February 6, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



197 



1896. On the Inauguration of a Eational For- 

 est Policy for the Forested Lands 

 of the United States. 



It will be noticed that many of the ques- 

 tions referred to the Academy are of such 

 a nature that, at the present day, they 

 could be satisfactorily answered by one or 

 another of the scientific departments of the 

 government. This probably accounts for 

 the fact that the requests for the Academy's 

 assistance have become less numerous as 

 the national laboratories and scientific 

 bureaus have multiplied and improved. 

 But after full allowance has been made for 

 such wholly desirable developments, it re- 

 mains true that questions of broad scope, 

 requiring the cooperation of authorities in 

 several fields of knowledge for their solu- 

 tion, must arise from time to time. In 

 such cases the Academy can afford assist- 

 ance obtainable in no other way, and an 

 enlightened government will advantage- 

 ously seek its counsel. 



The overthrow of the spoils system in 

 national politics will afford the Academy 

 another opportunity to serve the nation. 

 In France, when a professorship in the na- 

 tional university, or the directorship of a 

 national observatory or laboratory falls 



vacant, the Academy of Sciences is re- 

 quested to present its first and second 

 choice of a successor. The Minister of Pub- 

 lic Instruction then appoints one of the 

 nominees to the position. In the United 

 States the need of such counsel is no less 

 urgent than in France. 



MEDALS AND TRUST FUNDS 



Election to the National Academy has 

 always been appreciated as a high honor 

 by American men of science. Fortunately, 

 however, the recognition and assistance the 

 Academy has been able to afford to investi- 

 gators has not been confined to the gift of 

 this mark of distinction. From time to 

 time trust funds have been established, the 

 incomes of which are devoted to the award 

 of medals or to grants for research. The 

 will of Alexander Dallas Bache, first presi- 

 dent of the Academy, directed that the 

 residue of his estate, after the death of his 

 wife, should be paid over to the National 

 Academy of Sciences for the "prosecution 

 of researches in Physical and Natural Sci- 

 ence by assisting experimentalists and ob- 

 servers." Bache 's excellent example has 

 often been followed, with the results shown 

 in the following table: 



