Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/85

Rh Table II. The country is given in the first column, as in Table I. The percentages of the entire membership of each country in the years 1750, 1789, 1839, 1869 and 1908 are given in the next five columns. As the tenths of a per cent, are omitted, the sums are not exactly 100. The seventh column gives the difference found by subtracting the numbers in the second column from those in the sixth. If positive, it indicates an increase, if negative, a decrease in membership during the one hundred and fifty-eight years. These twelve differences may be divided into three groups of four each, including the countries showing a large increase, those remaining nearly the same, and those showing a large decrease. The results are given in the last three lines of the table. It may now be of interest to compare the results of this discussion with that published in LXXIII., 372. A list is there given of the eighty-seven persons who were foreign associates of two or more national societies, in 1908. The percentage of these members and of their membership is given in the eighth and ninth columns. They are derived from Table III. of that paper. The tenth column gives the percentage of the eighty-seven members who were born in each country.

The most remarkable change, shown in Table II., is that of Germany, which passed from the fourth place in 1789 to the first place in 1869, and nearly quadrupled its percentage of membership during that time. The diminution of membership in France is almost equally striking, while the change in Great Britain is slight. The four countries grouped in the last line but two and the corresponding differences are: Germany, + 19; United States, + 7; Austria, + 6; Scandinavia, + 4. The increase in Austria is largely due to recent membership in the Prussian Academy, as shown in Table I., and is perhaps