EDITOR'S TABLE. 



123 



large. New York, long recognized as 

 the great financial and commercial cen- 

 ter of the Union, and pre-eminent in 

 some other departments of the life of 

 the century, has not been eminent in 

 science. It has, indeed, as President 

 Low said at the late joint meeting of 

 the Alliance, many scientific men of the 

 first order, and has a record of scientific 

 work of the highest character that has 

 been done by snch men as Draper, Morse, 

 Rntherfurd, Newberry, and Edison ; but 

 the fame of that work has been dissi- 

 pated : it has never been concentrated, 

 as in other metropolitan cities and many 

 much smaller towns, under the panoply 

 of a single organization, central for all the 

 branches of research. London has its 

 Royal Institute and Royal Society ; Par- 

 is, Berlin, and other European capitals 

 have their Academies of Sciences, where 

 the work of the whole nation has a com- 

 mon home, and contributes to the fame 

 of its chief city. In the United States, 

 Boston has its Academy ; Philadelphia, 

 its Academy and the American Philo- 

 sophical Society ; Brooklyn, the Brook- 

 lyn Institute ; and other cities, down to 

 many relatively small ones, have central 

 organizations through which the scien- 

 tific work done by citizens receives all 

 the credit it is entitled to ; but New 

 York, which should have been in the 

 advance of all of these, has had only a 

 few struggling societies devoted to spe- 

 cialties — nothing comprehensive enough 

 to command the allegiance of students 

 of different branches and the attention 

 of the public. To use President Low's 

 words again, " These bodies have re- 

 vealed at once the strength and the 

 weakness of New York in these direc- 

 tions. They have made clear beyond a 

 doubt the vast resources of the city, 

 both in men and means. But they have 

 also revealed the fact that these re- 

 sources are as yet insufficiently organ- 

 ized." To this time, by reason of the 

 division among these special societies 

 and the want of a general one, the sci- 

 entific spirit of the city has lacked in- 



tensity of expression. It will be the 

 object of the Scientific Alliance, as 

 President Low believes it has tbe ca- 

 pacity, to give to New York the agency 

 which it has long needed to develop to 

 the utmost its activities of investigation 

 and experiment in the direction of pure 

 science. 



Seven societies, each of which is well 

 known and has done creditable work 

 in its special field, have united in the 

 formation of the Scientific Alliance. 

 They are the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, the Torrey Botanical Club, the 

 New York Microscopical Society, the 

 Linnaean Society of New York, the New 

 York Mineralogical Club, the New York 

 Mathematical Society, and the New 

 York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society. 



The advantages which are expected 

 to accrue to these societies and their 

 work from united organization were 

 well presented in the address of Mr. 

 Charles F. Cox. Among them are " the 

 stimulating and re energizing effect 

 which will be wrought in them by the 

 demand made upon them for an in- 

 creased output of effort for the public 

 good " ; the re-enforcement and encour- 

 agement they and their members will 

 receive from contact with one another; 

 the saving of work in doing over again 

 what has been already done which will 

 be effected by bringing these laborers 

 in different fields into co-operation and 

 consultation with one another, and en- 

 abling them to contribute their several 

 results to a common stock; in short, a 

 union of forces to produce the best re- 

 sults. 



The need of endowment for scientific 

 research and publication was presented 

 at the meeting for organization in an 

 address by the Hon. Addison Brown. 

 The existence of such a body as the 

 Alliance, proving its efficiency by its 

 work and extending its influence, may 

 be expected to attract the gifts of lib- 

 eral-minded capitalists, as do other en- 

 terprises for the public good that ac- 



