1144 The American Naturalist. [December, 
of simply developing the photographic society. The men by whom the 
original society was known to the world were locally quite lost sight 
of. In another city a number of local amateur astronomical clubs 
were taken into the Academy. These consisted of ladies and gentle- 
men whose devotion to science consisted in viewing the stars in each 
others pleasant society. Another Academy adopted popular lectures 
as a device for filling empty benches. The selection of the lectures 
being in the hands of incompetent officers, cranky and ignorant per- 
sons, and those who had apparatus to sell, occupied the time of the 
_ Academy, to the great scandal of the really scientific men of the 
city. 
The appointment of amateurs and unscientific persons to positions in 
scientific bodies, often has ludicrous results. One Academy of Science 
discussed an ancient bone dredged up in salt water. It was perforated 
with fossæ in series, and it was concluded that it was a mouth bone of 
a fossil fish. It turned out to be the head of and ancient tooth-brush. 
An exhibition of foot-tracks on ancient rocks before the same Academy, 
brought to his feet a dancing master, who illustrated the formation of 
the impressions terpsichorean fashion. 
Another plan for promoting the prosperity of scientific bodies is to 
have dinners and social receptions. These methods are always suc- 
cessful in drawing together numbers, and if persons are to be elected 
members of such societies in proportion to their gastronomic capacities, 
such a system must be eminently successful. To be serious, however, 
and to repeat what should be self-evident to every person, this plan 
tends only to an increase of non-expert membership, which is really at 
the bottom of all the evils which have befallen scientific societies. 
Hence, unless some measures to protect the membership be adopted, 
this method of “ promotion ” should be always rejected. 
The result, both of our observations and cogitations on this subject 
is, that the only method by which Academies of Science can advance 
themselves in the public esteem, is to continue in their work of original 
research. If they cannot acquire public confidence in this way, they 
cannot acquire it at all. There is no short cut to this so-called “ suc- 
” As in all other human endeavors to wrest advantage from 
Nakib, labor and labor only “omnia vincit.” As with the agricul- 
turist, the machinist, or the accumulator of money, devotion to work 
and this only, brings the rewards which we seek. The visible products 
-of labor are what men respect, and if the scientific man wishes to in- 
spire the respect of wealth, he must show results, rather than bestow 
on men of wealth what are to them empty honors. 
