NATURE 



357 



A FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



IN France there is at the present time a movement of 

 regeneration in the scientific world, slow indeed, 

 and difficult to be seen through the troubles on the 

 surface, but the evidence of it is incontestable. The 

 actual activity is great ; publications of every kind 

 appear, some quite new, as the younial de P/iysigne, the 

 Archives de Zoohi^ic; others improved and extended, as 

 the AnnaUs de VEcole Noriiialc. The Coinptcs Rendus of 

 the Paris Academy, which are the weekly rhumi of 

 French science, have rarely been so full of important 

 memoirs, while research, almost dead to England, pro- 

 mises regeneration for French science. 



To take a recent example of this activity, we may 

 cite about fifty notices relative to the aurora borealis 

 of last month, coming from every part of France. This 

 amount of attention paid to a phenomenon which, a 

 few years ago, would have excited nothing more than 

 a mere curiosity, evidences the actual aspirations con- 

 nected with, and a natural taste for, scientific subjects. 

 But what must specially strike the English scientific 

 world is the recent foundation of a French Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, on the model of the 

 British Association, without any other modifications than 

 those which must result from the different characters of 

 the two nations. 



Though this proposal has not reached its complete ex- 

 tension (no publicity having been as yet given to it) it is 

 possible, from the rapidity with which the working com- 

 mittee was constituted, the large amount of money 

 collected, and the sympathies expressed on all sides, to 

 predict for the younger sister of the British Association a 

 great success. 



The proposed statutes, which have been drawn up and 

 provisionally adopted at a series of meetings at which 

 MiVt. Balard, Berthelot, Briot, Broca, Claude Bernard, 

 Combes, Cornu, Decaisne, Delaunay, Descloiseaux, De 

 Luynes, Dumas, Friedel, P. Gervais, A. Girard, G. Ha- 

 chette, Lacaze-Duthiers, Laugier, Levasseur, Loewy, 

 Mari^-Davy, V. Masson, Pasteur, Serret, Tisserand, and 

 Wurtz were present, are as follows : — 



Art. I. — The Association proposes to favour by every means 

 in its power the progress of the sciences, their practical applica- 

 tion, and the diffusion of scientific knowledge. For this purpose 

 it will exercise its influence principally by meetings, conferences, 

 and publications ; by gifts ot instruments or money to persons 

 engaged in researches, observations, or experiments, scientific 

 enterprises which it would have approved or provoked. It 

 appeals to all those who consider the culture of the sciences as 

 necessary to the greatness and prosperity of France. 



Art. II. — The Association is established with a capital 

 divided into shares of 500 francs each, subscribed by members 

 who take the title of founders. It will commence its operations 

 as soon as 200 of these shares, forming a capital of 100,000 

 francs, shall have been subscribed.* 



Art. III. — The Association shall consist of founders and 

 ordinary associates, who shall pay an annual subscription of 



* This amount has been exceeded some weeks since. It was subscribed by 

 scientific men, and by the greater number of the couQcUs of the railway, 

 industrial, and financial companies. 

 VOL. V. 



20 francs. This subscription can always be compounded by the 

 payment of the sum of 200 francs once for all. 



Art. IV. — The number of founders or associates is unlimited, 

 and all enjoy the same piivileges. The names of the founders 

 shall, however, always appear at the head of the lists, and these 

 members receive gratuitously and for ever all the publications of 

 the Association, as many c ipies as they have subscribed shares 

 of Soofr. 



Art. v.— The seat of the Council of the Association shall be 

 at Paris. 



Art. VI.— Each year the Association shall hold in one of the 

 towns of France a general session, the duration of which shall 

 be eight days. 



Art. VII.— In the general session the Association shall be 

 divided into sections, of which the number and functions shall 

 be fixed by the general assembly on the proposition of the Council. 

 These sections shall be attached to the four groups of Mathe- 

 matical, Physical and Chemical, Natural, and Economical and 

 Statistical science. Every member of the Association shall 

 choose each year the section to which he wishes to belong. He 

 can nevertheless take part in the work of the other sections, but 

 only with consultative voice [voi.x consiilUdivc. ) 



Art. VIII. — The bureau of the Association is composed : — 

 I, of the president and secretary ; 2, of the presidents and secre- 

 taries of sections ; 3, of the treasurer and the librarian. 



Art. I.K. — The Association shall be managed gratuitously by 

 a Council composed — i, of the bureau of the association ; 2, of 

 members elected in the general assembly to the number of three 

 by each section. 



Art. X. — At the commencement of each session the presi- 

 dents, vice-presidents, and secretaries of the sections are nomi- 

 nated directly by a relative majority of the sections. 



At the end of each session, the Association, united in general 

 assembly, shall name the town where the following session shall 

 take place, fix a programme for that session, and nominate by 

 relative majority the president and secretary for the following 

 year, and also the members of the Council. 



The president and secretary shall be taken in turn from each 

 of the four sections. If either is prevented from attending, he 

 shall be replaced by one t.f the presidents or secretaries of the 

 divisions of the section to which he may belong. 



Art. XI. — The Council charged with the organisation of the 

 session in the town selected can for that purpose elect an honorary 

 president. 



Art. XII. — All members of the Association are asked to take 

 part in elections by voting either in person or by letter (par 

 correspondence^ . 



Art. XIII. — The Council represents the Association. It has 

 full power to carry on and administer the social business, both 

 active and passive. It shall receive all funds belonging to 

 the Association, of whatever kind they may be. It shall invest 

 in Government securities the funds arising from the shares sub- 

 scribed by the founders, and from the compounding of annual 

 subscriptions by the associates. It shall superintend the ex- 

 penditure of the disposable funds voted by the Association on its 

 proposal. It shall make all rules necessary for maintaining in- 

 ternal order and the execution of the present statutes. It shall 

 convoke the Association, and arrange the programme of the 

 meeting, in conformity with deliberations made in the general 

 assembly. 



The Council shall nominate and constitute the special com- 

 mittees for the funds for encouragements, for publications, and 

 for conferences. 



The Council shall deliberate in due form and by the majority 

 of members present ; nevertheless no resolution shall be valid 

 unless it shall have been deliberated upon in the presence of one- 

 fourth, at least, uf the members of the Council. 



Art. XIV. — The Council shall prepare annually the budget 

 of expenses of the Association, and shall read in the annual 

 general session a detailed account of receipts and expenses of 

 work themselves {de I'euereice I'cou/e). 



Art. XV. — Thestatutes can be modified on the proposition of 

 the Council, and by a majority of two-thirds voting in the general 

 assembly. The proposed modifications shall be indicated before- 

 hand in the Convocatory letters addressed to all members of the 

 Association. 



Proposed Sectic^s 

 1st Section — Mathetnaiical Science 

 1st, Division of Mathematics, Astronomy, and Geodetical 



