of 

 scientific memoirs and other papers ; the 

 idea being to found an institution for New 

 York which should combine the objects of 

 Burlington House and the Royal Institution 

 of Great Britain, with the addition of a 



