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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 923 



pears at the end of the day." The change 

 lias been led gradually up to by an orderly 

 succession of phases, and is itself the last 

 Tnanifestation of life. Were we all certain 

 of a quiet passing — were we sure that there 

 would be "no moaning of the bar when we 

 go out to sea" — we could anticipate the 

 coming of death after a ripe old age with- 

 out apprehension. And if ever the time 

 shall arrive when man will have learned 

 to regard this change as a simple physio- 

 logical process, as natural as the oncoming 

 of sleep, the approach of the fatal shears 

 will be as generally welcomed as it is now 

 abhorred. Such a day is still distant; we 

 can hardly say that its dawning is visible. 

 IJet us at least hope that, in the manner 

 depicted by Diirer in his well-known etch- 

 ing, the sunshine which science irradiates 

 Tnay eventually put to flight the melancholy 

 which hovers, bat-like, over the termina- 

 tion of our lives, and which even the an- 

 ticipation of a future happier existence has 

 not hitherto succeeded in dispersing. 



E. A. SCHAPEB 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 

 MATHEMATICIANS 



The fifth International Congress of Mathe- 

 maticians met at the University of Cambridge 

 from August 21 to 28. The first congress was 

 organized in 189Y at Ziirieh, the second in 

 Paris in 1900, the year of the exhibition, and 

 meetings have been held at Heidelberg in 1904 

 and Rome in 1908. 



The preparations for the Cambridge con- 

 gress have been in the hands of a committee 

 with Sir George Darwin as chairman. Sir 

 Joseph Larmor as treasurer and Professors E. 

 W. Hobson, of Cambridge, and A. E. H. Love, 

 of Oxford, as secretaries; and arrangements 

 have been made, with the assistance of the 

 university and colleges of Cambridge, for the 

 •entertainment of foreign mathematicians, who 

 were expected to exceed 300. According to 

 advance announcements there were to be four 

 sections concerned with analysis, geometry, 



applied mathematics, and philosophical, his- 

 torical and educational questions. Each sec- 

 tion meets on the mornings of four days for 

 the consideration and discussion of special 

 topics. In the afternoons provision is made 

 for lectures, of which there are eight. Four 

 of them will be on subjects of pure mathe- 

 matics, to be given by Professor Bocher, of 

 Harvard; Professor Borel, of Paris; Professor 

 Enriques, of Bologna, and Professor Landau, 

 of Gottingen. The remaining four lectures 

 are to be delivered by Professor E. W. Brown, 

 of Tale University, on researches on perio- 

 dicity in the solar system; by Prince Boris 

 Galitzin, of St. Petersburg, on apparatus for 

 recording and investigating earthquakes; by 

 Sir Joseph Larmor, of Cambridge, on the 

 dynamics of radiation, and by Sir William 

 White, on the relations of mathematics to 

 engineering practise. 



Among Americans who expected to be pres- 

 ent are Professors Bocher, E. W. Brown, Eine, 

 Huntington, Kasner, Moore, Peirce, Webster. 



THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 

 OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY 



The eighth International Congress of Ap- 

 plied Chemistry held its inaugural meeting at 

 Washington on September 4, presided over by 

 the president of the United States, and begins 

 its scientific and business meetings in New 

 York on September 6, continuing till Septem- 

 ber 13. Dr. Edward W. Morley is the hon- 

 orary president of the congress and Dr. Will- 

 iam H. Nichols is the president. An elab- 

 orate program has been arranged for the 

 scientific and business meetings, and for the 

 entertainment of visitors. It began on Au- 

 gust 31, with receptions to the Society of 

 Chemical Industry and the Verein deutsche 

 Chemiker, and these societies held their meet- 

 ings in New York prior to the departure for 

 Washington by special train on the afternoon, 

 of September 3. Members of the congress 

 returned from Washington on Thursday after- 

 noon, and the sectional .meetings open at 

 Columbia University on Friday morning and 

 thereafter sectional meetings are held in the 

 morning and the afternoon. In the after- 



