Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/84

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80
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

FOREIGN ASSOCIATES OF NATIONAL SOCIETIES. II.

By Professor EDWARD C. PICKERING

HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY

A HISTORY of the sciences and of scientific men during the last two centuries, by M. Alphonse de Candolle, was published in 1873. A table is given showing the foreign membership in various societies for the four epochs, 1750, 1789, 1829 and 1869, at intervals of about forty years. Since another interval of forty years has now elapsed, it may be of interest to compare the results with those at the present time. The earlier part of Table I. is taken from M. de Candolle's volume, page 176. The country is given in the first column. Scandinavia includes Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Austria includes Hungary. Russia includes Poland. Spain includes Portugal. A few scattering names are similarly included. The percentages of membership in the various countries are given in the following columns, the year being given in the first line of the headings and the letters designating the various societies being given in the second line. F, B, G and R denote the Institute of France, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, respectively. Since only foreign membership is included, dashes are inserted in the case of home societies. Thus, in the first line, dashes are inserted in the column headed G, since no Germans could be foreign members of the Prussian Academy. Some of the results to be derived from Table I. will be found in

Table I.

Country. 1750 1789 1829 1869 1908
F B G F B G F B G F B G R F B G R
Germany 14 15 8 14 36 27 42 45 45 33 39 37
France 46 43 36 33 38 41 33 38 23 18 21 15
Great Britain 17 12 15 ... 29 14 29 26 16 20 17 16
Scandinavia 14 1 7 10 10 3 7 8 12 1 4 9 5 11 9 17 8
Italy 20 14 12 15 16 19 10 8 18 4 2 3 ... 7 9 7 8
United States ... ... ... 3 2 3 1 ... ... ... 2 3 8 7 11 10 4
Austria ... ... ... 3 ... ... 1 2 ... ... ... ... ... 3 2 17 5
Holland 6 7 10 10 3 8 3 2 ... ... 2 3 ... 7 7 7 ...
Russia ... 1 2 8 3 6 1 2 8 10 2 6 5 2 2
Switzerland 17 12 12 13 10 19 7 8 6 9 8 8 5 3 2 ... 3
Belgium ... ... ... 3 3 ... 3 ... 2 4 2 4 1 3 ... 2 1
Spain 11 4 2 13 4 8 ... 4 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...