4 2o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



knowledge; to look after Grecian grave inscriptions and to create a 

 commission for the study of oceanography. It shares with the Berlin 

 Academy and with the academies of Munich, Gottingen and Leipzig 

 in the preparation of a Latin dictionary. The work is done in Munich 

 and on a scale which may require twenty years to complete. Together 

 with the academies of Munich, Gottingen and Leipzig, it has carried 

 through and nearly completed an 'Encyclopedia of Mathematics and 

 Eelated Knowledge,' and has agreed to join with them in the future 

 in any work which ought to be undertaken, but which is too large for 

 the resources of a single academy. It joined the international associa- 

 tion of academies in 1900, and is taking part in the publication of the 

 international catalogue of scientific literature. Statements by the secre- 

 tary of what was done during the year 1899-1900 show the great place 

 the academy now fills. The Prehistoric Commission, he says, continued 

 its investigations at Toplitz near Krain, and discovered in graves which 

 had never been opened many articles belonging to a prehistoric race. 

 The work is nearly complete and full reports of it will soon be pub- 

 lished. Successful efforts have been made to obtain a complete collec- 

 tion of objects needed for the 'Phonographic Archives' of the academy. 

 The third part has been published of the report of the Austrian Plague 

 Commission on the morphology and biology of the bacillus, and on 

 the means to be used for the disinfection of man and beast and their 

 future protection against danger from this source. A report of the 

 visit to India to photograph meteors and observe the eclipse has been 

 printed. Opportunity was taken during this visit to secure measure- 

 ments of the intensity of the sun's heat and to collect twenty speci- 

 mens of orchids. The petrographic survey of the Alps has been con- 

 tinued and provision made for publishing part A of Vol. VI. of the 

 'Mathematical Encyclopedia.' The material is in hand for nearly all 

 the work. The Earthquake Commission has made observations in 

 Istria and Dalmatia, in Krain and Gorz. The number of earthquakes 

 studied is 190, in the previous year 209. Eeports from several hundred 

 meteorological stations have been received and tabulated for use not 

 only in the study of meteorology but for the study of terrestrial 

 magnetism. 



Under the patronage of the 'historical class' of the academy 

 important publications have been brought out on the early history of 

 Austria-Hungary. Some new historical facts have been discovered 

 during the year. Work on the edition of the Latin church fathers has 

 continued, and the writings of Arnobius Minor have been worked over 

 by J. Schnarnagl, those of Caesar Arelatorius by G. Morris, those of 

 Prudentius by J. Bergmann. It is hoped to get these writings into 

 such shape as to make them valuable. The collection of manuscripts 

 belonging to the library, through the aid of other libraries and by pur- 



