Januabt 1, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



21 



Fellows still believe tliat the Royal Society 

 should have made room for a larger body 

 of philosophers, historians and philologists 

 than it now contains. Both the Royal So- 

 ciety and the National Academy have 

 wisely refused to limit their membership 

 to the physical and natural sciences. Such 

 historians as Bryce and Morley and such 

 Egyptologists as Petrie are now counted 

 among the Fellows of the Royal Society, 

 and Weld states that 116 areheological 

 papers were published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions before 1848.^^ But the large 

 proportion of Fellows concerned with the 

 physical and natural sciences, and the 

 failure of the Society to recognize the 

 philosophical-historical group in its or- 

 ganization, has prevented the Royal Society 

 from taking part in the Section of Letters 

 of the International Association of Acade- 

 mies, where the British Academy now rep- 

 resents England. 



The National Academy, as a member of 

 the Section of Science of the International 

 Association, is in a position to secure ade- 

 quate representation in foreign affairs of 

 American interests in the natural sciences. 

 The United States are also entitled to rep- 

 resentation in the Section of Letters, but 

 the present organization of the National 

 Academy and the absence of a national 

 body similar to the British Academy,^" still 

 leaves a vacancy there. 



In my opinion it would not be advisable, 

 under present conditions, to reorganize the 

 National Academy on the model of the 

 Berlin Academy. But I am heartily in 

 sympathy with the idea of widening its 

 scope and its field of interests, in some such 

 way as that indicated above. This plan 

 would permit the Academy to honor able 



29 ' ' History of the Eoyal Society, ' ' Vol. 2, p. 

 565. 



30 The National Institute of Arts and Letters 

 occupies a different field. 



investigators outside of the physical and 

 natural sciences, and at the same time 

 gradually to build up small groups of these 

 members who would aid the Academy in 

 the development of its work. Ultimately 

 the Academy might extend this phase of 

 its activities sufSeiently to secure repre- 

 sentation in the Section of Letters of the 

 International Association of Academies. 



LOCAL ACADEMIES 



A subject to which I have devoted spe- 

 cial attention in the study of the problems 

 of the National Academy, is its relation- 

 ship to the various local academies which 

 are widely distributed over the United 

 States. These societies are of the greatest 

 importance in the further development of 

 American research, and the cultivation of 

 an intelligent interest in the problems of 

 science. Some of them have grown to such 

 large proportions and established such ex- 

 cellent organizations that they need no 

 assistance or encouragement from the Na- 

 tional Academy. But after these excep- 

 tional societies have been excluded, there 

 remain a great number of others, which the 

 National Academy ought to be in a position 

 to assist in various ways. 



In an early period of its history, the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences established close 

 official relations with certain provincial 

 academies in various parts of France. In 

 fact, the Society of Montpellier is described 

 in its royal letters patent as "an extension 

 and a part ' ' of the Paris Academy of Sei- 

 ences.^^ But a general plan of federation 

 between the provincial academies and the 

 Institute of France, such as that described 

 by Bouillier in the work just cited, has 

 never been carried into effect, and the old 

 official relations have been discontinued. 

 After careful consideration of Bouillier 's 



SI Bouillier, "L'Institut et les Academies de 

 Province," p. 70. 



