INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION 407 



lished the National Research Council. The immediate purpose 

 in view was to effect a working federation of research agencies, 

 without regard for the distinctions which have divided them 

 into classes, and kept them from acting together. The organ- 

 ization then effected was a temporary one, designed for war 

 service, and open to reconstruction to meet the needs of peace. 

 In chapter 24 Dr. Angell describes the present organization of 

 the Council and the nature of its work. We may therefore 

 turn to the question of the international organization of science. 

 The international scientific associations that existed before 

 the war were of several distinct types. Some devoted their 

 efforts to the establishment of uniform standards of measure, 

 others organized cooperative researches, while the majority 

 held occasional congresses for the personal interchange of 

 views. The most important body of the first type is the Inter- 

 national Metric Commission, with its International Bureau of 

 Weights and Measures at Sevres, chiefly concerned with funda- 

 mental standards of length and mass. Other bodies of this 

 class dealt with electrical units and standards, the standardiza- 

 tion of the nomenclature and ratings of electrical apparatus and 

 machinery, uniformity in the methods of testing materials, 

 annual revision of the tables of atomic weights, annual publica- 

 tion of physical and chemical constants, the science and art of 

 illumination, collaboration in the publication of astronomical 

 ephemerides, uniformity in meteorological observations and 

 their reduction, the determination of standards of wave-length, 

 the classification of stellar spectra, and the unification of time 

 standards. 



Men of science interested primarily in cooperative research 

 organized the International Chart of the Heavens, observations 

 to determine the variation of latitude, seismological observa- 

 tions, explorations of the sea, solar observations, studies of 

 the brain, and other investigations. Other international 

 organizations dealt with agricultural information and statistics, 

 physiological instruments, the telegraphic distribution of astro- 

 nomical information, the preparation of a joint map of the 



