908 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1043 



America in the International Association 

 of Academies. The history of the Acad- 

 emy shows that it has taken its obligations 

 seriously, by complying with requests from 

 the executive and legislative departments 

 of the government for advice on scientific 

 matters, by the use of trust funds for the 

 advancement of research, by the award of 

 prizes and grants for investigation, by the 

 initiation and support of international co- 

 operation in research, and by such other 

 means as its limited endowment has per- 

 mitted. But while the rapid growth of the 

 scientific bureaus of the government has 

 reduced the number of questions which 

 would otherwise be submitted to the Acad- 

 emy, the enormous increase in the wealth 

 of the country, and the expansion of its 

 trade relations have raised new problems 

 and advanced new opportunities. These 

 developments, which have resulted in the 

 multiplication of universities, observatories 

 and laboratories, and the foundation of 

 great endowments for research, place the 

 Academy in a new position, and impose the 

 question whether it can not now accomplish 

 much more than was formerly possible. It 

 is the purpose of this paper to open the 

 discussion of this question, in the hope that 

 its further consideration by other members 

 may lead to an extension of the work and 

 usefulness of the Academy. 



Fortunately we may take advantage of 

 the rich store of experience accumulated 

 by the European academies during their 

 long histories. In seeking to adapt this to 

 our own needs, we must of course recognize 

 the special conditions existing in the United 

 States. The great area over which our 

 members are distributed and the lack of any 

 such centralization as we see in London or 

 in Paris, will always stand in the way of 

 weekly meetings like those of the Royal 

 Society and the Paris Academy. But if 

 we can not hope to see our leading inves- 



tigators personally demonstrate each step 

 in their progress before academic audi- 

 ences, as Faraday and Pasteur and many 

 another have done abroad, we can never- 

 theless provide for lectures and papers 

 illustrated by experiments in connection 

 with the semi-annual meetings of the Acad- 

 emy, and possibly for others of a public 

 character, extending throughout the year, 

 after the manner of the Royal Institution 

 of London. iThe disadvantage of our mem- 

 bers in being unable to read accounts of 

 their latest advances before weekly meet- 

 ings of their colleagues can also be largely 

 offset by the publication of Proceedings, 

 in which the first results of all new work 

 may be adequately presented. Thus, 

 though we lack some of the advantages of 

 centralization, these may be largely over- 

 come, while retaining the very great ad- 

 vantage of a widely distributed membership 

 representing the scientific interests of every 

 section of the country. 



FUNCTIONS OP A NATIONAL ACADEMY 



The criticism has sometimes been directed 

 against academies covering the whole range 

 of knowledge that their place has been 

 sufficiently filled by the special societies 

 devoted to particular branches of science. 

 For more than a century the Royal Society 

 and the Paris Academy served all the pur- 

 poses of science in Great Britain and 

 France, but toward the end of the eight- 

 eenth century special societies began to 

 develop in England. The establishment of 

 the Linnean Society in 1788 did not appear 

 to give special concern to the members of 

 the Royal Society. But when the Geolog- 

 ical Society was instituted in 1807, Sir 

 Joseph Banks, then President of the Royal 

 Society, united with Sir Humphry Davy 

 and others in a strenuous attempt to amal- 

 gamate it with the parent body. The Royal 

 Astronomical Society was established in 



