Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/131

Rh dropped from the active workers. Even the places of their successors had been taken by a younger generation, and the number of nonprofessional members had been very greatly increased.

These are some of the causes which led to a serious consideration, in 1893, of means for further widening the academy's influence and usefulness, a first step toward which was the appointment of a committee to report on the desirability of a revision of the constitution. On the report of this committee, the constitution was considerably changed, not in essentials, but radically by the adoption of a letter ballot for elections, amendments and the like, in place of the vote formerly taken at a regular meeting after due notice of the business to be done; and by provision for the election of a non-office-holding committee each winter to nominate officers for the ensuing year, with the privilege of additional nominations from the floor when the committee reported.

Direct effects of these provisions were to check a perfunctory renomination of officers to which informal nomination on the spur of the moment may lead along the line of least resistance and to place the franchise in the hands of the entire membership instead of leaving it through non-attendance to the few members who might be at the meeting when a vote was taken. Current matters of administrative business were also taken out of the hands of the membership and directly vested in a council, consisting of the principal officers. No doubt the general result of the innovations was good.

Some notable changes in the life of the academy showed themselves very soon after the revision of the constitution and the removal of the meeting-place from Washington University to the building of the Missouri Historical Society. For instance, the provision of a nominating committee having time for reflection and compelled to hold a meeting for the preparation of a list of nominees has led to a more frequent nomination of men of affairs for the offices of president and vice-presidents, as a means of identifying the non-professional majority of the members with the life of the academy, in place of the customary election to those offices of the most distinguished scientific men on the roll, or of those whose attendance was most constant; and the removal of business details from the meetings has cut out many spicy discussions on the financial standing and intentions of members in arrears and other non-technical matters, leaving the sessions free for the strictly scientific purposes of the academy.

Perhaps the most noticeable change of this period has been in the character of the program. In its new quarters, the academy met in a formal lecture room, with a platform for the presiding officers and regularly placed seats for the audience, the exchanges being displayed in a separate room, for inspection before the meeting. Attendance was made easier and the presence of ladies was more frequently