Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/621

Rh not new; it had, for example, been advocated by Bache in his presidential address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1851. Such academies existed in each of the great foreign nations and had been important factors in the advancement of science, through their relation to the government and in other directions. The Royal Society of London celebrated last year its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary; the Academy of Sciences of Paris was established at about the same time; even earlier there were academies in Italy. The members of the continental academies receive salaries; the British government at least provides the Royal Society with a house. In this country the American Philosophical Society, modeled by Franklin on the Royal Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, modeled by Adams on the Paris Academy, have long histories. If Philadelphia had remained the seat of government, the American Philosophical Society would doubtless have performed the functions of a national academy.