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416 sought to revive the plan of Leibnitz, but although courteously received nothing came from his efforts. He wanted to be a professor in the university and president of the academy, but the fact that he was a protestant undoubtedly stood in his way. Still others than he were interested in the establishment of an academy. A plan presented by Baron von Petrasch in 1746 at the request of Count Haugnitz was laid before the government in 1750 and carefully considered. Under the terms science and the fine arts it proposed to cover the whole field of knowledge. Nothing came of this effort nor of another put forth in 1774, perhaps because the government feared the influence of the union of men so prominent for learning and ability, and perhaps because it did not see whence the means for its support were to come. The project for an Academy was not taken up again in earnest till 1837, when twelve men met in Vienna to talk the matter over. They recognized and emphasized the fact that in most of the large cities on the continent academies had been founded not only to the benefit of their members but to the credit of the cities in which they had their seat. Patriotism, they insisted, required the union of the scholarship of Vienna in an academy as a channel of communication with the learned world. As all who met to discuss the formation of an academy were of one mind as to its necessity, they formulated a plan of work, suggested means for its support and signed a petition to the government for its immediate organization. A small stamp tax on certain articles and the right of the academy to publish a calendar would, they thought, produce the necessary funds. The petition was seriously discussed. Men high in office, of noble birth and near the emperor were in favor of granting the request. The plan now presented was compared with that drawn up in 1750. Public sentiment as represented by the learned class was tested. The professors in the university were asked for their opinion. Some thought there were already too many institutions in the city and that there was neither room nor place for another. The medical faculty as a whole was not in favor of an academy. Some thought its work could not fail to come into conflict with that of the university. But the dean of the faculty of arts, Professor J. J. von Luttrow, wrote that the two could not come into conflict, that a university is a place for imparting knowledge already acquired and tested, while an academy seeks to increase knowledge by investigations and discoveries and furnishes a place where scientific men may compare their theories, criticize them and weigh carefully and judicially the evidence upon which they have been formed. For years the discussions about the forming of an academy continued. The matter was referred, in May, 1838, to a special commission formed by the court. This commission reported favorably in June of the following year. Nothing however was really done till 1847, although several commissions had meanwhile been