PRESENT AND FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 499 



city, and permits us to be the terrified spectators of eruptions in 

 Java and Martinique, of cyclones in Louisiana, and battles in Man- 

 churia; thanks to steamers and locomotives it has made of the world 

 a single market, the fluctuations of which, being felt as far as the 

 antipodes, prove more than any other phenomenon the fact of the 

 world solidarity; to this matter the question of weights and meas- 

 ures, which also was the subject of an international convention, 

 the metric convention signed in Paris May 20, 1875, and for which 

 a permanent office was established in France, is made to relate 

 directly. It is to be hoped that this last convention, which proved 

 so important in facilitating relations between men will, at an early 

 day, bind all the nations that have not yet adopted the unity of 

 metric measure. We are tempted to express a similar wish, though 

 one which, alas! is more Platonic and the realization of which is 

 more problematical, in favor of a universal monetary unity, and of 

 an international monetary convention similar to that from which 

 have sprung the Latin and Scandinavian monetary union agreements 

 which were signed respectively in Paris December 23, 1865, and in 

 Copenhagen May 27, 1873. At least, the legitimate hope may be 

 expressed that the moneys of the various nations will be struck so 

 as to establish simple relations between them, and thus facilitate 

 their circulation upon the whole surface of the globe. 



Humanity has pondered likewise over the question of regulating 

 the struggle against the gravest diseases, which come from the un- 

 healthy regions of the far-away Orient. The conventions entered 

 into regarding this matter are numerous already, and have been 

 signed successively in Dresden, April 15, 1893, in Paris, April 3, 1894, 

 and in Venice, April 19, 1897. It is probable that similar conventions 

 will come into existence for the purpose of attenuating endemic 

 diseases like tuberculosis and syphilis. We may also refer to the 

 phylloxeric convention reached in Berne, September 17, 1878, and 

 which belongs to the same category. It is known that the conven- 

 tions relating to cholera and the plague have brought about the 

 creation of international stations of inspection. 



This matter of social defense against diseases is intimately bound 

 with the acceptance of an international pharmacopoeia, the prepar- 

 ation of which has been intrusted to a special commission by a con- 

 ference which met in Brussels in September, 1902. 



Another convention, which also deserves having attention called 

 to it, is that which was signed July 2, 1890, for the purpose of putting 

 an end to the slave trade in Africa; the international office charged 

 with the duty of having the provisions of this treaty carried out has 

 its headquarters in Brussels. 



In Brussels also is found the headquarters of the international 



