August i, 1901] 



NA TURE 



541 



(Dr. Omori) ; Russia (General Pomerantzeff, Prof. Lewitzky, 

 Dr. Wosnesjenskij) ; S'.i'itzerland (Prof. Forel, Prof. Riggen- 

 bach). Among these thirty-five members there were sixteen 

 ofticial delegates for the different States, as follows : — Aiistria- 

 Hii>ii;a>y, I ; Belgium, I ; Germany, 9 ; Japan, I ; Russia, 2 ; 

 Stcitzerland, 2. 



The principal object of the conference was the establishment 

 of an international seisniological union. After some discussion 

 the projct of statutes of an " International Seisniological Associa- 

 tion," formed principally in imitation of the statutes of the 

 International Catalogue Association and of the International 

 Geodetic Association, was unanimously accepted by the con- 

 ference, the chief points being as follows : — 



§ I. The object of the Association is the advancement of 

 knowledge of all the seisniological problems, which can be 

 solved only by the cooperation of numerous seisniological 

 observatories all over the world. As the principal means of 

 attaining this object are proposed: — (l) seismological observa- 

 tions according to ti.sed plans ; (2) experiments on certain 

 important seismological questions; (3) establishment and sup- 

 port of seismological stations in certain countries which need 

 assistance from the Association ; (4) organisation of a central 

 bureau for collection and discussion of the reports from various 

 countries. 



§ 3. The parts of the Association are : — (l) general meeting ; 

 (2) permanent commission ; (3) central bureau. 



§ 5. The permanent commission consists of the director of the 

 central bureau and of one member from each of the States which 

 compose the Association. . . . 



§ S. Each State must duly communicate to the central bureau, 

 through its local central bureau, the results of seismic ob- 

 servations and experiments. 



§ 9. Each State must contribute to the central bureau a certain 

 yearly sum of money, to be fixed in proportion to the number 

 of the inhabitants. The sum thus contributed by the different 

 States is to be appropriated to the following purposes : — (l) 

 publications and administration ; (2) remuneration to the 

 general secretary ; (3) support of those who work in special 

 important seismological investigations ; (4) support of those 

 seismological observatories which are established by the 

 Association. The distribution of the sum into these various 

 items is to be decided by the permanent commission. 



As to the seismological observations, experiments .and publi- 

 cations in the different States, the latter have a perfect freedom. 

 The choice of the instruments is also left free to each State. 

 The statutes of the Association having been 'thus adopted by 

 the conference, the further steps for the formation of the 

 Association are now to be taken by the Imperial German 

 Government through diplomatic channels. 



As there is still one year or so before the Association can be 

 actually formed, it was proposed by Prof. Helmert to establish 

 a provisionary central bureau and let the latter begin at once 

 the function for the international seismological investigation, 

 under the cooperation of all the members present, who approved 

 the proposal and promised to send in publications and reports. 

 Prof. Forel proposed, in the name of all the non -German 

 members to select the Strassburg Seismological Observatory as 

 the provisionary central bureau, under the direction of Prof. 

 Gerland. This proposal was accepted, the Association being 

 thus provisionally formed. Besides the establishment of the 

 statutes, there were given by Prof. Helmert and others a series 

 of valuable reports and lectures on observational as well as 

 theoretical seismology. 



The first international seismological conference proved to be 

 a very satisfactory one. The full minutes of the transactions 

 are expected to be published shortly. F. Omori. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. R. T. Hewlett, of the Jenner Institute of Preventive 

 Medicine, has been appointed professor of general pathology 

 and bacteriology at King's College, London. 



The following candidates have passed the D.Sc. examination 

 of the University of London : — .Mathematics and Physics, J. 

 Buchanan ; Experimental Physics, C. V. Drysdale, W. H. 

 Eccles, P. E. Shaw ; Chemistry, T. J. Baker, T. A. Henry, 

 W. H. Hurtley, G. D. Lander, H. R. Le Sueur, S. Smiles. 



NO. 1657, VOL. 64] 



The following regulation from the neiv Calendar of the 

 Imperial University at Kyoto show that the Japanese are en- 

 couraging scientific research among University students : — " In 

 Tune and December every year each student shall report to the 

 director of the College, through his professor, the state and 

 progress of research which he has made in his study of special 

 subject ; and the director shall submit such report to the Faculty 

 meeting for examination. When a student has completed the 

 work of research at the University Hall, he shall prepare a 

 record of his career at the University and present it to the 

 president of the University, through his professor." Progress 

 is bound to be made where education is carried on in this spirit. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, July. — 

 Surfaces whose first ana second fimdamental forms are the 

 second and first respectively of another surface, by Dr. Eisen- 

 hart, was read at the February meeting. The results arrived 

 at are — the ruled surfaces, defined by the equations 



y + lix= ^/i -h ^- + C,A4 + C, 

 c - ix ^/i -|-|U-^ = M 4- Ci v'l + M^ + C3, 



are the only surfaces whose first and second fundamental forms 

 can be taken for the second and first fundamental forms of a 

 surface. Further, the second surface is only the first to a 

 translation pris. And of these surfaces the only real one is the 

 sphere of radius unity — the C's, as usual, are arbitrary con- 

 stants. References are given to work by Bianchi, Casorati, 

 Monge and Forsyth. — On the groups generated by two opera- 

 tors, by Dr. G. A. Miller, was read at the April meeting. This 

 short note, which gives several references, discusses the theorem, 

 " every group that is generated by two operators of order two 

 is a dihedral rotation group, and every dihedral rotation group 

 is generated by two operators of order two." — Mr. G. Peirce 

 gives a curious approximate construction for tt, read at the same 

 meeting. This is as neat a construction as we can remember. 

 — Non-Euclidean geometry is a short notice, by J, L. Coolidge, 

 of a work with this title by Dr. H. P. Manning. — J. K. 

 Whittemore gives an extended abstract of " Vorlesungen liber 

 Differential geometric " (pp. xvi + 659), a translation of Bianchi's 

 work by M. Lukat. — Notes, new publications, tenth annual list 

 of papers (read before the Society, with references to their 

 places of publication), and a full index close the number and 

 the volume. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, June 20. — " Further Observations on Nova 

 Persei. No. 3." By Sir Norman Lockyer, K. C.B., F. R.S. 



In a former paper an account was given of the observations 

 of the Nova, made at Kensington between March 5 and March 

 25 inclusive. The observations are now brought up to midnight 

 of May 7. Between March 25 and the latter date, estimates of 

 the magnitude of the Nova have been made on thirty-three 

 evenings, visual observations of the spectrum on twenty-five 

 evenings, and photographs of the spectrum on six evenings. 



The lo-inch refractor with a McClean spectroscope has 

 generally been used for eye observations. The 6-inch prismatic 

 camera has not been available for photographing the spectrum 

 owing to the faintness of the Nova, but photographs have been 

 secured by Dr. Lockyer with the 30-inch reflector on the nights 

 of March 27, April I and 12, and by Mr. Fowler on March 26 

 and April 4. With the 9-inch prismatic reflector the spectrum 

 was photographed by Mr. Hodgson on March 30, April 1 

 and 4. 



Change 0/ Brightness.— Since March 25 the magnitude of the 

 Nova has been undergoing further periodic variations, and 

 although observations have not been made on every night since 

 that date, owing to unfavourable weather, yet sufficient data 

 have been gathered to enable a general idea of the light changes 

 to be obtained, and the few gaps can be filled up later by other 

 observers who experienced clearer skies on these occasions. 



A table is given containing observations for magnitude made 

 from March 26 to May 5 inclusive. 



