February 19, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



305 



seismological observatories in countries whieli 

 need the pecuniary aid of the association; (d) 

 organization of a central bureau for the col- 

 lection, study, editing and publication of the 

 reports sent from various countries. 



" The members of the association shall be 

 the nations vehich may join. They are to 

 make the following annual contributions 

 through the department of state at Berlin: 

 (a) Nations with a population of less than five 

 million, $100; (b) nations with a population 

 between five and ten million, $200; (c) na- 

 tions with a population between ten and 

 twenty millions, $400; (d) nations with a 

 population of more than twenty million, $800. 



" The organs of the association are : (a) 

 The general assembly; (6) the permanent 

 commission; and (c) the central bureau. 



" The general assembly shall consist of dele- 

 gates from the nations which are members of 

 the association, and is to meet at least once 

 in four years. Delegates from scientific so- 

 cieties and other persons may be invited to 

 attend the general assembly. 



" The permanent commission shall consist 

 of the director of the central bureau and one 

 delegate from each nation. 



" It shall elect from its own number its 

 president, vice-president and secretary-general. 



" The permanent commission shall have gen- 

 eral control of the affairs of the association, 

 and shall see that the resolutions of the gen- 

 eral assembly are carried out. It shall also 

 direct the method of expenditure of the funds 

 of the association, which are to be used for: 

 (a) Expenses of publication and administra- 

 tion; (b) salary of the secretary-general; (c) 

 to subsidize theoretical work or experiments 

 of exceptional importance which may have 

 been ordered by the general assembly; (d) for 

 the foundation and support of seismological 

 observatories founded by the association, the 

 observations of which are of general interest 

 for the study of seismical phenomena. 



" A financial account shall be published in 

 the proceedings of the permanent commission. 



" The central bureau shall be located at the 

 imperial central seismological station at 

 Strassburg, and the director of the latter shall 

 be the director of the central bureau ; the cen- 



tral bureau 'shaU 'have the benefit of the assist- 

 ants and resources of the central station. 



" The central bureau shall collect the reports 

 from the different countries, edit and publish 

 them. The director of the central bureau 

 shall present an annual report covering the 

 whole work of the bureau, and shall also out- 

 line the work proposed for the following year. 



" The secretary-general shall make a report 

 to every general assembly on the work and con- 

 dition of the association. He shall attend to 

 the publication of the proceedings of the 

 permanent commission, of the deliberations of 

 the general assembly and of investigations un- 

 dertaken by order of the association. He shall 

 have charge of the general affairs of the asso- 

 ciation imder the direction of the president of 

 the permanent commission. 



" The association shall be formed for a 

 period of twelve years, beginning April 1, 1904. 

 Nations which join the association may with- 

 draw at the end of each period of four years, 

 on giving six months' notice of their inten- 

 tion." 



The next paper, entitled 'Experiments on the 

 Pollution of Deep Wells in Georgia,' presented 

 by Mr. M. L. Fuller, dealt with a practical ex- 

 periment, conducted by the United States 

 Geological Survey and the Geological Survey 

 of Georgia, acting in cooperation, to deter- 

 mine the liability of contamination of the 

 deep wells and springs in the vicinity of Quit- 

 man, Georgia, by the proposed action of that 

 city in turning the public sewage into an un- 

 derground stream through a bore hole. To 

 test the matter the surveys mentioned inserted 

 two tons of salt into the well into which it was 

 proposed to turn the sewage. Samples of 

 water were taken before the experiment to 

 determine the normal chlorine of the waters, 

 and at short intervals during and for some 

 time after the experiment. On analyzing the 

 samples it was shown that the salt had en- 

 tered all of the deep wells in town, thereby 

 demonstrating that the insertion of sewage 

 would have contaminated all of the wells and 

 possibly led to a dangerous epidemic. 



Mr. Arthur J. Collier then presented a paper 

 on ' The Tin Deposits of the York Eegion, 

 Alaska.' 



