676 
A Plea for Pure Science . 
[November, 
together at any one point. The American Association, which 
we are now attending, is not a scientific academy, and does 
not profess to be more than a gathering of all who are inte- 
rested in Science, to read papers and enjoy social intercourse. 
The National Academy of Sciences contains eminent men 
from the whole country, but then it is only for the purpose 
of advising the Government freely on scientific matters. It 
has no building, it has no library, and it publishes nothing 
except the information which it freely gives to the Govern- 
ment, which does nothing for it in return. It has not had 
much effe(5t direCtly on American science ; but the liberality 
of the Government in the way of scientific expeditions, pub- 
lications, &c., is at least partly due to its influence, and in 
this way it has done much good. But it in no way takes 
the place of the great Royal Society, or the great Academies 
of Science at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Munich, 
and indeed all the European capitals and large cities. These, 
by their publications, give to the young student, as well as 
the more advanced physicist, models of all that is considered 
excellent ; and to become a member is one of the highest 
honours to which he can aspire, while to write a memoir 
which the Academy considers worthy to be published in its 
Transactions excites each one to his highest effort. 
The American Academy of Sciences in Boston is perhaps 
our nearest representation of this class of academies, but 
its limitation of membership to the State deprives it of its 
national character. 
But there is another matter which influences the growth 
of our science. 
As it is necessary for us still to look abroad for our highest 
inspiration in Pure Science, and as Science is not an affair 
of one town or of one country, but of the whole world, it 
becomes us all to read the current Journals of Science and 
the great Transactions of foreign societies, as well as those 
of our own countries. These great Transactions and Journals 
should be in the library of every Institution of learning in 
the country where Science is taught. How can teachers 
and professors be expected to know what has been discovered 
in the past, or is being discovered now, if these are not pro- 
vided ? Has any Institution a right to mentally starve the 
teachers whom it employs, or the students who come to it ? 
There can be but one answer to this ; and an Institution 
calling itself a University, and not having the current sci- 
entific Journals upon its table, or the Transactions of Societies 
upon its library-shelves, is certainly not doing its best to 
cultivate all that is best in this world, 
