696 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 985 



longer than Faraday: these form a record 

 remarkable in the annals of science, with 

 returns so rich as to be worthy of the ex- 

 penditure of almost any sum. But even 

 this long list does not represent the total 

 product of the laboratory, where such emi- 

 nent leaders as Lord Rayleigh and Sir 

 Joseph Thomson have also conducted in- 

 vestigations of the first importance. So 

 far as my own observations have gone, no 

 other laboratory holds such an atmosphere 

 of research or stimulates so powerfully the 

 imagination of the investigator. I shall 

 have occasion later to refer to the equally 

 remarkable success of the Royal Institution 

 in diffusing and popularizing knowledge 

 through its course of experimental lectures. 

 Academies of the first class are so nu- 

 merous that only a few of the oldest or- 

 •ganizations, whose work bears directly 

 'upon the problems of our own National 

 A.cademy, can be mentioned in this paper. 

 I hope to have opportunity at some future 

 Jtime to describe the work of such influen- 

 tial bodies as the Vienna Academy, which 

 has founded a Radium Institute and taken 

 steps which should result in the establish- 

 ment of a Solar Observatory, the Stock- 

 holm Academy, entrusted with the respon- 

 sibility of awarding the Nobel Prizes in 

 physics and chemistry; the Amsterdam 

 Academy, focus of the great research work 

 of Holland; and many other academies of 

 the highest rank representing the various 

 nations of Europe. For the present I must 

 limit attention to a group of institutions 

 which are sufficient to typify the wide 

 range of academic activities. However, a 

 word must be added regarding the St. 

 Petersburg Academy, established by Cath- 

 ■erine I. on the plans of Peter the Great in 

 1725, because of its special plan of organi- 

 zation. The president, director and fifteen 

 members are paid annual stipends ranging 

 from one thousand to three thousand dol- 



lars, and provided with dwelling houses. 

 The great academy building, with its li- 

 brary of over 36,000 books and manuscripts, 

 contains large laboratories in which in- 

 vestigations are constantly in progress. 

 The extensive publications include re- 

 searches in every field of knowledge and 

 exhaustive memoirs on the topography, 

 geography and history of Russia and the 

 manners, customs and languages of its 

 various peoples. 



From this survey of the work of a few 

 of the leading academies and allied institu- 

 tions, we see that original investigations 

 have played a large part in their activities, 

 from the days of the great museum at 

 Alexandria to the present time. In certain 

 instances, illustrated in the history of the 

 University of Berlin, some of the work of 

 investigation has been transferred from 

 the academies to the universities, but 

 without interrupting the larger activities 

 of the academies in the same field. Again, 

 in cases like that of the Royal Society, the 

 development of a closely allied laboratory 

 of research, such as that of the Royal Insti- 

 tution has partially supplied the place which 

 a laboratory under the exclusive control of 

 the Society might have held. The essential 

 thing to note is the advantage which re- 

 sults from the organic relationship of an 

 academy with a laboratory for the produc- 

 tion of new knowledge. An academy wiU 

 reach its greatest influence, and serve its 

 most useful purpose in stimulating the 

 work of its members, when it is recognized 

 as an institution primarily "for the in- 

 crease" rather than "for the diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." 



In the field of publication, the great 

 academies of former times were predomi- 

 nant factors, so much so that we owe to 

 their printed pages the great volume of the 

 original contributions of the earlier days 

 of science. With the rapid extension of 



