1894.] Editorials. 495 
classification tends to perpetuate the disproportion already referred to; 
omits reference to some sciences; and makes no distinct division for 
applied science. We now refer to a letter addressed to the committee, 
which appears in the department of Scientific News this number of 
the NarurA.tst, in which the following division is proposed: Class 
I.—Physical Sciences, 35 members; Class I1—Natural Sciences, 35 
members; Class I1[.—Anthropological Sciences, 15 members; Class 
IV.—Applied Sciences, 15 members. The sciences included in each 
of these classes are enumerated in the letter in question. 
—A bill has been recently introduced into Congress, providing for 
the establishment of a “ National Academy” of twenty-five members. 
Of these Congress is to appoint the first five members, and these are to 
appoint the other twenty. These twenty-five are to represent “ litera- 
ture, science, fine arts and invention.” We understand that Gen. 
Lewis Wallace has drawn up the bill. 
The sponsors of this project appear to be unaware of the existence 
of the National Academy of Sciences of one hundred possible mem- 
bers. They also display an extraordinary exclusiveness in entertain- 
ing the supposition that the departments of human effort mentioned in 
the bill can be properly represented by only twenty-five men. Taking 
the National Academy of Sciences for granted, it might be supposed 
that an Academy of Arts might be similarly constituted. In such a 
case, membership, as in the Academy of Sciences, would. be awarded 
on account of original work done. Literature, Music and the Fine 
Arts would be encouraged by such an organization, were the qualifica- 
tions for membership and the number of members strictly defined. 
The difficulty in doing this, and in applying the rules in the concrete, 
would be greater in the case of the arts, we apprehend, than in the 
case of the sciences. It is also quite probable that fifty names, 
rather than one hundred, would embrace the list available at the 
present time in this country. 
It is hardly possible that the bill now before Congress can become a 
law in its present shape. The scientific element must be eliminated as 
being already provided for. The best literary men and artists of the 
country must decide whether such a body could be so constituted as to 
be truly representative of the best work or not. Geographical claims, 
80 dear to the American heart, must be ignored in this matter, as 1t 1s 
in the Academy of Sciences; and the usual preference of most people 
- for their friends will be an ever present difficulty to be met and over- 
come. On the whole, however, we suspect that such a body, properly 
