410 



SCIENCE. 



[N. 3. Vol. VII. No. 169. 



department for the issue of a series of 

 works similar to those published by the 

 Eay Society and other learned bodies 

 abroad. A number of interviews with the 

 Tilden Trustees, collectively and individu- 

 ally, subsequently took place and, indeed, 

 continued until the Astor, Lenox and Til- 

 den foundations were united. 



In September, 1892, your committee drew 

 up a formal address to the Tilden Trustees, 

 setting forth in detail the plan above re- 

 ferred to, and this communication was 

 adopted by the Council, signed by all the 

 members, and duly transmitted to the Trus- 

 tees. The general scheme therein outlined 

 seemed to receive the approval of several 

 of the Trustees, and your committee felt 

 greatly encouraged by their manifest inter- 

 est in the matter. The President of the 

 Tilden Trust gave it a particularly cordial 

 reception, and in an article which he pub- 

 lished in Scribner's Magazine, in September, 

 1892, referred to cooperation with the 

 Scientific Alliance, on some such lines as 

 proposed by us, as one of the possible 

 methods of accomplishing the objects of 

 Mr. Tilden's generous bequest. But when 

 the Tilden fund was transferred to the 

 Trustees of the New York Public Library 

 it looked as if an end had been made of all 

 the hopes we had built upon the negotia- 

 tions with the Tilden Trustees. We owe 

 it, however, to the Hon. Andrew H. Green 

 that the subject was subsequently taken 

 up, in a much modified form, by the Trus- 

 tees of the Public Library, who appointed 

 a committee to consider the matter. But 

 that committee has never invited your 

 Building Committee to a formal conference, 

 and, as far as we can learn, has made no 

 report to the appointing body. The Library 

 Trustees, have, however, put upon record a 

 resolution declaring the duties of the cor- 

 poration, among which are included ' alli- 

 ances or affiliations with the principal 

 scientific societies of the city and the gath- 



ering together of their libraries and collec- 

 tions in the main building, and the furnish- 

 ing to them of facilities for meetings, and 

 arrangements for the giving of lectures on 

 scientific, literary and popular subjects.' 



On November 15, 1892, a joint meeting 

 of the societies composing the Alliance was 

 held in the lecture hall of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, at which the 

 aims of the Alliance were set forth in five 

 carefullj' prepared addresses, and the project 

 for the possession of a biiilding was given a 

 prominent place and fully elaboi'ated. The 

 proceedings of that conference were after- 

 wards printed in pamphlet form and widely 

 distributed and thus served to supplement 

 the efibrts of the Building Committee in 

 making known to the public the purpose 

 towards which it was working. 



In December, 1892, negatiations were 

 opened with the President of the American 

 Museum of Natural History having in view 

 a possible arrangement by which the so- 

 cieties in the Scientific Alliance might be- 

 come, at least temporarily, tenants of the 

 Museum. These negotiations have been 

 dropped and resumed at different periods, 

 and at one time took the form of a proposal 

 that the Museum authorities should co- 

 operate with the Council of the Alliance in 

 procuring legislation which would enable 

 the Alliance to construct a building on the 

 northwest corner of Manhattan Square, the 

 architecture to be such as to harmonize 

 with that of the Museum, with the idea 

 that whenever the Museum should cover 

 the rest of the Square the Alliance building 

 would form an integral part of the general 

 structure or group of structures. The 

 scheme was worked up out of deference to 

 the opinion of many members of the Alliance 

 who thought it most natural that the scien- 

 tific societies should be affiliated with the 

 Museum for mutual helpfulness and for the 

 creation of a great scientific center at Man- 

 hattan Square. But no encouragement was 



