May 26, 1910J 



NATURE 



Zl"^ 



a moral one. It is intended to coordinate international 

 enterprises, to initiate and encourage undertakings, 

 and to act as an advisory body where advice is asked 

 for, either by Governments or by the many special in- 

 ternational organisations which have recently sprung 

 up. The list of resolutions passed at each meeting may 

 appear meagre to those who do not realise that they 

 represent only the crystallised results of the discus- 

 sions which have come to an issue, and that it often 

 takes a considerable time before questions can be pre- 

 sented in a sufficiently definite form to admit of treat- 

 ment b\' an international committee which can only 

 meet at rare intervals ; but those who have watched 

 the proceedings of the association do not doubt that 

 it has justified its existence, and that there is an 

 important future before it. 



That part of the association's work which prevents 

 the overlapping of international enterprises has been 

 illustrated in Rome by the manner in which the 

 proposal of the Swedish Academy to take international 

 action towards the prevention of the diseases of cul- 

 tivated plants was d^alt with. Everyone agreed that 

 the subject was a most important one, and fell 

 within the province of the association, but there is in 

 Rome an International Agricultural Institute, which 

 might be expected to include remedial measures 

 against the diseases of plants within its range of 

 activity. Apparently, however, there are difficulties 

 which hitherto have prevented the Agricultural Insti- 

 tute from attacking the problem ; these are partly 

 financial, but partly also due to the terms of the con- 

 \"ention under which the institute was founded. After 

 a full discussion, the representative of the Swedish 

 .Academy accepted the following resolution, which was 

 proposed by Colonel Prain, one of the representatives 

 of the Royal Society : — 



"The International Association of Academies of 

 Science, while in entire sympathy with the proposal 

 that further international cooperation in the study of 

 plant diseases is necessan.-, considers- that the question 

 of deciding what ought to be done in the direction of 

 combating these diseases might appropriately be en- 

 trusted to the International Agricultural Institute. 



" In the event of its being found that the terms of 

 the convention of 1905, under which it was estab- 

 lished, prevent the International Institute from ex- 

 tending its activities so far as is desired in the in- 

 terests of science and agriculture, this association 

 recommends that the constituent academies bring to 

 the notice of their respective Governments the desir- 

 abilit},- of conferring adequate powers upon the Inter- 

 national .Agricultural Institute." 



A further question in which the association en- 

 deavoured to prevent a possible overlapping of enter- 

 prises arose out of the proposal to give the support 

 of the association to an international committee 

 formed to prepare tables of "physico-chemical" con- 

 stants. Here a consultation with the International 

 Scientific Catalogue Committee seemed advisable, and 

 the following resolution was adopted : — 



"The International Association of .\cademies gives 

 its patronage to the International Committee of 

 Phvsico-chemical Tables, and expresses the wish that 

 this committee put itself into communication with the 

 International Committee of the Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature." 



The coordination of international scientific work 

 which results from the extension of the patronage of 

 the International .Association of .Academies to different 

 independent enterprises is an effective method which 

 deser\-es to be further extended. The International 

 Union for the Study of Solar Phenomena has set a 

 good example in this respect by asking the .Asso- 

 ciation of .Academies to nominate one of the three 

 members of its executive committee. Prof. Ricco, of 

 NO. 21 17, VOL. 83] 



Catania, was nominated two jears ago as the mem- 

 ber representing the .Accademia dei Lincei when that 

 body became the leading academy, and he will hold 

 office until the end of the year, when a new member 

 will be nominated by the academy which will next 

 act as host to the International .Association. 



The scientific questions which are dealt with by the 

 association are frequently handed over to autonomous 

 committees which regulate their own proceedings and 

 act very much like independent international bodies. 

 .All that appears at the meetings is a short report 

 summarising the activity of the committee. One of 

 these committees deals with the investigation of the 

 functions of the brain, and works under the chairman- 

 ship of Prof. Waldeyer, of Berlin. The work of a 

 number of institutes specially endowed in different 

 countries for the study of this question is thus co- 

 ordinated, and a more rapid progress is secured. 



A verj- useful piece of work has been undertaken 

 at the instigation of the Royal Society-, with the 

 object of introducing order into the chaos which reigns 

 at present in the nomenclature of prominent features 

 on the surface of the moon. The advice of all 

 astronomers interested in the subject has been 

 obtained, and a committee has been formed, under 

 the presidency, first of M. Loewy, and since his 

 death of Prof. Turner. Maps of the moon are being 

 drawn by Mr. Wesley from maps supplied bv the 

 Paris observatories, and the details of the nomen- 

 clature, according to a definite scheme agreed upon,, 

 will then be prepared by Messrs. Saunders and Franz. 



Questions which are of importance in the general 

 theory of terrestrial magnetism have been under the 

 consideration of a special committee almost since the 

 foundation of the association. The general magnetic 

 survey of the ocean basins which is being carried out 

 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington is expected 

 to prove of fundamental importance in this respect, 

 and the work of the committee is dormant at presents 

 until that sur\'ey is more generally advanced. 



The association has further interested itself in the 

 publication of the collected works of Leibnitz, which 

 is being promoted jointly by the Academies of Paris 

 and Berlin, and in that of Euler's works, which has 

 been undertaken by the Societe helvetique ides Sciences 

 naturelles. The association has more especiallv 

 approved at its recent meeting the decision to publish 

 all memoirs in their original language. It mav seem 

 strange that such approval should be necessary, but 

 it was called for by attempts that had been made to 

 persuade the Swiss society to translate the Latin 

 writings into a modern language. 



.A few words should perhaps be said on the literary 

 side of the work of the association. The subjects 

 dealt with included the preparation of an edition of 

 the " Mahabharata," and of an " Encyclopaedia of 

 Islam," of Greek documents, and of a "Corpus Medi- 

 corum .Antiquorum " ; further, the verj- difficult ques- 

 tion of an international exchange — by wav of loan — 

 of manuscripts belonging to public libraries. 



That a young association should still have to devote 

 a considerable part of its time to matters of organisa- 

 tion is not surprising, and there is one question which 

 is likely to occupy its attention ver}' seriously before a 

 definite conclusion is reached. .At present the asso- 

 ciation has no legal status, not being subject to the 

 laws of any country. It cannot, therefore, accept anv 

 legacies, and it is rumoured that it has lost in conse- 

 quence a ven*- considerable sum of monev. The 

 simplest manner to overcome the difficulty would be 

 to establish a domicile in some countn,% such as one 

 of the smaller States of Europe. It is claimed by 

 some that other advantages would accrue to the asso- 

 ciation if it had a definite home, and its business 

 matters could no doubt be carried on in a more satis- 



