January 1, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



19 



stow all the advantages and privileges of 

 actual membership. 



MEMBBKSHIP 



)The great European academies differ 

 among themselves in many particulars, 

 most of all as regards membership. At 

 one extreme we find the St. Petersburg 

 Academy, with a president, a director and 

 fifteen members, who are paid good salaries 

 and provided with dwelling houses and 

 laboratory facilities. At the other ex- 

 treme stands the Royal Society, with 477 

 members, who receive no salaries or other 

 tangible benefits. The other leading 

 academies, such as Berlin, Paris, Rome and 

 Vienna, lie between these limits.^" 



The large membership of the Royal So- 

 ciety probably reflects, in some degree, the 

 strongly democratic tendencies of England. 

 But the working body of scientific investi- 

 gators is sufficiently large to prevent the 

 distinction of election to this venerable so- 

 ciety from being impaired. In fact, on ac- 

 count of the great pains taken by the 

 Council to inquire into the qualifications of 

 the fifteen Fellows elected annually, the 

 significance of the coveted title of F.R.S. 

 is perhaps even greater to-day than at any 

 earlier period in the history of the Society. 



It can hardly be doubted that investiga- 

 tors of real ability are quite as numerous 

 in the United States as in England. The 

 available statistics indeed indicate that a 

 much greater number of men are engaged 

 here in research. The conditions are thus 

 very different from those existing in 1863, 

 when the National Academy was founded, 

 with 50 members as its limiting number. 

 Since 1906, when the maximum number of 

 members elected annually was increased 

 from five to ten, there has been a very per- 

 ceptible change in the spirit of the Acad- 



2<J See "The Work of European Academies," 

 Science, 38, 686 et seq., 1913. 



emy. By taking in a larger proportion of 

 the younger men actively engaged in re- 

 search, the Academy has increased its con- 

 tact with living issues, and made itself more 

 truly representative of American science. 

 For the present, the election of ten new 

 members annually may suffice, but I believe 

 that the time will soon come when the limit 

 should be raised from ten to fifteen. 



It can not be gainsaid that a large num- 

 ber of able American investigators, who in 

 England would certainly be elected to 

 membership in the Royal Society, are still 

 outside of our National Academy. Tlie 

 reason for this lies partly in the limit im- 

 posed on membership, and partly in the 

 method of nomination, which seems to me 

 susceptible of improvement. One difficulty, 

 which will certainly increase in the future, 

 has come about through the development of 

 new fields of research. A man classed as a 

 mathematician or an astronomer, both of 

 which subjects are well represented in the 

 Academy, is sure to receive consideration 

 when nominations are being made. But if 

 his subject be a comparatively new one, not 

 represented among the nominating sections 

 included in the existing classification of the 

 Academy, his claims to recognition will be 

 much less likely to command due attention. 

 The constitution provides that the Council 

 may nominate new members, but this 

 privilege is exercised only in rare cases, and 

 in any event there are certain disadvan- 

 tages in this procedure, il trust that some 

 means can be found of improving the 

 system of nominations so as to overcome 

 this difficulty, which now deprives the 

 Academy of valuable members.-' 



As for the qualifications of membership, 

 it can hardly be doubted that the original 

 plan of basing selections solely on the ori- 

 ginal contributions to science of the candi- 

 dates should always be maintained. While 



27 [A committee is now at work on this subject.] 



