Academy of Sciences

“ The Academy of Sciences, in such of their researches as are of a more difficult kind and a more sensible use, embrace the knowledge of nature and the improvements of the arts. We may presume that such profound, such uninterrupted pursuits as these, such exact calculations, such refined discoveries, such extensive and exalted views, will, at last, produce something that may prove of advantage to the universe. ”

“ The five ancient, like the five modern academies, have rendered, all the same, the greatest services to science, and cast a brilliant light on literature and art. This is generally admitted in connection with the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Inscriptions. There is no foreign scientific man, however illustrious, who does not welcome the honour of becoming its associate or correspondent. The Academy of Sciences has taken part in every scientific advance ”

“ The Academy of Sciences, regarded by scientific men as the most important part of the institute, and whose history will be related more fully in other articles, was founded by Minister Colbert in 1666. It grew out of informal gatherings of scientific men who met from time to time to discuss reported, discoveries in the scientific world and to suggest and criticize theories of their own. ”

“ It is well known, from their memoirs, that these academies included among their members men of eminent talents. The Academy of Sciences, in particular, could boast of several first-rate geniuses in the different branches which they respectively cultivated, and the unremitting labours of some of them have, no doubt, greatly contributed to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge. ”

“ There he gained the acquaintance of many of the foremost scientific men of the day, and quickly made a name for himself both as a teacher and an investigator, attaining within ten years the honour of membership of the Academy of Sciences. ”

“ The Academy is approaching its centenary. For nearly one hundred years its progress has been steady and progressive and during all that time its resources have been employed exclusively for the intellectual advancement of mankind in connection with the work of unselfish and devoted men. Its influence has not been local but has been exerted wherever scientific research is cultivated. ”

“ But it shows a want of practical capacity when in a community wanting the first necessaries of popular instruction the Sovereign founds an Academy of Sciences, and gravely inculcates on his Ministers the importance of encouraging the study of metaphysics. ”

“ When the government employs skilled experts in all departments, it no longer requires the advice of an academy of sciences. We should like to see the National Academy entrusted with certain definite functions and we should like to see scientific men treated with even greater respect than at present, but on the whole the necessary conditions of a democracy and of an age of specialization do not seem to be unfavorable to scientific work. ”

“ Refresher courses, on the other hand, are at the higher education level and are provided for industrial specialists in order to keep them abreast of the latest developments in science and technology. Teachers and researchers are encouraged to hold research fellowships that function under the various institutions of higher education as well as the Academy of Sciences. ”

“ The several series of the publications form 151 volumes. The output for the year 1908 amounted to 1,936 pages and 133 plates. It is gratifying to know that the quantity of the matter published is in no sense at the expense of its quality. The importance of the Academy is measurably dependent on the discoveries announced in its publications. They are the organs of speech of the society by means of which it holds communication with naturalists in all civilized countries. They encourage the student to labor, for investigation would be purposeless if the results could not be given to the world. ”

“ Cope in the organization of the Academy is that, while it secures good financial management, it minimizes the scientific features of the body. "Its officers are the usual president, vice-president, secretary, etc., constituting a management as appropriate to an historical society, library company, or, I might add, church vestry, as to an academy of natural sciences. ”

“ In order to further these researches, he withdrew from the university and went to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, where, in 1890, he became a member of the microscopical and biological section, and later was elected professor of microscopic technology. ”

“ During the rest of his life he gave devoted attention to the economic interests of the Academy, serving continuously as Curator from 1838, and as Vice-President from 1860, with a brief interval, until his death in 1882. He also rendered indispensable service as a member of the Publication Committee from 1840 and as treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Building Fund from its organization in January, 1867. ”

“ It is not surprising, therefore, although the study of science was not wholly given up, that during the last quarter of the century the academy should lose much of its fame as a center of purely scientific research. ”

“ Original investigation will be more active in the Academy when it can offer a well-appointed laboratory for the use of workers; and an apartment suitably furnished to accommodate an audience, and enable the professors to illustrate their teachings, is prerequisite to the delivery of systematic courses of popular or elementary lectures on natural science in the Academy. ”

“ Provided science be kept separate from political excitement, we should like to see an English Academy, constituted of men having fair claims to scientific distinction, and not "deserving of that honour because they are attached to science." ”

“ Far indeed am I from denying the extreme attractiveness, as well as the practical benefit to the world at large, of the sciences of Chemistry, Electricity, and Geology; but the question is not what department of study contains the more wonderful facts, or promises the more brilliant discoveries, and which is in the higher and which in an inferior rank; but simply which out of all provides the most robust and invigorating discipline for the unformed mind. ”

“ Less preparation on the part of the student is required to enter it, and every applicant is given to understand that it does not rank quite equally with its older rival. In both courses the natural sciences are similarly arranged, so that the graduated bachelor of science knows really no more chemistry, physics, botany, zoölogy, geology, or astronomy, than the supposably less scientific bachelor of arts. ”

“ They are satisfied that a strict course of mathematical and philosophical study, with applications to the various branches of military science, is by far the best calculated to bring about this end, and that the present scientific course at the Academy, the result of the experience of many years, is in its main feature such a course. ”

“ Discussions and differences in the academy increased and grew warmer with every addition to scientific knowledge, for the ability to harmonize the discoveries which were made nearly every year with what was already known seemed to be entirely lacking. Men had not yet learned how to compare one science with another. ”

“ Standing as it does between both the local societies and the specialist societies, limited as these are by neighborhood and by subjects respectively, and the more advanced and select National Academy, the association may be likened in position to the college, standing between the schools and academies and the advanced work of the universities and professional institutions. It is the only body, in its very nature and scope, that can bring genuine science before and among the people at large. ”

“ Created for purposes of teaching and administration, they are a veritable bane to the investigator who can not stop mining because his vein happens to dip into another man's superficial territory. Even in the routine of teaching many changes are likely to come. I believe there will be developments in two main directions. The present laboratory studies, or propædeutics, will be deepened and extended in the direction of the more exact sciences, or toward the physical, chemical and biological work of the university proper. ”

“ The completion of the building will facilitate and strengthen all the functions of the society in all its departments, and lay the foundation of a workshop in which experts and students may pursue investigations advantageously to science and themselves.
The progress of the Academy has been always deliberate and unobtrusive. It will so continue until accelerated by enlarged resources.
To the full extent of its means the Academy encourages original research, gives instruction to those who seek it, and promotes the diffusion of knowledge. ”

“ The heads of colleges in our great Universities (who have not the reputation of being the most mobile of persons) have, in several cases, thought it well that, out of the great number of honours and rewards at their disposal, a few should hereafter be given to the cultivators of the physical sciences. Nay, I hear that some colleges have even gone so far as to appoint one, or, may be, two special tutors for the purpose of putting the facts and principles of physical science before the undergraduate mind. ”

“ Ingenious inventors, single though ever so worthy scholars and investigators, can not take the place of academies in the scientific life of a nation. It was a simple thing that the telephone should be discovered; remarkable that the explanation of it was reserved for members of our Academy. At the time of their foundation the older academies entirely constituted the scientific world. In the universities, the so-called professional faculties had quite the upper hand over the philosophical, and in them classical philology predominated. ”

“ If during the course of my studies I succeed in making myself known by a work of distinction, will you not then consent that I shall study, at least during one year, the natural sciences alone, and then accept a professorship of natural history, with the understanding that in the first place, and in the time agreed upon, I shall take my Doctor's degree? ”

“ In 1837 it had been definitely decided that the academy should stand for research, chiefly in science and literature, that the number of members should not exceed fifty, equally divided between the classes, and that each class should nominate only one hundred corresponding members. ”

“ They furnish a clear idea of the state of scientific knowledge at the time when the studies reported were made, and enable one to trace the progress of science in its various departments through more than a generation. In Volumes I. and II. we have a history of the academy with the names of its members prior to 1734 and a list of their publications. Nothing is more attractive to a real student in all these volumes than this list of names and publications. Volume III. contains descriptions of the animals which the academy secured for dissection. Most of them are common animals. ”

“ Each group of scientific men will find something to interest them in the advances made by the university during the ten years of Provost Harrison's administration. These include the laboratories of physics and of chemistry, the engineering hall, the observatory, the botanical garden, the vivarium and the museums, to mention only certain of the developments connected with the natural and exact sciences. ”

“ The Academy is divided into six committees: mathematics and astronomy; physics and engineering; chemistry; geology and palaeontology; biology; and anthropology. It gives several gold medals for meritorious researches and discoveries. It publishes scientific monographs (at the expense of the Federal Government) . Its presidents have been Alexander D. Bache, Joseph Henry, Wm. B. Rogers, Othuiel C. Marsh, Wolcott Gibbs, Alexander Agassiz and Ira Remsen. ”

“ Hence for a long time astronomical studies received the greatest honor in the academy, and outside of it. It is, therefore, not strange that the men who devoted themselves to these studies should consider themselves superior to their fellows. They were zealous for their department and paid little attention to what was done in other departments than their own. For a full generation there v/as ill feeling between members of the academy caused chiefly by differences of opinion in reference to scientific subjects. Yet advance was made in other departments than those of astronomy and mathematics. ”

“ For the Academy meets not only to listen to special scientific papers, but also as the official scientific adviser of the Government. As knowledge increases in range and exactness, it is evident that expert advice becomes more and more necessary, both for the enactment of legislation and for carrying it into effect. ”

“ An effective college course may select for its aim the development of the technique of a given subject. It is obvious that a science course governed by this aim will emphasize the laboratory method at the expense of information; that a course in the social sciences will seek to cover less ground but will develop in the student the power to find facts and use them to formulate an intelligent conclusion; that a course in [Pg 53] biology will minimize names, classifications and structures, but will emphasize field and laboratory work and the modes of utilizing the data thus discovered. ”

“ When academies were established, chiefly in the seventeenth and the first part of the eighteenth centuries, it was possible and desirable for all the scientific men of the nation to meet together for experiment and discussion, and membership in the academy usually carried with it a pension or other tangible advantage. ”