186 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 



both interesting and informing in an unusual 

 Francis H. Herrick 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



ORGANIZATION MEETING OF ILLINOIS STATE 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



More than one hundred persons gathered 

 in the senate chamber at Springfield at ten 

 o'clock Saturday morning, December 7, for the 

 purpose of organizing a state academy. The 

 meeting was called to order by A. E. Crook, 

 curator of the State Museum, and U. S. 

 Grant, Northwestern University, was elected 

 chairman. 



The opening addi'sss by Professor Cham- 

 berlin, on " The Advantages of a State 

 Academy of Science " was given in the ex- 

 temporaneous form and the following outline 

 very imperfectly represents what was said. 



Professor Chamberlin introduced his ad- 

 dress by conveying the felicitations of the 

 Chicago Academy of Sciences, and sketched 

 some of the salient features of its history of a 

 little more than fifty years, as a means of 

 giving concrete illustration to some of the 

 problems which the new academy must face. 

 Special attention was directed to the radical 

 change in the natxire and relations of scien- 

 tific activity since the oldest academies of the 

 interior were established. In the pioneer days, 

 an almost virgin field was open to naturalists, 

 and enthusiasts in this field constituted the 

 largest factor in the membership of its 

 academies of science during their early stages 

 of development. The results of these pioneer 

 workers were much more fully within the 

 apprecia;tion of all their colleagues and of the 

 intelligent public than are the products of the 

 more highly specialized investigations of to- 

 day. So widely has research deployed in the 

 last fifty years, and so far has it reached into 

 the more recondite phases of each field, that 

 there is now far less community of interest 

 and of intelligent appreciation, even among 

 scientific workers themselves. This funda- 

 mental change brings new problems of organi- 

 zation and of adjustment. In like manner, 



the function of an academy as an avenue of 

 publication has assumed a new aspect. Fifty 

 years ago, an appropriate means of publica- 

 tion was one of the greatest needs which the 

 academies supplied to the pioneer workers, for, 

 aside from these academies, the available op- 

 portunities of giving publicity and perman- 

 ence to scientific results were few and unsatis- 

 factory. As the regional element was domi- 

 nant in the results of the early naturalists, it 

 was fitting that there should be a local means 

 of publication. To-day, however, the results 

 of research are, in general, more serviceable 

 to scientific workers if they are gathered into 

 the special journals devoted to the several de- 

 partments of science. While the function of 

 publishing the results of regional investiga- 

 tions still remains and may well continue to 

 be subserved by the regional academies of 

 science, and while certain adaptations of other 

 results may serve an important regional pur- 

 pose, the question whether an academy should 

 endeavor to be the avenue of miscellaneous 

 publication to the same extent as in the early 

 days is one of the problems that invite the 

 serious consideration of a new academy. 



Attention was also directed to the problems 

 presented by the geographic distribution of 

 the centei-s of scientific activity within the 

 state and by the not altogether felicitous rela- 

 tions of these centers to the capitol of 

 Illinois. 



The advantages of a state academy to those 

 who are just entering upon scientific careers, 

 to amateurs dissociated from institutions of 

 research, to trained workers in relative isola- 

 tion, and to workers in scientific centers, were 

 specifically set forth. The values to be de- 

 rived from opportunities of reading papers be- 

 fore fellow workers, of submitting results to 

 discussion, of participating in the discussion 

 of others' results, of extending scientific 

 acquaintance, of cooperation, of mutual stimu- 

 lus to endeavor, of personal education by con- 

 tact with other workers, were dwelt upon in 

 detail. The value of the academy as a means 

 of disseminating the spirit, the method, and 

 the love of science among the people of the 

 state was especially emphasized. The func- 



