Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/297

Rh Sciences are not easily grouped, since many are closely connected. An approximate grouping of Table I. gives: geology, 20; zoology, 15; astronomy, 15; physics, 14; chemistry, 13; physiology, 10; botany, 7; miscellaneous, 11. Class A gives: geology, 7; zoology, 6; astronomy, 3; physics, 3; chemistry, 1; botany, 1. Table II. gives: astronomy, 9; physics, 7; chemistry, 7; geology, 6; botany, 5; zoology, 3; physiology, 3; miscellaneous, 6. The large number of geologists and zoologists in Table I., and especially in class A, is remarkable, and the reversion of this condition in Table II. Of the 20 geologists in Table I. there is only 1 mineralogist, while in Table II., of 6 geologists, there are 4 mineralogists. Table I. contains but 1 mathematician, while Table II. contains 4.

Important conclusions may be drawn from the order of election, but the discussion is beset with unusual difficulties. A society which chose members who were later elected into all the other societies would display remarkable skill. In class A, the number of members first elected by the four societies is 2, 10, 8 and 1, respectively. But it is much easier to become a resident than an associate, and 13 members were elected as residents of the American Academy, and 2 of the New York Academy. Omitting these, the numbers become 3, 0, 13 and 5. Accordingly, the New York Academy appears to have shown extraordinary skill in selecting early, men of such ability that later they were chosen by all the other societies. This result is confirmed by the eight foreigners who are members of all four societies. Four of these were first elected by the New York Academy, in two cases before they were elected by either of the seven leading European societies. The last column of Table II. shows that 32 men are members both of the European and American societies; of these, 23 were first elected by a European society, 6 by an American Society and 3 in the same year by both. Of the 9 in the last two classes, 6 were chosen first by the American Academy.

The numbers elected in the different societies, during the last ten years, differ greatly. Thus, for associates, we have from 1901 to 1905, 26, 15, and 20, and for 1906 to 1910, 17, 1, 1 and 13. For honorary members no such differences occur, the numbers for 1901 to 1905 being 8, 11, 9 and 12, and for 1906 to 1910, 11, 5, 3 and 9. Only 2 honorary members were elected into the National Academy before 1896, both in 1883. In the New York Academy, 11 associates were elected in 1876. Of course all of these numbers relate only to the selected lists contained in Tables I. and II.