Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/274

270 the period from 1860 to 1900 the names of nine eminent historians were on its books. Droysen, Duneker, Waitz, von Sybel, Wattenbach, Nitzsch, Weitszaecker, Lehmann, von Tretschke, the last named representing the school of Kanke, one of the most illustrious of the eminent historians Germany has produced. Olshausen and Roediger represented the Hebrew language and literature as well as that of Syria and Arabia, and Dillmann, in addition to a thorough knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, was especially famous for his mastery of Ethiopic.

Prior to 1870 the income of the academy had been very inadequate, although private gifts from the king and grants from the government had enabled it to carry out to a successful conclusion several important enterprises. For scientific purposes it had never received from its own resources more than $2,300 in any single year. By a cabinet order, dated at Versailles, March 2, 1871, the Archeological Institute of Rome, through which so much has been accomplished, was made a state institution, brought into connection with the academy and put under its control. On May 16, 1874, its name was changed to that of The Imperial German Institute of Archeology, and a branch of it established in Athens for the study of Grecian antiquities. In 1875 an agreement was made with the academies in Vienna and Munich whereby each of them shares in the expense and direction of this archeological work. Through the generosity of the government in 1874 the academy was in a position to expend for science three times as much as formerly. The figures show that between 1877 and 1897 nearly $350,000 were set aside for scientific purposes alone. During the reign of William I. institutes were organized and equipped in connection with all the Prussian universities, and most of the other German universities, for the training, under the best skill at command, of young men for research in special fields of scientific study. In these institutes some of the most striking of recent discoveries have been made.

The academy made its interest in astronomy manifest in the part it had in expeditions for the study of the occultations of Venus, in magnetism and meteorology by two expeditions sent to the poles for the study of these branches of science. The king had long been interested in the geodetic institute and in archeological studies, in the society formed for the publication of the Dutch sources of history, and shortly before his death he had determined to aid the work which had been begun on the Monumenta Borussia. He had opened the archives of the state to historical students from every part of the world. He had taken a deep interest in the excavation at Olympia and Pergamon, through the results of which the academy and the nation acquired well-deserved fame.

While the academy had every reason to look for sympathy and assistance from the Emperor Frederick III. and his wife, an appeal