Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/377

Rh given in Table I. The name of the country, the name of the society, the year of its foundation, and the date of the list of members employed in the following discussion are given in the successive columns.

A list was next prepared of the foreign associates of each of these societies. It appears that there are 87 persons thus honored by two or more societies. Their names are given in the first column of Table II., in alphabetical order. The present residence is given in the second column. The department of science is given in the third column, generally taken from that assigned by the Institute of France, or the Academy of the Lincei. These classifications, which are nearly identical, are geometry, mechanics, astronomy, geography (including navigation), physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, agriculture, zoology (including anatomy), and medicine (including surgery). The year of birth is given in the fourth column, and the age at the time of election in the following columns. The letters, E, U, G, A, B, F and I represent the seven societies named above, respectively. The age is placed in italics to indicate resident membership. Thus, italics are used, in the column headed R, in the case of all Russians. No account has been taken of elections or deaths occurring after January 1, 1908.

In using Table II., it is extremely difficult to treat all nationalities with equal fairness. Thus, a resident in one of the seven great countries can be a foreign associate of only six of the societies. A Russian could never be a foreign associate of the Russian Society, while a Swede might be an associate of all seven. The numbers in italics in Table II. are much smaller than the others, which shows that less eminence is required for election as a resident member, than as a foreign associate, or perhaps that a man's work is better known at home than abroad. In a few cases, a man is elected into a foreign society who is not a member of the home society. This seldom occurs except in Germany, where a Bavarian, for instance, might be elected into the Austrian Society, before he was elected into the Prussian Society. Complications also occur when a resident member of a society moves into another country. Fortunately, these conditions affect a few men only. On the whole, the simplest and fairest plan seemed to be to