168 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1416 



the question seriously was the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, which, in 

 response to the call of the International 

 Research Council, appointed, through its sec- 

 tion on Educational Science at its Bournemouth 

 meeting, September, 1919, a committee "to 

 Enquire into the PracticabOity of an Interna- 

 tional Auxiliary Language." At the Edin- 

 burgh meeting, September, 1921, this com- 

 mittee presented a comprehensive report of its 

 studies to date, covering chiefly comparisons of 

 Latin, as typifying classical languages; 

 English, as typifying modern languages; and 

 Esperanto and Ido, as typifying the artificial 

 group. The committee briefly summarizes its 

 conclusions as follows: 



(1) Latin is too difficult to serve as an inter- 

 national auxiliary language; 



(2) The acceptance of any modern national 

 language ■would confer undue advantages and 

 excite jealousy; 



(3) Therefore an invented language is best. 

 Esperanto and Ido are suitable but the committee 

 is not prepared to decide between them. 



The committee was continued and is under- 

 stood to be making a more detailed study of 

 artificial languages. The 1921 report of the 

 committee is hereto appended as Appendix B.* 



During the past year both the French and 

 the Italian Associations for the Advancement 

 of Science have likewise appointed committees 

 on the international language question, but as 

 yet these committees have made no reports. 



Experiments in the teaching of Esperanto 

 abroad, as a regular subject in the public 

 school curriculum,, are rapidly multiplying and 

 being taken more seriously. This last year, for 

 example, it was introduced as an optional sub- 

 ject in all the public schools of Milan, Italy, in 

 the eighth year, being actually taken by some 

 2,000 students, while it has been made a com- 

 pulsory subject for the present school year in 

 all of the public schools of Geneva, Switzer- 

 land, for the seventh year of the course, repre- 

 senting some four hundred students. A brief 

 published account of similar experiments in 

 the north of England is herewith included as 

 Appendix C.** Chambers of commerce and 

 labor organizations are also showing a steadily 

 growing interest in the matter, as more fully 

 outlined in Dr. Nitobe's report (Appendix A.) 



In the United States, the following academic 

 bodies have already appointed committees on 

 the subject: American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, American Council on 

 Education, American Classical League, Amer- 

 ican Philological Association, National Re- 

 search Council. The American Council of 

 Learned Societies has authorized the appoint- 

 ment of delegates to confer with the last- 

 named committee in an attempt to work out a 

 plan of cooperation between the two councils. 

 This seems of paramount significance because 

 of the position which these two councils occupy 

 as the American representatives, respectively, 

 of the International Research Council and the 

 International Union of Academies, which latter 

 two organizations constitute the recognized 

 international authorities in natural science, on 

 the one hand, and in humanistic studies, on the 

 other. 



It is interesting in this connection to note 

 that the initiative in the present question seems 

 to have come from the natural scientists, chiefly 

 out of their interest as prospective users of 

 such a language, although they have indicated 

 throughout that they clearly recognized the 

 technical side of the question to lie squarely 

 in the proper field of the linguist, to whom 

 they turn for help, much as the engineer and 

 manufacturer have in the past turned to the 

 worker in pure science, insisting that he help 

 them in their practical needs with his expert 

 knowledge from the theoretical side, even 

 thougli their so-called applied science might 

 not attract him as an aim in itself. 



It seems to your committee that, to attain 

 useful practical results in this subject, two 

 things are essential: 



First, a searching fundamental study of the 

 principles involved and experimental data avail- 

 able; 



Second, authoritative international agreement, 

 both as to linguistic details and as to the prac- 

 tical measures to be taken. 



In certain general aspects of the first require- 

 ment, members of the American Association 

 may be of direct assistance, as, for instance, 

 the physicist, in the recording and analysis of 

 the sounds in speech, and the psychologist, in 

 the measurement of mental phenomena. Also, 

 in each special field of science and technology, 



