968 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 416. 



philosophy were the liberal studies of the 

 age. There was at Paris from the time of 

 Abelard a vast number of teachers gathered 

 together from all quarters ; and the forma- 

 tion of a university of masters was followed 

 in the thirteenth century by the complex 

 organization of nations and faculties. 



Migrations from Bologna established 

 universities throughout Italy, while the in- 

 fluence of Paris led to the universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge, of Prague and of 

 the various French cities. Science in the 

 modern sense of the word did not play an 

 important part in the medieval university ; 

 but Roger Bacon, bom in 1214, was inti- 

 mately associated with Oxford and Paris, 

 and doubtless found encouragement as well 

 as persecution at these universities. The 

 promise of Bacon was not fulfilled for more 

 than two centuries; but there was a slow 

 growth of science at the universities. Co- 

 pernicus found masters at Cracow, Bologna 

 and Padua and was himself professor at 

 Rome. Kepler and Galileo filled chairs at 

 universities ; they bring us to the period of 

 the organization of academies of sciences. 



Francis Bacon in his Neiu Atlantis, pub- 

 lished in 1627, pictures Solomon's House 

 as an ideal academy of sciences. I have 

 already referred to the establishment of 

 actual academies of sciences in Italy dur- 

 ing the sixteenth century. They were orig- 

 inally clubs of scientific men or men inter- 

 ested in science who met together to dis- 

 cuss and perform experiments. Like the 

 early univei-sities the academies were at 

 first independent of the state; but they 

 subsequently received charters and appro- 

 priations of money. In the sixteenth and 

 the first part of the seventeenth century 

 academies of sciences were founded through- 

 out Europe. The period was marked by 

 extraordinary scientific progress which was 

 greatly stimiilated by the interchange of 

 ideas made possible by the academies. The 

 state of science was such that each member 



could understand and take interest in the 

 woz-k of all the ^others. Intellectual curios- 

 ity was widespread, catholic and naive. 



The Royal Society of London and the 

 Academy of Sciences of Paris arose at 

 about the same time and under similar cir- 

 cumstances. At Paris a club counting 

 among its members, Descartes, Gassendi 

 and Pascal met at a private house for some 

 thirty years, until an academy of sciences 

 was finally organized by Colbert on the 

 model of the Academic Frangaise estab- 

 lished earlier under the auspices of 

 Richelieu. The seven original members 

 included Huyghens, who was called to 

 Paris. They received pensions from the 

 king and grants for instruments. The 

 academy was reconstituted in 1699 with 

 fifteen active members, three each in geom- 

 etry, astronomy, mechanics, anatomy and 

 chemistry. The academy of sciences be- 

 came part of the Institute of France in 

 1795 ; at which time it was divided into 

 ten sections in each of which were six mem- 

 bers and six associates in the provinces, the 

 sections being: (1) mathematics, (2) me- 

 chanics, (3) astronomy, (4) experimental 

 physics, (5) chemistry, (6) natural history 

 and mineralogy, (7) botany, (8) anatomy,. 

 (9) medicine and surgery, and (10) agri- 

 culture. An eleventh section— geography 

 and navigation — was added in 1803 with 

 three members. As constituted since 1833, 

 the Institute of France contains five acad- 

 emies: (1) Francaise, (2) Inscriptions et 

 belles-lettres, (3) Sciences, (4) Beaux-arts 

 and (5) Sciences morales et politiques.. 

 The academy of sciences contains eight 

 members and the other academies forty.. 

 Each receives a pension. As we all know, 

 the intellectual life of France has been 

 centered largely at Paris and in the acad- 

 emies. 



The Royal Society of London resulted 

 from a club that held meetings as early as 

 1645 ; it was finally organized in 1660 and 



