THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 19 



In France the activities of the men of science, who responded 

 to the earliest call for the national defense, were no less im- 

 pressive. The Minister of Public Instruction, himself an able 

 mathematician and member of the Institute, had organized 

 a strong group, which dealt with a great number of war prob- 

 lems. Some of its members were the first to conceive and to 

 carry into effect the method of sound- ranging, a brilliant ap- 

 plication of physics in warfare. Leading physicists and 

 astronomers with whom American investigators had long been 

 associated in the work of the International Union for Coopera- 

 tion in Solar Research, were prominent members of this group. 

 The Paris Academy of Sciences was also contributing largely 

 through its members toward the solution of scientific questions 

 of both military and industrial importance. Such examples 

 afforded a powerful stimulus to those American investigators 

 who felt that the continued lawlessness of the Germans must 

 soon identify our interests with those of the Allies. 



On the day preceding the entrance of the United States into 

 the war, the following cablegram was sent by the National 

 Academy of Sciences to the Royal Society of London, the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, the Accademia dei Lincei of 

 Rome, and the Petrograd Academy of Sciences leading sci- 

 entific bodies, then engaged in the study of war problems, with 

 which the National Academy had cooperated for many years 

 in scientific research. 



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The entrance of the United States into the war unites our men 

 of science with yours in a common cause. The National Academy 

 of Sciences, acting through the National Research Council, which 

 has been designated by President Wilson and the Council of Na- 

 tional Defense to mobilize the research facilities of the country, 

 would glady cooperate in any scientific researches still underlying 

 the solution of military or industrial problems. 



Steps were also taken to despatch a group of seven scientific 

 investigators to France and England for the study of war prob- 

 lems and the arrangement of effective means of cooperation. 



