February 6, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



191 



is, from its temporary and voluntary character, 

 not able to aupply.s 



As president of the American Associa- 

 tion, and as a prominent member of the 

 American Philosophical Society and the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

 he entertained no misconception regarding 

 the admirable aims and the no less admir- 

 able successes of these older societies. Each 

 performed then, as it does now, a useful 

 function of broad scope, which the proposed 

 organization was not to rival but to supple- 

 ment. The American Philosophical Society 

 continues to exert a wide and useful influ- 

 ence, drawing to its annual meetings in 

 Philadelphia a large body of able men, 

 representing every field of knowledge. 

 Its strong vitality and its traditions 

 of a scholarly past are shared 

 by the American Academy, now rapidly 

 increasing in membership and advantage- 

 ously established in the permanent home 

 provided for it in Boston by Alexander 

 Agassiz. The American Association, like 

 the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, holds its annual meetings 

 in widely scattered cities, thus bringing 

 under its influence a great number of peo- 

 ple, whose attention might not be attracted 

 from a distance. Clearly there was still 

 room for an academy chartered by congress 

 and closely related to the national govern- 

 ment, to which it might render some such 

 services as the principal countries of Eu- 

 rope receive from their great academies. 



Bache's hopes were to be realized twelve 

 years later. On February 11, 1863, Gideon 

 Welles, secretary of the navy, appointed 

 Admiral Davis, Professor Henry and Pro- 

 fessor Baehe a "Permanent Commission" 

 "to which shall be referred questions of 

 science and art upon which the (navy) de- 

 partment may require information."^ En- 



3 Op. cit., pp. 7, 8. 



4 Op. cit., p. 1. 



couraged by this governmental recognition, 

 Bache, Peirce, Davis, Gould and Agassiz in- 

 duced Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, to 

 introduce in congress a bill to incorporate 

 the National Academy of Sciences. This 

 passed the Senate and House on March 3, 

 1863, and was signed by the president on 

 the same day. 



The act of incorporation named fifty men 

 of science as charter members, and limited 

 the membership of the Academy to this 

 number. A second act of congress, passed 

 in 1870, removed this limitation. At pres- 

 ent the amended constitution provides that 

 ten new members may be elected annually, 

 and fixes the limiting membership at one 

 hundred and fifty. The actual number of 

 names now on the roll is one hundred and 

 thirty-two. In addition to these there are 

 forty-nine foreign associates and one hon- 

 orary member. 



The list of incorporators contains many 

 distinguished names: Agassiz, Alexander, 

 Bache, Barnard, Dana, Davis, Gilliss, 

 Gould, Wolcott Gibbs, Asa Gray, Guyot, 

 James Hall, Henry Hilgard, Le Conte, 

 Leidy, Lesley, Newberry, Newton, Peirce, 

 Rogers, Rutherfurd, Silliman, Torrey, 

 Whitney, Wyman — among others equally 

 well known. Chosen from the country at 

 large, and fairly representative of the sci- 

 ence of the day, the membership was 

 worthy of a truly national body. 



The organization of the National Acad- 

 emy was "the first recognition by our gov- 

 ernment of the importance of abstract sci- 

 ence as an essential element of mental and 

 material progress."" One of the objects 

 in the minds of its founders was to confer 

 distinction on men of science who had ac- 

 complished important original research, 

 and thus to encourage and stimulate them 



5 From the report for 1867 of Joseph Henry, 

 president of the National Academy, op. cit., p. 

 14. 



