30 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



functions be? It is the essence of all international combinations 

 that they depend entirely on moral force and have no power to 

 impose their decisions. A central authority must therefore be 

 content with offering advice, with the conviction that, if the 

 advice is sound, it will be accepted. 



Though the existing associations would tolerate no interfer- 

 ence with their independence, they would doubtless consider 

 with care any suggestions made to them in the interests of science 

 by an authoritative body. Our problem is therefore to find an 

 authority of sufficient eminence to be generally looked upon 

 with confidence and who could also act as adviser to different 

 governments when they are asked to financially support some 

 fresh undertaking. That is one of the most serious difficulties 

 of the present time. There is a new international undertaking 

 proposed almost every year, and application is made to the 

 different governments for support and money. What is the 

 government to do? To whom is the government to go for ad- 

 vice whether such an undertaking is worthy of support or not? 

 My solution of that question is this: In the International 

 Association of Academies we possess indeed a body fulfilling all 

 the requirements of such a central authority, provided the indi- 

 vidual academies constituting the association are willing to 

 undertake the task. The Association of Academies was founded 

 at a conference held at Wiesbaden on the 9th and 10th of October, 

 1899, the National Academy of the United States being repre- 

 sented by Professors Newcomb and Bowditch. The paragraph 

 of its statutes which were adopted at a meeting held in Paris in 

 1901 relating to the functions of the association runs as follows: 



" The object of the association is to prepare and promote scientific work of gen- 

 eral interest which has been submitted to it by one of the associated academies, 

 and to facilitate in a general manner scientific intercourse between different 

 nations." 



From its origin the association claimed an advisory voice 

 in new international undertakings, and at the meeting held in 

 London in 1904, the following resolution was passed with one 

 dissenting voice: 



