October 10, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



595, 



A noteworthy event of the meeting was the 

 speech given by Professor C. S. Minot, Presi- 

 dent of the American Association, in which 

 he invited members of the British Association 

 to attend the meeting to be held early next 

 January at Washington. Professor Minot 

 said he had been directed by the council of his 

 Association to express the hope that as many 

 members as possible of the British Association 

 would attend the' Washington meeting. A 

 vote had been passed to the effect that all 

 members of the British Association would be 

 received upon presenting themselves at the 

 meetings in America as members of the 

 American Association without further require- 

 ments. In future, as has already been an- 

 nounced in these columns, the annual meet- 

 ings of the American Association will begin 

 on the first Monday after Christmas and ex- 

 tend throughout the week. The scientific 

 societies affiliated with the Association have 

 agreed to this arrangement, and the universi- 

 ties have consented to the establishment of 

 this ' Convocation Week,' in which the meet- 

 ings of scientific societies are to be held. It is 

 expected that the first meeting to be held next 

 January under this rule will be the most im- 

 portant scientific gathering ever held in 

 America. In the course of his remarks. Pro- 

 fessor Minot said: 



It was the duty, he believed, which they should 

 all perform to attend these gatherings and take 

 part in international intercourse. Many Ameri- 

 cans had come to the British Association, and 

 they had always been treated with the greatest 

 hospitality. They arrived strangers and went 

 away friends ; they brought expectations, and 

 took back realizations and a grateful memory. 

 He asked for one moment in which to remind 

 them of a new historic condition never existing 

 in the world before. It was the first time that 

 two great nations existed with a common speech, 

 a common past, a common history; would they 

 not therefore so work together that they might 

 build up a common future? And for the scien- 

 tific man this duty came first. Each nation was 

 governed not by the government, but by the men 

 of learning and above all by the universities. 

 Nowhere, he believed, in the Anglo-Saxon world 

 had science yet taken its place in the universities. 

 Nowhere in the Anglo-Saxon world had the full 

 value of scientific knowledge throughout the 



whole range of life, from the university down to 

 every practical affair — nowhere, he said, had the 

 full power of the world of science been estab- 

 lished. 



Professor Dewar, in replying on behalf of 

 the Association, said : 



They were all delighted to hear the kind invi- 

 tation which had been extended to the members 

 of the Association by their brother workers on the 

 other side of the Atlantic. The great blunder we 

 in the United Kingdom were perpetrating for 

 many years past was in remaining ignorant of 

 what was being done on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. He had again and again said to manu- 

 facturers and those interested in industrial prog- 

 ress that if they would subsidize their chief of- 

 ficials by a donation which would enable them 

 to spend their short holiday by going to see •what 

 could be seen during a three weeks' residence in 

 the United States, to note how they economize 

 time there, how a person could be transferred 

 from place to place, the freedom with which one 

 is allowed to see the great internal organization 

 — if tliey did that they would be repaid one- 

 hundredfold. He did not know of anything that 

 had occurred to himself personally which had 

 affected him so much as a short visit which he 

 had the honor of paying to America. Both in 

 the universities and in applied industries it was 

 a revelation to him, and he was sure it would 

 be a personal gratification to every member of 

 that association, and an entirely new revelation 

 to them, if they took advantage of the invitation 

 offered. He hoped some of the officials of the 

 British Association would be present on the great 

 occasion in Washington. 



THE METRIC SYSTEM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



Consul-Geneeal H. Clay Evans sends to 

 the Department of State from London, Au- 

 gust 30, 1902, a letter from the secretary of 

 the Decimal Association, showing the progress 

 of efforts to have the metric system of weights, 

 and measures adopted in England. The letter 

 says : 



It has come to my knowledge that there is a 

 considerable feeling in favor of the adoption 

 of the metric weights and measures in the 

 United States of America, and with this in 

 mind, I am sure that you will be interested in 

 information regarding the prospect of this 

 country adopting metric weights and measures 



