804 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 232. 



any engagements ; he said, however, that 

 at a recent conference of German scientific 

 men it had been decided to recommend to 

 the German government a subvention of 

 12,000 Maiks per annum for the regional 

 bureau ; lie was also prepared to recom- 

 mend a subvention of £1,000 for the central 

 bureau. 



Professor Weiss stated that the Austrian 

 government had agreed to provide fully for 

 the expense of a regional bureau. The 

 Vienna Academy was prepared to recom- 

 mend a subvention of £200. 



Doctor Heller said, in the name of the 

 Hungarian government, that he had been 

 authorized to state that the regional bureau 

 for Hungary would be completely provided 

 for at the expense of the Hungarian Acad- 

 emy of Science. He was not prepared to 

 make any statement with regard to the 

 guarantee fund. 



Professor Darboux stated for France that 

 his country would undertake the organiza- 

 tion of a regional bureau, but with regard 

 to a subvention lie thought it difficult to 

 obtain it outright; it might be much more 

 feasible to accomplish the same result by 

 guaranteeing a subscription to a certain 

 number of copies of the Catalogue. Profes- 

 sor Kiicker stated that such an arrange- 

 ment with regard to subscriptions would 

 be equivalent to a guarantee and would be 

 satisfactory. 



Doctor Adler stated, on behalf of the 

 United States, that he was not authorized 

 to make any agreement in regard to ex- 

 penses ; that in accordance with the recom- 

 mendation of Dr. Billings and Professor 

 Newcomb, delegates to the previous Con- 

 ference, the Secretary of State had asked 

 an appropriation of £2,000 per annum for 

 the establishment of a regional bureau. 

 He did not think that in any event the 

 United States government could be brought 

 to contribute to a guarantee fund, and if 

 this were necessarv it could be done more 



readily through universities and scientific 

 societies, and that the most feasible plan 

 for the United States was that suggested by 

 Professor Darboux, a given number of sub- 

 scriptions to the Catalogue. 



Dr. Graf, speaking for Switzerland, stated 

 that he was prepared to make no promises, 

 but that the plan suggested by Professor 

 Darboux, to haye his government subscribe 

 for a given number of copies of the Cata- 

 logue, would be the one most easily ca.r- 

 ried out in his country. 



Chevalier Descamps stated that he had 

 no instructions from his government, but 

 thought that the proposition made by Pro- 

 fessor Darboux, that is, a subscription of a 

 given number of copies, was one that Bel- 

 gium would be most likely to carry out. 



No definite statements were made on be- 

 half of Norway, Sweden and Jaj^an, the 

 delegates being without instructions. 



Sir John Gorst, speaking for Great 

 Britain, stated that he too was without 

 authority to pledge his government, but 

 thought that the British government would 

 be more likelj^ to subscribe for a number of 

 copies of the Catalogue than to give a guar- 

 antee. J 



It was suggested by Professor Foster that 

 the delegates be requested to obtain infor- 

 mation at an early date as to what assist- 

 ance might be expected from their respec- 

 tive countries towards the expenses of the 

 central bureau. 



M. Mascart thought that the plan was 

 still too indetermined to make the question 

 of expense sufficiently definite. Professor 

 Klein also seemed to think this somewhat 

 prematui-e ; that the whole matter depended 

 as to whether the scheme for the Catalogue 

 could be brought into such form that one 

 might say : " This is good, and we agree 

 that it should be done in this way." 



Dr. Graf desired that the Provisional In- 

 ternational Committee should take the op- 

 portunity of examining the bibliographical 



