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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



congresses, having more or less refer- 

 ence to science, meeting at Paris during 

 the present summer. Perhaps the most 

 noteworthy of these, from the point of 

 view of the organization of science, is 

 the International Association of Acad- 

 emies, which was established last year 

 at a conference held at Wiesbaden. In 

 this Association eighteen of the great 

 academies of the world, including our 

 own National Academy of Sciences, have 

 been united to promote the interests of 

 science. Literature is also included — 

 of the eighteen academies, twelve in- 

 clude in their scope both science and lit- 

 erature, four are devoted to science only 

 and two to literature only. It is 

 planned to have a general meeting every 

 three years, to which each academy will 

 send as many delegates as it regards as 

 desirable, though each academy will 

 have but one vote. In the interval be- 

 tween the general meetings, the busi- 

 ness of the Association is to be directed 

 by a committee, on which each academy 

 is represented. The object of the As- 

 sociation is to plan and promote scien- 

 tific work of international interest 

 which may be proposed by one of the 

 constituent academies, and generally to 

 promote scientific relations between dif- 

 ferent countries. The Royal Society 

 has proposed the measurement, by in- 

 ternational cooperation, of an extended 

 arc of the meridian in the interior of 

 Africa. 



The International Congress of 

 Physics marked an advance owing to 

 the fact that it met for the first time 

 this year, and it appears that the pro- 

 ceedings were of unusual interest. This 

 was in a large measure due to the ar- 

 rangements of the French Physical So- 

 ciety, which did not simply make up a 

 programme from a mass of heterogene- 

 ous researches, but secured some eighty 

 reports on the present condition of 

 physical science. These were prepared 

 by many of the leading physicists of the 

 world and when published — as they are 

 about to be in three volumes — will set 

 forth the condition of the science with 



completeness and authority. There 

 were in all seven sections. In the first, 

 which was concerned with measurement, 

 in addition to numerous reports several 

 propositions were brought forward in 

 regard to units, which, being interna- 

 tional in character, are specially fitted 

 for discussion at such a congress. As 

 the members, however, were not in most 

 cases delegates from governments and 

 scientific bodies, no definite action was 

 taken, though some recommendations 

 were made. The decimalization of time 

 was not recommended, nor was the pro- 

 posal to give a name to units of velocity 

 and acceleration. It was, however, de- 

 cided that the 'Barrie' be adopted as the 

 unit of pressure. The other sections 

 were for mechanical physics, for optics, 

 for electricity, for magneto-optics and 

 radio-activity, for cosmical physics and 

 for biological physics. Among the re- 

 ports and papers of commanding inter- 

 est only two can be mentioned — the in- 

 troductory address by M. PoincarS, dis- 

 cussing the relations between experi- 

 mental and mathematical physics, and 

 one by Lord Kelvin on the waves pro- 

 duced in an elastic solid traversed by 

 a body acting on it by attraction or 

 repulsion, in which, from a strictly 

 mathematical point of view, he ad- 

 vanced the hypothesis of a movable 

 atom surrounded by an immovable 

 ether. In addition to various recep- 

 tions, a session was held at the Sor- 

 bonne, where Messrs. Becquerel and 

 Curie gave demonstrations with radio- 

 active substances, and one at the Ecole 

 Polytechnique, where President Cornu 

 showed apparatus which had been used 

 in the determination of the velocity of 

 light. At the close of the congress the 

 foreign secretaries placed a crown on 

 the tomb of Fresnel. 



While a physical congress was 

 meeting at Paris this year for the first 

 time, the Geological Congress, which 

 was one of the first international con- 

 gresses to be organized, held its eighth 

 session, beginning on August 16. 

 America, in spite of the number and 



