274 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 294. 



committee will consist of thirty delegates, of 

 which sixteen will belong to the Section of 

 Science, and fourteen to that of Literature. In 

 full committee the two delegates of one Academy 

 will have only a single vote. After delay, in 

 such cases, all the Academies, with the excep- 

 tion of two or three, have sent in the names of 

 their delegates. The delegates of the principal 

 Academy will take the chair at the committee 

 of the Association, the principal Academy being 

 that of the place in which it is proposed to hold 

 the nest general meeting. 



The Conference of "Wiesbaden having decided 

 on a resolution to which we can here only draw 

 attention, that the first general meeting of the 

 International Association should be held in 

 Paris this year, a difficulty has arisen not fore- 

 seen when the provisional rules were drawn up. 

 Three Parisian Academies have joined the As- 

 sociation, it is necessary to decide to which 

 shall be assigned the presidency on this occa- 

 sioji. The delegates of the three Academies of 

 the Institute of France have met, and have 

 unanimously decided to confer for this year the 

 presidency of the Association upon the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, which was the first to join the 

 Association, and moreover, has taken an active 

 part in the discussions, at the conclusion of 

 which the Association was constituted. 



It has been further decided that the first ses- 

 sion of the committee shall be held in Paris to- 

 wards the end of July, the first meeting being 

 fixed for Tuesday, July 31st, at 9:30 a. m., at 

 the Palais de I'lustitut. 



The agenda for the first meeting will include 

 the preparation of a scheme of government for 

 the committee, the settlement of the exact date 

 and the order of the day for the next general 

 meeting. The Royal Society of London, which 

 has taken so active a part in the formation of the 

 Association, has already announced a scheme 

 which it proposes to submit for approval to this 

 next general meeting ; it concerns the measure- 

 ment of an extended arc of a meridian in the 

 interior of Africa. 



The Academy, by the act of joining, has sub- 

 scribed to the rules of the new Association. 

 There is no occasion to recall here with what 

 prudence and moderation they have been drawn 

 up. The object of the Association is to prepare 



and promote scientific work of general interest 

 which may be proposed by one of the constitu 

 ent Academies, and generally to facilitate sci- 

 entific relations between different countries. In 

 any particular case, each Academy reserves to 

 itself the right to give or refuse its support, or 

 decide the choice of methods and the means to 

 be employed. 



If these principles are followed, the Associa- 

 tion will become a powerful instrument of 

 study, of concord and of scientific progress ; it 

 will rapidly take its place in the front rank of 

 those international scientific associations, the 

 role of which must necessarily be satisfactory. 



Faithful to the principles which they have 

 always followed, the three Academies of the 

 Institute of France, called by the nature of their 

 studies into the Association, will strive to as- 

 sure it the success and influence which have 

 been desired for it by Its promoters. 



Finally, attention may be directed to a par- 

 ticular clause in the rules which will interest 

 some of our colleagues. For taking into con- 

 sideration the study or preparation of scien- 

 tific enterprises or researches of international 

 interest, upon the proposition of one or more of 

 the associated Academies, special international 

 commissions may be instituted either by the 

 general meeting or one of its two Sections or, in 

 the interval between two general meetings, by 

 the committee or one of its two sections. 



DEFECTIVE VISION OF BOARD SCHOOL 

 CfflLDBEN* 



The London School Board have just tabu- 

 lated the results of a test of the eyesight of 

 school children in the Board schools. The ob- 

 ject of the test was not to obtain statistical in- 

 formation or to satisfy scientific curiosity, but 

 to achieve the practical end that children whose 

 distant vision is defective should be placed in 

 the front benches in the class room where they 

 are required to see what is written or drawn on 

 the blackboard. Some interesting results, how- 

 ever, have been obtained which are well worth 

 the consideration of the medical profession and 

 the attention of the parents of the children. 

 The School Board at the end of last year re- 

 quested the teachers to test the eyesight of the 



* From the London Times. 



