International Congresses 301 



The Conference generale des poids et mesures met in Paris 1889, 1895, 1901, 

 1907, 1913, 1921, 1927, 1933, 1948. 



The Congres international pour I'unification des titres de Tor et de I'argent met 

 in Paris in 1900. 



International Congresses of Zoology: 



I. Paris 1889 VII. Boston 1907 



II. Moscow 1892 VIII. Graz 1910 

 m. Leiden 1895 IX. Monaco 1913 



IV. Cambridge 1898 X. Budapest 1927 



V. Berlin 1901 XI. Padua 1930 



VI. Bern 1904 XII. Lisbon 1935. 



The organization of the international congresses, especially the early ones, was 

 largely due to the initiative of enthusiastic individuals such as Kekule or Quetelet. 

 Their eflForts were facilitated by the existence of national or international societies, 

 and in many cases by goverrunental help. Indeed, during the nineteenth century 

 the national (governmental) organization of science was extended considerably. 

 Some kind of governmental influence had existed from the seventeenth century on, 

 as is shown by the history of the Royal Society, and more obviously by that of the 

 Academic des Sciences, by the creation of the first Observatories and the planning 

 of cartography on a national scale. In the nineteenth century a number of geological 

 surveys were established (Isis 2, 369-79). While the national organizations were 

 developing, the international organization began, first in fields wherein international 

 cooperation was essential for everybody's advantage (e.g., meteorology, astronomy, 

 statistics, geodesy, oceanography), later in almost every field of knowledge. The 

 international congresses were only a part albeit an important one, of the international 

 organization. 



Special bodies were created to establish the international cooperation as efficiently 

 as possible. It will suffice to name the International Geodetic Association (1864), 

 the International Seismological Association (1901), etc. The international organi- 

 zation was not by any means restricted to science and learning, a network of good 

 will was gradually spreading over the whole earth, and just before the first World 

 War it was already so extensive and so complex that an enormous volume was needed 

 in order to describe it. I am referring to the Annuaire de la Vie Internationale^^ 

 edited by Albert Marinus under the leadership of Henri La Fontaine.^^ The 

 organization of scientific research was more naturally international, however, than 

 that of every other activity, and therefore the history of science is essentially the 

 history not of any one nation but of mankind.^^ The network was broken and the 

 good will partly lost or shattered after the First War. 



In order to reestabfish them two new overall international bodies were created 

 in 1919, the Union Academique Internationale (International Union of Academies) 

 and the International Research Council.^^ The later was inaugvu-ated at Brussels in 

 July 1919, "Each state was advised to set up or recognize a central scientific body 

 capable of representing the country in the International Council. International 

 Unions were also organized in the major fields of science to co-ordinate and develop 

 activities hitherto scattered among numerous small international societies with over- 

 lapping functions and membership. There are at present ten International Unions, 

 namely: Astronomical Union, Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and Union of 



125 Annuaire de la Vie Internationale publie pour TUnion des Associations Internationales avec 

 le concours de la Fondation Carnegie pour la Paix intemationale et de I'lnstitut international de 

 la Paix (vol. 2, 2,652 p., Bruxelles 1912; Isis 1, 289-90). 



1^ Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943), Belgian senator and statesman, one of the main advo- 

 cates of international arbitration and of the Permanent Court of International Justice, who was 

 awarded the Nobel prize for peace in 1912-13 (Isis 34, 412). 



12T I explained those views just before the first World War, L'histoire de la science et I'organisa- 

 tion intemationale (Bruxelles 1913) and reprinted my appeal twenty-five years later before the 

 second World War (Isis 29, 311-25, 1938). 



128 Renamed Conseil International des Unions scientifiques. International Council of Scientific 

 Unions (ICSU) in 1932. 



