July 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



111 



interruption from the commemoration of the 

 proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, with 

 which the congress is being purposely associ- 

 ated. The general regulations of the congress, 

 which are printed in the circular, follow the 

 same broad lines as those of previous con- 

 gresses. Eight sections, representing the prin- 

 cipal branches of geography, will be consti- 

 tuted, and communications may be made in 

 Italian, French, German or English. Ab- 

 stracts of communications proposed for pre- 

 sentation to the meeting must be sent in not 

 later than April 30, 1911, and reports on sub- 

 jects brought up at previous congresses or 

 suggested by the executive sub-committee 

 must be received in full not later than Au- 

 gust 31, 1911. The time allowed for the read- 

 ing of communications will not exceed fifteen 

 minutes. Delegates may be nominated by 

 governments, public departments, societies or 

 other institutions concerned with geography, 

 and all votes of sections must be confirmed 

 by the meeting of delegates. Intending mem- 

 bers are invited to send in .their names at an 

 early date. On payment of the amount of 

 subscription they will receive their ticket of 

 membership, with the necessary instructions 

 and documents. Meanwhile information as to 

 travel, etc., can be obtained from the " Ufficio 

 viaggi ed informazioni gratuite," 372-373, 

 Corso Umberto I., Rome. A special program 

 of excursions will be issued later, and a com- 

 plete program of the congress will be sent to 

 all who have enrolled themselves as members. 

 The president of the congress is the Marquis 

 Eaifaele Cappelli, president of the Italian 

 Geographical Society. 



The fifth meeting of the International Con- 

 gress of Mathematicians, which is held every 

 four years and met on the last occasion in 

 Home in 1908, will take place at Cambridge 

 in 1912. The London Times states that in 

 connection with one of the sections of the 

 congress an International Commission on 

 Mathematical Teaching has been constituted, 

 which includes delegates appointed by the 

 various governments interested in the con- 

 gress, and a series of national sub-commis- 

 sions has been established to assist the Inter- 

 national Commission. The president of the 



Board of Education has appointed Sir George 

 Greenhill, M.A., FvE.S., Professor W. W. 

 Hobson, Sc.D., F.E.S. and Mr. C. Godfrey, 

 M.A., to be the British delegates, and he has 

 further appointed an Advisory Committee to 

 assist the Commission in the collection of 

 reports and papers on the teaching of mathe- 

 matics, and this committee, which is to act 

 also as the British Sub-Commission, has been 

 constituted as follows : C. E. Ashf ord, Esq., 

 M.A., Sir G. H. Darwin, E.E.S., LL.D., D.Sc, 

 C. Godfrey, Esq., M.A., Sir George Greenhill, 

 M.A., F.E.S., G. H. Hardy, Esq., M.A., 

 F.E.S., Professor W. W. Hobson, Sc.D., 

 F.E.S., C. S. Jackson, Esq., M.A., Sir Joseph 

 Larmor, D.Sc, LL.D., F.E.S., Professor A. 

 E. H. Love, M.A., D.Sc, Professor G. A. Gib- 

 son, LL.D., F.E.S.E. Mr. C. S. Jackson is 

 honorary secretary to the sub-commission. 

 Copies of the reports and papers approved by 

 the Advisory Committee will be at the dis- 

 posal of the International Commission above 

 named, and it is intended that they shall ulti- 

 mately be published as a volume or volumes 

 in the board's series of special reports on edu- 

 cational subjects. 



From the annual reports of German chem- 

 ical factories Consul-General Eichard Guen- 

 ther notes continued high dividends and trade 

 activity. The works at Biebrich earned $1,- 

 000,000 in 1909 (capital stock about $2,000,- 

 000), paid 32 per cent, dividends, and gave 

 $100,000 as gratuities to directors. Several 

 others earned large sums and paid 12 to 27 

 per cent., with gratuities to directors. The 

 Farbenfabriken-Bayer Company, of Elberfeld, 

 whose capital is $8,500,000, made a profit of 

 over $5,000,000, declared a 24 per cent, divi- 

 dend, and an extra dividend of 21 per cent, 

 from overgrown reserve funds, which still con- 

 tain $4,355,000 after the disbursement. This 

 concern states that it has perfected an arti- 

 ficial rubber. The Badische Anilin and Soda- 

 fabrik Works (capital, $8,500,000) paid 24 per 

 cent. It does an excellent business with the 

 United States. Owing to the new British 

 patent law it has erected works in England, 

 and has also built extensive works in Norway 

 for extracting nitrogen from air. It is well 

 known that the German chemical industry is 



