THE VIENNA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 419 



induces one to begin new work or to enter upon investigations which 

 may result in important discoveries and valuable additions to human 

 knowledge. So far as possible the income of the academy, which is now 

 between forty and fifty thousand dollars a year from its own funds, is 

 employed in subventions, to aid in printing important treatises, for 

 travel, for excavations or special work. A brief reference to what has 

 been accomplished will justify the demands of the friends of the acad- 

 emy for its establishment. It has provided for the publication of the 

 'Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticarum Eerum' in many volumes and 

 of many volumes of reports of the excavations of the prehistoric com- 

 mission for whose work it furnished the means. It has nearly com- 

 pleted the petrographic study of the central chain of the Eastern Alps, 

 and has made a map of the region. In 1894 it joined in an international 

 enterprise to discover the weight of the earth. In 1897 it sent, at a cost 

 of more than 20,000 gulden, an expedition to Bombay to study the 

 bubonic plague. Its bacillus was discovered, but the young man in 

 charge of the expedition lost his life. In 1898 and 1899, it had a 

 commission at work in southern Arabia, and on the island of Socotra. 

 In 1897 it completed deep sea soundings in the Mediterranean, espe- 

 cially in what is called the Adriatic Sea. In 1899 it sent a double 

 expedition to India to study meteors and the eclipse and in 1891 it sent 

 a botanic expedition to Brazil. The results of all these expeditions 

 and of others almost as important have been carefully edited and given 

 to the world through the press. 



In 1901 36 annual 'advertisers' had appeared and 49 'almanacs.' 

 These were filled with information not elsewhere to be obtained. At 

 that time the philosophical class had published 48 volumes of works 

 prepared under its direction and 141 volumes of 'Proceedings.' The 

 scientific class had published 68 volumes of special treatises and 108 

 volumes of ' Proceedings. ' Five parts of the ' Eeport of the Prehistoric 

 Commission' had also appeared. For twenty years and more monthly 

 reports of the condition of chemistry in Europe and throughout the 

 world have been printed and circulated. Of the 'Archives for Austrian 

 History' 88 volumes have appeared, of the 'Sources (Fontes) for 

 Austrian Affairs,' 8 volumes in the First Part, 51 in the Second Part; 

 of 'Announcements from the National Archives,' 2 volumes, of the 

 'Monumenta Concilliorum, ' 2 volumes, and 4 volumes of Part III. 

 Of the 'Hapsburg Memorials,' divisions two and three of Vol. I. have 

 been printed and one part of Vol. II. Ten volumes of the 'Tables of 

 Codices' have appeared, three of the 'Venetian Dispatches' and the 

 second division of Vol. II. 



The Academy claims to have suggested and obtained the appoint- 

 ment of a committee to consider the sources of Indian lexicography; 

 to investigate the condition of the Corpus Scriptorum of Oriental 



