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May 31, 1917] 



NATURE 



279 



We have received from Mr. Gilbert H. Richardson, 

 of The Gables, Elswick Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 a " Declaration concerning the Need for Standardising 

 Auxiliary International Language," which he invites 

 the readers of Nature to sign. The declaration states 

 that there is need for an international language, that 

 there should be only one such language, and that at 

 the close of the war a permanent International Com- 

 mission should be appointed and financially supported 

 by the Governments of the Powers for the purpose 

 of settling all questions relating to the grammar, 

 vocabulary, orthography, and pronunciation of the 

 auxiliary international language. At the present time 

 there are two such languages, "Esperanto," founded 

 by the late Dr. Zamenhotf, and " Ido," which was 

 proposed in 190 1 as a simplification of Esperanto. 

 It is now proposed that there should be a commission 

 to examine both these languages, with power to 

 impose its decisions upon those who wish tP employ an 

 international language. Should the commission 

 decide in favour of either Esperanto or Ido, 

 the report would promote the use of the language 

 recommended. In the event, however, of yet a third 

 language being drawn up by the commission, it is 

 doubtful whether Esperantists and Idists would be 

 prepared to adopt this new tongue. The verdict of 

 the commission would dep>end largely upon its com- 

 position. We suppose that the French, Italian, and 

 Spanish members would vote for Ido, while 

 members of the Slav nationalities would sup- 

 port Esperanto. The terminations "aj,'' "oj," and 

 "uj," constantly occurring in Esperanto, are dis- 

 concerting to English readers, who will certainly 

 prefer the general appearance of Ido, which, when 

 printed, looks remarkably like Italian. The circum- 

 flex accents over certain consonants, which make 

 Esperanto difficult to print, are discarded in Ido. On 

 the whole, we think that of the two languages Ido 

 would be the more easily acquired by an Englishman. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Geological Society, May 16.— Dr. Alfred Marker, 

 president, in the chair. — T. Sheppard : British geo- 

 logical maps as a record of the advance of geology. 

 Geological changes were often indicated on old topo- 

 graphical maps; consequently, old plans and charts 

 were of use in connection with geological inquiries. 

 Some maps, dating from Elizabethan times, show that 

 in the Humber area great changes have taken place ; 

 large tracts of land have been denuded, and many 

 towns and villages have disappeared; and large 

 stretches of reclaimed land marked places where water 

 once stood. W'riters of 1595 were familiar with litho- 

 logical differences in various parts of the country. 

 Strachey (17 19) and Packe (1743) produced some re- 

 markable geological sections and plans. The first 

 systematic series of maps, illustrating the geological 

 features of the counties, was issued in the reports of 

 the old Board of Agriculture, and dated from 1793 to 

 1822. One of the earliest attempts to prepare geo- 

 logical maps was by Prof. Jameson, who read a paper 

 in 1805 "On Colouring Geognostical Maps" 

 (Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. i., published 181 1). 

 The first strictly ecological map was apparently that 

 made by W. Smith in 1799, showing the geological 

 structure of the Bath district. The first geological 

 map of England and Wales was a small one, also bv 

 Smith, and it was presented to the society when the 

 first Wollaston medal was awarded to Smith in 183 1. 

 The society's collection includes geological maps of 

 Scotland and Ireland, some of great value and his- 

 NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



torical interest. As examples of privately published 

 maps, those by Sanders of the Bristol Coalfield, Jor- 

 dan's London district, and Elias Hall's Lancashire 

 area were described. 



M.^NCHESTEK. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, .May 8. — Mr. W. 

 Thomson, president, in the chair.-^R. F. Gwyther : 

 The specification of stress. Part v. The formal solu- 

 tion of the statical stress equations, and a theory of 

 displacement as consequent on stress. The first por.^ 

 tion of this paper is intended to show how the stress 

 equations, given in part iv. and part iv. continued, are 

 capable of simple general solution. Particular intci 

 grals are supposed to be dealt with separately, and 

 no attempt has been made to treat of any specific 

 problem. The aim has been to establish a basis for 

 a theory of dealing with stress and displacement by 

 continual steps of approximation, developed in the 

 second part of the paper. In the second part the 

 theory and method proposed are described. — Dr. E. 

 Newbery : Recent work on overvoltage. The over- 

 voltages, cathodic and anodic, of a number of elec- 

 trodes have been measured in acid, in alkali, and in 

 certain solutions of metallic salts under varying condi^ 

 tions of time and current density. Elements in the 

 same group of the periodic system show the same 

 cathodic (hydrogen) cvervoltage. Overvoltage is due 

 to the high solution potentials of compounds of the 

 electrode material with the discharged ion, or with a 

 product of the discharged ion. These compounds 

 (hydrides, higher oxides, etc.) form solid solutions in 

 the electrode substance, and are usually stable only 

 under the influence of high pressures or high tem- 

 peratures. Metal overvoltages (during deposition or 

 dissolution of the metal) are due to the presence of the 

 same compounds which produce gas overvoltages, and 

 are in most cases very low compared with gas over- 

 voltages. Iron, nickel, and cobalt are exceptions to 

 this rule. Changes of overvoltage are produced (a) 

 by changes of constitution of the above compounds, 

 and (b) by changes of concentration of the solid solu- 

 tions formed. Passivit\' is d^ue to the insolubility and 

 good electrical conductivity of the above compounds, 

 which form a protective coating over the attackable 

 metal surface 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, May 14. — M. A. d'Arsonval in 

 the chair. — J. Boussinesq : Solutions of the problem of 

 thrust, resembling that of Rankine and Maurice Levy 

 for sand, and sustaining walls of rectilinear profile. 

 — H. Le Chatelier and F. Bogitch : The refractory pro- 

 perties of clay. From a study of the melting points, it 

 would be concluded that refractory clay bricks ought 

 to serve for the construction of industrial furnaces in 

 steel works. This is not found to be the case in prac- 

 tice, silica bricks being exclusively employed. It is 

 shown that the gradual softening of the clay bricks 

 and loss of resistance to pressure are the causes 

 of this difference, and experiments on the altera- 

 tion of shape by pressure at increasing temperatures 

 are given. The results are in general agreement with 

 the work of Mellor and Mpore. — H. Douville : The 

 geology of the countn,' to the west of the Pyrenees 

 chain. -^L. Mangin : Arctic forms erroneously described 

 under the name of Chaetoceros criophilus. The Arctic 

 form belongs to a quite different species, and is allied 

 with C. pertivianus, with which it has often been 

 confused." — E. Aries : The absolute value of entropy and 

 energy. — E. Kogbetliantz : The summation of ultra- 

 spherical series. — M. Petrovitch : Arithmetical theorems 

 on Cauchy's integral. — J. Guillanme : Observations of 

 comets made with the coude equatorial at the Observa- 

 tory of Lvons. Observations of Wolf's comet (i9i6f>) 



