April 6, 1876] 



NA TURE 



453 



Great Britain at the Conference, were laid before both 

 Houses of Parliament last session by Her Majesty's com- 

 mand. Some further information upon the subject is 

 contained in the Ninth Annual Report of the Warden of 

 the Standards, recently published. 



The following is a summary of the terms of the Conven- 

 tion,'which bears date Paris, May 20, 1875. 



By the two first Articles the high contracting parties 

 agree to found and maintain at their common expense an 

 International Bureau of Weights and Measures, scientific 

 and permanent, its seat to be at Paris. The French 

 Government will undertake to facilitate the acquisition, 

 or if requisite, the construction of a building to be spe- 

 cially appropriated for this purpose. 



Article 3 fixes the conditions under which the Interna- 

 tional Bureau will execute its functions. It is to be placed 

 under the exclusive direction and superintendence of an 

 International Committee of Weights and Measures, which 

 itself is to be under the authority of a General Conference 

 of Weights and Measures formed of delegates from all 

 the contracting Governments. 



The President for the time being of the Academy of 

 Sciences at Paris is to be the President of the General 

 Conference of Weights and Measures. But this body 

 will not be called into existence until the verification of 

 all the new standards shall have been completed, when it 

 will be convoked for the purposes of sanctioning them 

 and their distribution. All the Governments who send 

 delegates to the International Metric Commission will be 

 entitled to be represented at the General Conference. 



Articles 5 and 6 relate to the organisation of the Inter- 

 national Bureau, the International Committee, and the 

 Conference General. The duties of the International 

 Bureau are specified as follows : — The verification and 

 conservation of the new metric prototypes of the metre 

 and kilogramme, the construction of which has been en- 

 trusted to the French Section of the International Metric 

 Commission ; the verification of all the copies of these 

 prototypes and their periodical comparisons ; the verifi- 

 cation and comparison of geodesical measuring instru- 

 ments ; and the comparison and verification of standards 

 and scales of precision. 



Articles 7, 9, and 10 fix the establishment of the Inter- 

 national Bureau and the mode of defraying the expenses 

 by contributions from all the contracting governments, 

 according to a scale based on the respective amounts of 

 their actual population. 



These expenses are limited by Articles 5 and 6 of the 

 Regulations annexed to the Convention to the total 

 amount of 400,000 francs (16,000/.) for establishing the 

 Bureau and providing it with all the requisite instru- 

 ments, together with an annual sum not exceeding 

 100,000 francs (4,000/.) for the current expenditure, re- 

 ducible to 50,000 francs (2,000/.), after the completion 

 and distribution of the new national metric standards. 



Articles 11, 12, 13 of the Convention reserve the right 

 to every other civilised state to take part in it, under 

 specified conditions ; and enable the contracting parties 

 by common agreement to make all such modifications in 

 the terms of the Convention as may be found by expe- 

 rience useful ; they also allow any of the contracting 

 parties to withdraw from the Convention at the expiration 

 of a term of twelve years. 



A series of Regulations are annexed to the Convention, 

 which fix the details of the organisation of the Interna- 

 tional Bureau, and of the composition and functions of 

 the International Metric Committee and of the General 

 Conference. Some transitory provisions are also an- 

 nexed, relating to the completion of the construction 

 of the new standards by the French Section, and their 

 verification and distribution ; as well as the mods of con- 

 stituting the new International Committee and the Gene- 

 ral Conference. 



At the Conference, the sittings of which were continued 



during March and April 1875, twenty of the principal 

 civilised countries were represented, viz. : — Germany, 

 Argentine Republic, Austria and Hungary, Belgium, 

 Brazil, Denmark, Spain, United States of Americ?, 

 France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Holland, Peru, Por- 

 tugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, 

 and Venezuela. 



The Convention was signed by the plenipotentiaries of 

 seventeen of these countries. The Governments of three 

 countries — Great Britain, Holland, and Greece— declined 

 to take part in the Convention. They were willing to 

 take part in it, and to contribute towards the expenses of 

 the International Bureau, if its objects were limited to 

 the verification of the new metric standards and the 

 custody and use of the new prototypes, but they refused 

 to take part in a Convention which established a per- 

 manent international institution for other and larger 

 scientific objects, and for promoting the progress of the 

 Metric System. 



Further grounds for the refusal of the British Govern- 

 ment were that by the terms of the Convention the Inter- 

 national Metric Commission, to which delegates from this 

 country were appointed by the Government, was virtually 

 suppressed, and its functions and duties transferred to the 

 new Committee ; that the propagation of the metric 

 system was declared to be one of the primary duties 

 of the new General Conference, thus sanctioning the 

 objectionable precedent of directly authorising a scientific 

 body to interfere with national usages in countries where 

 the metric system hasnot been adopted. 



The result of their Governments declining to take part 

 in the Convention has been that the representatives of 

 Great Britain and of Holland have been compelled to 

 decline to act upon the new International Committee, 

 which was fixed by the Convention to be formed of the 

 twelve membere of the Permanent Committee, with the 

 addition of the representatives of Italy and Switzerland. 

 The Committee now consists of the following twelve 

 members, who are to have the direction of the Interna- 

 tional Bureau : — 



General Ibauez, representing Spain, Presilent. 



Dr. Forster, „ Germany. 



Dr. J. Herr, „ Austria. 



M. Stas, „ Belgium. 



General Morin, „ France. 



Prof. Hilgard, „ United States of America. 



Dr. Wild, .. Russia, 



General Baron Wrede, 

 Prof. Broch, 

 Husny Bey, 

 Prof. Govi, 

 Dr. Hirsch, 



„ Sweden. 



„ Norway. 



„ Turkey. 



Italy. 

 „ Switzeiland, Secretary. 



Under the terms of the Convention, the ratifications were 

 to be exchanged on Dec. 20, 1875, and the committee to 

 enter on their full functions on Jan. i, 1876. Meanwhile, as 

 soon as the provisional instrument of the Convention was 

 signed by the plenipotentiaries on April 15 last, the Com- 

 mittee were authorised at once to constitute themselves 

 and to make their preliminary arrangements. They ac- 

 cordingly held five meetings and elected their president 

 and secretary, as already stated, and they provisionally 

 appointed Prof. Govi director of the International Bureau. 

 By Article 6 of the Regulations annexed to the Convention, 

 the yearly salary of the secretary to the Committee is 

 fixed at 6,000 francs (240/.), and that of the director of the 

 Bureau, who is to reside there, is fixed at 15,000 francs 

 (600/.). The Committee at the same time selected the 

 Pavilion Breteuil in the park of St. Cloud as the site of 

 the Bureau. 



On Dec. 20, 1875, the representatives of eleven out of 

 the seventeen contracting Governments met at Versailles, 

 and exchanged ratifications of the Convention. It was 

 announced that the Governments of Austria and Hun- 

 gary, the United States of America, and Portugal, had 



