THE "DELEGATION" 15 



has carried out the duties entrusted to it in an exemplary 

 manner, and has performed a gigantic amount of work. 

 In May, 1907, the Delegation considered the time had 

 come to lay the matter before the International Associa- 

 tion of Academies. At that time the report was very 

 wide-spread that the Association had altogether refused 

 to consider the matter. In reality the Vienna Academy, as 

 President of that year, decided to bring the question before 

 the Association, but the latter declined to take the matter 

 up (twelve votes to eight, one member not voting). At this 

 point the Delegation had the right and the duty to speak 

 out. It obtained an expression of opinion from the repre- 

 sentatives of all the associated societies and clubs. The 

 result of this was the formation of a working committee, 

 consisting of sixteen members, almost entirely scholars and 

 men of science of reputation and members of the different 

 scientific academies. With the representatives of natural 

 science and mathematics were associated philologists and 

 linguists. The committee began to sit on October 15th, 

 1907, and, after eighteen sittings held in the College de 

 France, arrived at a decision. 



Before we enter into this matter more fully it will be 

 desirable to give a brief sketch of the historical development 

 of artificial language. 



Anyone desiring to go more deeply into the history of this 

 question (already three hundred years old) and the practical 

 attempts at its realisation may be referred to the masterly 

 work of L. Couturat and L. Leau, Histoire de la Langue 

 Universale (Paris, 1903). In what follows only a few of the 

 most important points will be mentioned. 



The oldest extant reference to the problem of an inter- 

 national language appears to be contained in the letter 

 written by Descartes on November 20th, 1629, to his 

 friend Mersenne. The great philosopher here explains the 

 principles which convinced him that it would be possible to 



