October 13, 1898] 



JSTATURE 



S79 



countries actively engaged in scientific work are repre- 

 sented. The following is a list of delegates appointed to 

 attend the conference : — 



Austria. — Prof. L. Boltzmann (Kaiserliche Akademie 

 der Wissenschaften, Vienna) ; Prof. E. Weiss (Kaiser- 

 liche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna). 



Beli^ium. — Chevalier Descamps (President de I'lnstitut 

 International de Hibliographie, Brussels) ; M. Paul Otlet 

 (Secretaire-General de I'lnstitut International de Hiblio- 

 graphie, Brussels) ; M. H. Lafontaine (Directeur de 

 I'lnstitut International de Bibliographie, Brussels). 



France.— Prof. G. Darboux (Membre de I'lnstitut de 

 France) ; Dr. J. Deniker (Bibliothecaire du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle) ; M. E. Mascart (Membre de 

 I'lnstitut de France). 



Germany. — Prof. Dr. Klein, Geheimer Regierungs- 

 Rath (University of Gottingen). 



Hungary. — Dr. August Heller (Librarian, Ungarische 

 Akademie, Buda-Pesth) ; Dr. Theodore Duka (in 

 London). 



Japan. — Prof. Einosuke Yamaguchi (Imperial Univer- 

 sity of Kioto). 



Mexico. — Senor Don Francisco del Paso y Troncoso. 



Netherlands.— 'Proi. D. J. Korteweg (Universiteit, 

 Amsterdam). 



Norway.— T>v. Jorgen Brunchorst (Secretary, Ber- 

 genske Museum). 



Sweden. — Dr. E. W. Dahlgren (Librarian, Kongl. 

 Svenska Vetenskaps Akademie, Stockholm). 



Switzerland. — Dr. Jean Henri Graf (President, Com- 

 mission de la Bibliotheque Nationale Suisse) ; Dr. Jean 

 Bernoulli (Librarian, Commission de la Bibliotheque 

 Nationale Suisse). 



United Kingdom. — Representing the Government : 

 The Right Hon. Sir John E. Gorst, Q.C., M.P., F.R.S. 

 (Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Edu- 

 cation). Representing the Royal Society of London : 

 Prof. Michael Foster, Sec.R.S. ; Prof Arthur W. 

 Riicker, Sec.R.S. ; Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S. ; Sir 

 J. Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; Dr. Ludwig Mond, 

 F.R.S. 



United States. — Dr. Cyrus Adler (Librarian, Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Washington). 



Cape Colony. — Roland Trimen, Esq., F.R.S. 



India. — Lieut. - General Sir R. Strachey, G.C.S.I., 

 F.R.S. ; Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. 



Natal.— S'w Walter Peace, K.C.M.G. (Agent-General 

 for Natal). 



New Zealand. — The Hon. W. P. Reeves (Agent- 

 General for New Zealand). 



Queensland. — The Hon. Sir Horace Tozer, K.C.M.G. 

 (Agent-General for Queensland). 



On Tuesday evening the Royal Society gave a dinner 

 to the delegates at the Hotel Metropole. Lord Lister 

 occupied the chair, and many Fellows of the Society were 

 present, in addition to the foreign representatives of 

 science. The Times gives the following report of the 

 speeches at the dinner : — 



Prof. Riicker, in proposing " Science in all Lands," said 

 that science had become the most cosmopolitan of all the pro- 

 fessions. In his own case he had this year taken part, more or 

 less, in four international meetinj^s ; and he did not think there 

 was any body of men or any other profession in which such 

 cordial arrangements were made for the recognition of merit, 

 foreign or otherwise, as the Royal Society. They had a regular 

 organisation for recognising merit outside the geographical 

 boundaries of the nation to which men belonged. They recog- 

 nised great scientific triumphs as being triumphs, not for one 

 nation, but for the world. Names like those of Pasteur, Helm- 

 holtz, and Maxwell were recognised as names of which the 

 whole world was proud. Science was gradually forming a per- 

 manent international conference of scientific men, all com- 

 municating with each other by writings, if not by speech, and 



NO. 1511, VOL. 58] 



they were drawn together not only by the bonds of intellectual 

 sympathy but by scientific friendship. 



Prof. Darboux, of the University of Paris, acknowledging the 

 toast in French, said that the ideas to which Prof. Riicker had 

 given expression would receive the unreserved adhesion of all 

 those who cultivated science for its own sake. The most 

 illustrious scientific men always retained some trace of their 

 origin and of their race, as might be seen in the differences 

 between the genius of a Descartes, a Newton, a Cuvier, a 

 Darwin, or a Lagrange. German science was characterised by 

 depth and power ; French science by greater clearness and 

 better method ; while English science, though frequently beset 

 with difficulties and dangers, had by a bold and timely policy 

 rescued free inquiry from being overwhelmed. Whenever men 

 of science met one another face to face, notwithstanding the 

 differences that might separate them, they felt drawn to each 

 other by the bonds of common interests. Every man of science 

 recognised in another seeker after truth, wherever he might be 

 met, a friend ; and, though he did not cease to uphold the love 

 for his Fatherland, he was proud to participate, as the delegates 

 were participating now, in a work of peace, concord, and civil- 

 isation. 



Prof. Weiss, director of the Imperial Observatory, Vienna, 

 in proposing "Success to the Conference," said he had spent a 

 few years in England in early childhood, and had learnt to love 

 the English people ; and in declining age he had occasion to 

 admire the scientific men of England-^their earnestness and the 

 skilful perseverance with which they carried out their researches. 

 He trusted that the conference would be a success, and that it 

 would form the foundation of an international catalogue of 

 scientific literature which would redound to the benefit of science 

 and to the glory of England. 



Sir John Gorst, in acknowledging the toast, said that the 

 conference, as far as his experience had gone, seemed to be an 

 admirable instrument for forwarding the scientific purpose for 

 which it had assembled. In the first place, its wisdom was 

 derived from every part of the world. Amid all this diversity of 

 knowledge, surely it was reasonable to expect that some progress 

 might be made in the work which the conference had in hand. 

 According to the different way in which the question struck the 

 peculiar idiosyncrasy of the different nationalities, they were 

 much more likely to arrive at the truth than if left to blunder it 

 out in their own British fashion without the assistance of minds 

 very diverse from their own. He was not sure that the concert 

 of Europe was in political affairs always a very brilliant success, 

 but he thought that the concert of Europe in scientific affairs, 

 free as it was from the drawbacks which accompanied political 

 action— all the members of a conference of this kind being 

 animated by only one desire, and that was the attainment of 

 truth, having no personal and no national interest to serve 

 outside the attainment of truth — a concert of that kind was one 

 of the most valuable methods which the comity of modern 

 nations had discovered for the propagation of all kinds of science 

 and knowledge. 



Prof. Korteweg proposed " The Royal Society." 



Lord Lister, in acknowledging the toast, said it had been a 

 great satisfaction to hear from delegates the very cordial feelings 

 expressed towards the society. He confessed that he had some- 

 times entertained fears that the task undertaken by the con- 

 ference was too gigantic to be satisfactorily completed, but he 

 felt encouraged that evening when he heard that the work seemed 

 to be going forward satisfactorily, and that there was a fair 

 prospect that it would be completed in such a way as would tend 

 to cement even more firmly than at present the unicn of inter- 

 national science. 



Prof. Armstrong proposed "Our Guests." 



Le Chevalier Descamps, delegate from the Belgian -Govern- 

 ment, expressed the gratitude which the delegates from foreign 

 Governments felt at the kind reception accorded by the members 

 of the Royal Society, and pointed out that their labours ail 

 tended in the direction of cementing still more closely the bonds 

 of international scientific brotherhood. Their work in the con- 

 ference, though being carried on modestly, was bound to be 

 fruitful of good results, for bibliography had no pretensions to 

 reform the world. 



Prof. Klein proposed " The Secretaries," which was re- 

 sponded to by Prof. Michael Foster. Among the other speakers 

 were Prof. Boltzmann, Sir Norman Lockyer, M. Mascart, Sir 

 William Crookes, Dr. Graf, and Dr. Cyrus Adler. 



