INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE. 511 



learned societies were received by Their Majesties at Windsor, and 

 the lord mayor invited them to dinner at the Mansion House. Social 

 engagements, though welcome as marking the importance of the occa- 

 sion, are not allowed to interfere with the very substantial work 

 which is being done at these meetings. The list of subjects included 

 in the discussion of the London assembly gives an idea of the activity 

 of the association, which does not stop at the conclusion of the meet- 

 ings, but is kept alive by the work of its members. A permanent 

 committee was charged with the investigation of the functions of the 

 brain, and others were appointed to deal with questions of atmos- 

 pheric electricity and of the measurement of magnetic elements at sea. 

 An imj)ortant proposal to carry out an exact magnetic survey along a 

 complete circle of latitude is under discussion. The section of letters 

 dealt with the mutual arrangements between libraries regarding the 

 interchange of manuscripts, approved the intended edition of the 

 Mahabharata,and considered a proposal to construct a new Thesaurus 

 of ancient Greek. The association also took cognizance of and 

 received reports on independent international undertakings, such as 

 the catalogue of scientific literature, the geodetic association, and the 

 geological congress. 



The association meets every three years. To these meetings each 

 constituent academy may send as many delegates as may be found 

 convenient. For the discussion of special questions the assembly 

 divides itself into a scientific section and a literary section. 



In each of these sections, as well as in the plenary meetings com- 

 prising both sections, each academy has only one vote. At each 

 triennial assembly the next meeting place is chosen. In the intervals 

 between the meetings the affairs of the association are placed in the 

 hands of a council on which each academy is represented by two 

 members or one, according as it comprises both a literary and scien- 

 tific section or only one of them. The resolutions passed by the asso- 

 ciation are not binding on the constituent academies, who maintain 

 their liberty of adopting or rejecting them. 



The association of academies suffers unavoidably from a certain 

 want of homogeneity, owing to difl'erences in the constitution of its 

 component bodies. Most continental academies contain both literary 

 and scientific sections, and at the organizing meeting held at Wies- 

 baden marked attention was drawn to the fact that there was no body 

 in England that could be considered as representative of literary 

 studies. If matters had been left as they stood then, this country 

 would have been altogether unrepresentative as regards half the 

 activity of the association. Efforts were made, in consequence, to 

 take a more liberal view of the branches of knowledge coming within 

 the range of the Royal Society and to include literary subjects. 



