July i, 1920] 



NATURE 



543 



matical mill with an imposing number of figures 

 is sufficiently difficult to eradicate without such 

 examples by teachers ! 



Apart from a few blemishes of the kind alluded 

 to, the book may still, forty-four years after its 

 first appearance, be recommended as worthy of 

 careful study. A. E. C. 



The International Research Council. 



International Research Council: Constitutive 

 Assembly held at Brussels, July 18 to July 28, 

 1919. Reports of Proceedings. Edited by Sir 

 Arthur Schuster. Pp. iii + 286. (London: 

 Harrison and Sons, 1920.) Price jos. 6d. 



THE Constitutive Assembly of the International 

 Research Council, which met at Brussels on 

 July 18, 1919, established for certain subjects new 

 international organisations to replace those exist- 

 ing before the war, and in this volume we have 

 the official text of the statutes there adopted or 

 proposed, as well as the proces-verbaux of the 

 different meetings which were held. 



It will be remembered that in October, 191 8, 

 a conference of the scientific academies of the 

 Allied nations was held in London at the invita- 

 tion of the Royal Society to consider the action 

 which should be taken in regard to international 

 associations; for some had lapsed during the war, 

 and others were unlikely to meet in their old form 

 for some years to come. The resolutions then 

 agreed to were carried further at a second confer- 

 ence which was held at Paris in November of the 

 same year, when the International Research 

 Council was formed, and an executive committee 

 appointed to prepare proposals to be submitted 

 to the Constitutive Assembly at Brussels. The 

 meeting at Brussels formed the third stage in the 

 formation of the new international organisation 

 which had been decided upon in London, and at 

 it the statutes of the International Research 

 Council and of the L'nions for Astronomy, for 

 Geodesy and Geophysics, and for Pure and 

 Applied Chemistry were approved. 



The legal domicile of the International Research 

 Council is at Brussels, where the general assem- 

 bly will meet from time to time ; but this in no 

 way restricts the Unions, the members of which 

 determine the places of their bureaux and of their 

 periodical meetings as they please. The countries 

 participating in the foundation of the International 

 Research Council are Belgium, Brazil, the United 

 States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, 

 Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece, 

 Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, and 

 Serbia, in addition to which the following neutral 

 countries were invited to join the Council : China, 

 NO. 2644, VOL. 105] 



Siam, the Argentine Republic, Chile, Denmark, 

 Spain, Mexico, the Principality of Monaco, Nor- 

 way, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and also 

 Czecho-Slovakia. 



Besides the three Unions which were definitely 

 established at the Brussels meeting, proposals 

 were made that several others — mathematics, 

 physics, radiotelegraphy, geology, biology, geo- 

 graphy, and bibliography — should be formed, and 

 draft statutes for these were presented in order 

 that the executive committee might communicate 

 them to the National Research Councils of the dif- 

 ferent countries for the desirability of forming 

 such international unions to be considered. 

 The machinery therefore exists for constituting an 

 international organisation in any branch of science 

 where it will be of service. Several countries 

 have already formally signified their adherence to 

 the International Research Council, and some also 

 to the Unions which have already been formed. 



It has been proposed that the draft statutes of 

 the Mathematical Union should be discussed at 

 an international meeting at Strasbourg this 

 autumn, and doubtless representatives of other 

 branches of science will hold similar meetings in 

 due course to consider the desirability of forming 

 unions of their own. 



For all such meetings this volume of the pro- 

 ceedings and reports of the Brussels meeting will 

 be of great value, for the general organisation 

 differs from that of earlier associations, and may 

 at first sight seem to be somewhat cumbrous ; but 

 a perusal of the documents now published will 

 show that each union can provide itself with the 

 constitution best suited to its own requirements, 

 while conforming at the same time to the essential 

 features of the International Research Council. 



Problems of Population. 



(i) Problems of Population and Parenthood. 

 (Being the Second Report of, and the Chief Evi- 

 dence taken by, the National Birth-rate Com- 

 mission, 1918-20.) Pp. clxvi + 423. (London: 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1920.) Price 255. net. 



(2) The Social Diseases: Tuberculosis, Syphilis, 

 Alcoholism, Sterility. By Dr. J. Hericourt. 

 Translated, and with a final chapter, by Bernard 

 Miall. Pp. x + 246. (London : George Rout- 

 ledge and Sons, Ltd. ; New York : E. P. Dutton 

 and Co., 1920.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



(3) The Venereal Problem. By E. T. Burke. 

 Pp. 208. (London : Henry Kimpton, 1919.) 

 Price ys. 6d. net. 



(1) ]\/|R- JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN set a pre- 



IVl cedent when he gave the name of 



"Tariff Commission" to a body created by him- 



