550 Professor F. G. Donnan [March 24, 



and working groups in the national academic organisations and 

 educational institutions, and in co-ordinating this work and serving 

 as a clearing-house for the exchange and distribution of information 

 and plans. The first national response to the appointment of the 

 International Committee was by the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, which, at its Bournemouth Meeting in 

 September, 1919, appointed a Committee "to study the practicability 

 of an international language." This British Committee has been 

 very active, and at the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion in September, 1921, presented its Beport. Its conclusions may 

 be summarised very briefly as follows : — 



1. Latin is too difficult to serve as an international auxiliary 

 language. 



2. The adoption of any modern national language would confer 

 undue advantages and excite jealousy. 



3. Therefore an invented language is best. Esperanto and Ido 

 are suitable ; but the Committee is not prepared to decide between 

 them. 



The Committee is continuing to study the problem. The American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science appointed a Committee 

 in April, 1921, and this Committee has presented a Report which 

 was accepted by the Council of the Association at Toronto on Decem- 

 ber 29th, 1921. The Committee recommended that the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science — 



(a) Recognises the need and timeliness of fundamental research 

 on the scientific principles which must underlie the formation, stan- 

 dardisation and introduction of an international auxiliary language, 

 and recommends to its members and affiliated societies that they 

 give serious consideration to the general aspects of this problem, as 

 well as direct technical study and help in their own special fields 

 wherever possible. 



(b) Looks with approval upon the attempt now being made by 

 the National Research Council and the American Council of Learned 

 Societies to focus upon this subject the efforts of those scholars in 

 this country best fitted for the task, and to transmit the results to 

 the appropriate international bodies. 



(c) Endorses the heretofore relatively neglected problem of an 

 international auxiliary language as one deserving of support and 

 encouragement. 



(d) Continues its Committee on International Auxiliary Lan- 

 guages, charging it with the furtherance of the objects above 

 enumerated, and reporting progress made to the Association at its 

 next meeting. 



The American Council on Education, the American Classical 

 League, the American Philological Association and the National 

 Research Council of America have also appointed Committees. 

 Furthermore, the American Council of Learned Societies has autbo- 



