I20 



NATURE 



[September 23, 1920 



Notes. 



The sixth International Congress of Mathematicians 

 is being held this weeli at Strasbourg. It is eight 

 years since the last congress was held at Cambridge, 

 and it will be noted with regret that the then 

 honorary president, Lord Rayleigh, and the president, 

 Sir George Darwin, are no longer with us. The 

 present meeting was fixed for this year at the Allied 

 Conference of Scientific Societies held in Brussels in 

 July, 1919; its organisation has been in the hands of 

 the Comit^ National Frangais de Math^matique, of 

 which M. Emile Picard is president, and of a local 

 organising committee (president, M. Villat). On 

 Wednesday, after the congress had been formally 

 opened by M. Alapetite, Commissaire G^n^ral de la 

 R^publique, the members proceeded to elect their 

 president and other officers. In the evening a recep- 

 tion was held by the organising committee in the 

 Salle des Fetes. In the course of the meeting lec- 

 tures are being given by Sir Joseph Larmor (Thurs- 

 day), Prof. L. E. Dickson (Friday), M. de la Vall^e- 

 Poussin (Saturday), M. Volterra (Tuesday morning 

 next), and M. Norlund (Tuesday afternoon). On 

 Friday evening Gen. Tauflieb will give an address on 

 "Science in Alsace." Conducted visits have been 

 arranged to the cathedral and the museums, and 

 excursions to the ports of Strasbourg and Kehl, to 

 Saverne, and to Linge. At the end of the proceedings 

 on f ussday, September 28, the members will be enter- 

 tained at a banquet kindly given by the organising 

 committee. There is every prospect of a successful 

 meeting, and it is anticipated that the members will 

 have much of interest to communicate after being 

 out of touch with each other for so long a period. 

 On the eve of a new academic session English 

 mathematicians are finding some difficulty in attend- 

 ing ; only ten entries have so far been recorded from 

 the United Kingdom. 



Some time ago the National Sea Fisheries Protec- 

 tion Association initiated a movement for the creation 

 of a British Fisheries Society. A draft charter and 

 by-laws have been prepared, and anyone interested in 

 this matter can obtain a copy of the draft by-laws 

 from Capt. G. C. L. Howell, Gadesprings, Hemel 

 Hempstead. The proposal is to organise the society 

 in two divisions, (i) industrial and (2) scientific, intel- 

 ligence and general. Each division is organised in 

 sections, fourteen in all, and these represent every 

 interest in the fishery industry, producers, manufac- 

 turers, and distributors. Presumably the society as a 

 whole will hold periodical meetings, and at these 

 matters affecting the industry, will be referred to the 

 sections as committees. Proposals for a Journal, 

 Transactions, and Proceedings, as well as for the 

 institution of a library and museum, are outlined, and, 

 in general, the objects of the society are to gather and 

 diffuse information upon all matters relating to the 

 fisheries and to unite all interests and affiliate the 

 various bodies at present in existence. It is supported 

 by a number of men very well known in the fishing 

 industry. 



NO. 2656, VOL. 106] 



We have received notice of the forthcoming estab- 

 lishment in the University of Paris of an Institute of 

 Psychology. The institute will be administered by a 

 council composed of Profs. Delacroix, Dumas, Janet, 

 Pi^ron, and Rabaud, and the Deans of the Faculty 

 of Letters and Sciences. It will afford instruction, 

 both theoretical and practical, in general, physio- 

 logical, experimental, pathological, and comparative 

 psychology. To it will be attached the recently estab- 

 lished Institute of Pedagogy, forming its pedagogical 

 section. Other sections of the institute, dealing with 

 the general applications of psychology and with voca- 

 tional selection, will be formed shortly. The institute 

 will grant diplomas to successful students in each of 

 these sections and to those who, after attending other 

 courses of instruction, have passed the examinations 

 therein. It will also be open for research work in 

 connection with the University doctorate or higher 

 diplomas. This union of Parisian psychologists can 

 but strengthen the position of psychology in France. 

 Previously Prof. Janet with his colleague. Prof. 

 Dumas, worked in psychopathology quite indepen- 

 dently of the late .-Mfred Binet, who directed the 

 psychological laboratory. Prof. Pi^ron, Binet's suc- 

 cessor, is now joining forces with the most famous 

 representatives of French pathological psychology, and 

 the institute thus formed is also to encourage the 

 applications of psychology to education andt to 

 industry. The institute deserves to achieve success, 

 and it has our best wishes. 



A SUMMARY of the weather for the summer season, 

 comprised by the thirteen weeks from May 30 to 

 August 28, is given in the Weekly Weather Report of 

 the Meteorological Office for the week ending 

 .August 28. The absolute highest shade temperature 

 for the whole of the British Isles was 81° F. in Scot- 

 land E. and the Midland Counties, whilst in seven 

 out of the twelve districts into which the countrv is 

 divided the temperature failed to touch 80°, the 

 highest temperature in England S.W. being 75° and 

 in the English Channel 73°. Frost was registered in 

 three of the five eastern districts. The mean tem- 

 perature for the summer was below the average over 

 the whole of the British Isles, the difference ranging 

 from 05° F. in Scotland N. to 16° in One-half of 

 the eastern and western districts. The essential 

 feature of the summer was the persistent cool 

 weather, and particularly the absence of warm days. 

 .At Greenwich the coldest of the three summer 

 months was .August, with a mean temperature of 

 587°, which is 4-2° below the average for seventy 

 years, and there were only eleven days with the 

 thermometer 70° or above against an average of 

 twenty-one days. -August of 1912 was slightly cooler, 

 but this is the only exception since 1841. The mean 

 temperature for the whole summer at Greenwich was 

 60°, which is 2° colder than the normal. The 

 Meteorological Office record for the summer shows 

 that the amount of rain w-as in excess of the normal 

 except in Scotland N., England E., and Ireland. 

 The greatest excess was 1-85 in. over the north-west 

 of England and 1-77 in. over the south-east of Eng- 

 land. The highest total fall was 11-77 'n- for Scot- 



