November 14, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



691 



, Whereas the university teachers are 

 under common bonds only in the matter of 

 discipline, and are quite independent of 

 one another in other respects, the academy 

 is a society each member of which must 

 submit his work to the judgment of all. 

 Hence, he insists, the idea of an academy 

 as the highest and ultimate freehold of 

 knowledge, and as a corporation which is 

 more independent than any other of the 

 state, must be maintained. 



In Humboldt's view, a close interchange 

 of activities between academy and univer- 

 sity should be provided for. Each aca- 

 demican must have the right to lecture at 

 the university without going through the 

 ordinary preliminaries, and without in- 

 volving any direct connection with it. 

 Many scholars should be both university 

 professors and academicians, but both in- 

 stitutions should have other members who 

 belong to it alone. The academy must be 

 free to choose its own members, subject 

 only to the approval of the government, 

 while professors in the university should 

 be appointed exclusively by the state. ^^ 



In spite of the transfer of some of its 

 principal departments to the University of 

 Berlin, the Berlin Academy has by no 

 means relinquished its important object of 

 carrying on large research projects. As al- 

 ready stated, it still has an endowed pro- 

 fessorship of chemistry, recently held by 

 van't Hoff, and now by Fischer, and a pro- 

 fessorship of astronomy, held by Auwers. 

 Both of these investigators pursue their re- 

 searches under the auspices of the Acad- 

 emy. The great work upon which Professor 

 Auwers is engaged is characteristic of 

 many of the larger undertakings of the 

 German academies, to which they devote 

 nearly half of their available funds. This 

 is the "Geschichte des Fixsternhimmels, " 



3? Lenz, ' ' Geschichte der Universitat Berlin, ' ' 

 Bd. I., pp. 186-188. 



an immense catalogue of star positions based 

 upon the observations of many astrono- 

 mers. Similar undertakings by the Berlin 

 Academy in other fields are the "Corpus 

 inscriptorum grajcarum" and the "Corpus 

 inscriptorum latinarum." The prepara- 

 tion of a great edition of Aristotle's works, 

 begun by the Berlin Academy in 1821 and 

 finished in 1909, is cited by Diels as a most 

 striking illustration of the advantage of 

 academic continuity, with which no individ- 

 ual can hope to compete.^^ For such an 

 undertaking, which we have come to regard 

 as characteristically German, an organ- 

 ized body like an academy of sciences pos- 

 sesses, not merely the advantage of con- 

 tinuity, but that which results from the 

 combined experience and the wide range 

 of vision brought to bear through the co- 

 operation of many eminent authorities. An 

 academy may also command far more ex- 

 tensive material than would fall within 

 the reach of the individual worker. This 

 phase of academic activity, practised 

 in different forms in the Museum of Alex- 

 andria and, in the preparation of national 

 dictionaries, by the Academic Prangaise 

 and the Accademia della Crusca, is also il- 

 lustrated in England by the Royal Society's 

 "Catalogue of Scientific Papers." Our 

 own National Academy has yet to take any 

 steps in this direction. 



The importance attached to this form 

 of academic work in Berlin is clearly 

 illustrated in the plans of the new acad- 

 emy building, for a set of which I am 

 indebted to the kindness of Professor Diels. 

 This building, which is being constructed 

 in connection with the new Royal Library, 

 is probably more perfectly adapted for aca- 

 demic purposes than any other building 

 now in use, as it was especially designed 



33 Diels, ' ' Die organisation der Wiasensohaft, ' ' 

 in ' ' Die Allegemeinen Grundlagen der Kultur der 

 Gegenwart, " 2d ed., p. 667. 



