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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 997 



the amalgamation of the two in 1769 gave 

 rise to a scientific body which has always 

 exercised a powerful and beneficent influ- 

 ence on the progress of science in the 

 United States. The prominence in the af- 

 fairs of state of its leading members is illus- 

 trated in the frequent interruptions to the 

 proceedings of the society between 1773 

 and 1779, when these men, who included 

 Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and 

 Adams, were occupied with the labors of 

 organizing the new republic. The Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, modelled after 

 the Royal Society, but embracing the whole 

 field of knowledge, soon assumed great 

 importance at its seat in Philadelphia, then 

 the center of American scientific and liter- 

 ary life. 



John Adams, when representing the 

 United States in Prance, learned of the ap- 

 preciation in which the Philosophical So- 

 ciety was held in academic circles. On his 

 return to Boston in 1779 he suggested the 

 establishment of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, which was duly incorpo- 

 rated by act of the Massachusetts State 

 Legislature in 1780. At this time the in- 

 fluence of Prance was naturally more potent 

 than that of England, and the Academies 

 of Paris were chosen as models by the char- 

 ter members of the new organization. 



The year 1778 marks the inception of an 

 ambitious plan, proposed by the Chevalier 

 Quesnay de Beaurepaire. His scheme for 

 the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the 

 United States had been endorsed by the 

 King of France, the Royal Academies of 

 Science and of the Fine Arts, and by La- 

 voisier, Condorcet and many eminent 

 Frenchmen. The sum of sixty thousand 

 francs was subscribed by wealthy Virgin- 

 ians, and a building was erected in Rich- 

 mond in 1786. One (French) professor 

 was appointed to make natural history col- 

 lections and extensive plans for branch 



establishments in Baltimore, Philadelphia 

 and New York were contemplated. But the 

 French Revolution put an end to this in- 

 tellectual exotic. 



In the present paper, devoted primarily 

 to the history of the National Academy, we 

 must pass over many interesting develop- 

 ments in the early scientific life of the 

 nation, some of which will be mentioned 

 elsewhere. Reference must be made, how- 

 ever, to the incorporation of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 in 1848, and the intense vitality which has 

 enabled this body, in cooperation with 

 many special societies of later origin, to 

 bring the results of scientific research 

 within the reach of an ever- widening public. 



Alexander Dallas Bache, superinten- 

 dent of the United States Coast Survey 

 from 1843 to 1867, and one of the leading 

 spirits of his time, was among the first to 

 express publicly the demand for a national 

 organization of American research officially 

 recognized as such by Congress. In his 

 presidential address to the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science 

 in 1851 he emphasized the need of "an in- 

 stitution of science, supplementary to ex- 

 isting ones, to guide public action in refer- 

 ence to scientific matters." 



Suppose an institute of which the members be- 

 long in turn to each of our widely scattered 

 states, working at their places of residence and 

 reporting their results; meeting only at particular 

 times, and for special purposes; engaged in re- 

 searches self-directed, or desired by the body, 

 called for by congress or by the executive, who 

 furnish the means for the inquiries. . . . The 

 public treasury would be saved many times the 

 support of such a council, by the sound advice 

 which it would give in regard to various projects 

 which are constantly forced upon their notice, and 

 in regard to which they are compelled to decide 

 without the knowledge which alone can ensure a 

 wise conclusion. 



. . . Such a body would supply a place not oc- 

 cupied by existing institutions, and which our own 



