Vital Statistics of Scientific Academies¹

Abstract

A COMPARISON of the life statistics of such bodies as the Royal Society of London and the scientific academies in other countries is interesting, because the efficiency and influence of these institutions depend to some extent on the average age of their membership. Unless they contain a sufficient sprinkling of the younger generation and elections are not delayed until a man has done his best work, the institution will cease to command confidence and be hampered in the fulfilment of the object for which it was founded. We welcome the publication of the statistics collected by Prof. Raymond Pearl, and published by the National Academy of Sciences of Washington, because it allows us—so far as the limited material permits—to form a judgment of the effects of the conditions of election, which differ materially from those applying to the Royal Society. The latter, as is well known, has elected since 1848 fifteen members every year, while the leading scientific body in the United States has followed the practice of Continental academies and limited its total membership.