700 
THE PROPOSED NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 
THE committee appointed by the National 
Educational Association to consider the advisa- 
bility of establishing a national university met 
in Washington on November 3d, and unani- 
mously agreed upon a preliminary report recom- 
mending that no new university be established, 
but indicating the advisability of using the col- 
lections and resources of the government for 
advanced work and the establishment by the 
government of a school for consuls. The re- 
port of the committee is as follows: 
(1) It has been, and is, one of the recognized 
functions of the federal government to encour- 
age and aid, but not to control, the educational 
instrumentalities of the country. 
(2) No one of the bills heretofore brought 
before Congress to provide for the incorporation 
of a national university in Washington com- 
mends itself to this committee as a practical 
measure. 
(3) The government is not calledj upon to 
maintain at the capital a university in the ordi- 
nary sense of that term. 
(4) That a sub-committee be requested to 
prepare for consideration by the full committee 
a detailed plan by which students, who have 
taken a baccalaureate degree, or who have had 
an equivalent training, may take full and syste- 
matic advantage of the opportunities for ad- 
vanced instruction and research which are now, 
or may hereafter be, afforded by the govern- 
ment; such a plan to include the codperation 
with the Smithsonian Institution of the univer- 
sities willing to accept a share of the responsi- 
bility incident thereto. It is understood that 
the financial administration of this plan should 
be such that whether or not government aid be 
given, there shall be no discouragement of 
private gifts or bequests. It isunderstood that 
the scope of this plan should be indicated by 
the governmental collections and establishments 
which are now available, or as they may here- 
after be increased or developed by the govern- 
ment for its own purposes. 
(5) The government, through the State De- 
partment, might wisely maintain in Washing- 
ton a school for consuls, analogous to West 
Point and Annapolis, and make these schools 
lead to a life career in the government service. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 254. 
RESOLUTIONS OF THE SEVENTH INTERNA- 
TIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS.* 
(1) THE Congress appoints a Committee of 
Bio-geographers resident in or near Berlin to 
draw up a uniform scheme of nomenclature 
for plant formations, and after consultation 
with non-resident specialists, to revise the same 
and present it to the Eighth Congress. 
(2) The Congress believes that the plans for 
international codperation in Antarctic explora- 
tion form an excellent basis for joint research 
in physical geography, geology, geodesy and 
biology. With regard to meteorological and 
magnetic work, however, they appoint an in- 
ternational committee to determine the general 
scheme and methods to be employed on the ex- 
peditions, and to endeavor to organize a sys- 
tem of simultaneous observations in the regions 
surrounding, but exterior to, the Antarctic. 
(8) The Congress expresses the earnest desire 
that all maps, including those published in 
countries using English and Russian measures, 
should, in addition to the graphic scale, bear 
the proportion of lengths on the map to those 
in nature in the usual form 1: 2. 
(4) The Congress views it as desirable that 
the publication of all new geographical material 
accompanying accounts of travel, should be 
supported by details regarding the methods of 
surveying, the instruments employed, and their 
verification, the calculation of astronomical 
positions with their probable error, and the 
method of utilizing these data in preparing the 
map. Also thatall maps published by scientific 
men, institutions or governments should be ac- 
companied by notes of the principal fixed 
points. 
(5) The Congress expresses the hope that a 
uniform system of measures will be used in all 
geographical researches and discussions, and 
recommends that the metric system of weights 
and measures be so employed. 
(6) The Congress expresses the hope that in 
scientific publications the centigrade ther- 
mometer scale should, as far as possible, be 
employed ; or, at least, the values in centigrade 
degrees added to those expressed on the scales 
of Fahrenheit or Réaumur. 
(7) With regard to the proposal to introduce 
* From Nature. 
