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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 831 



there and returned enthusiastic regarding 

 the advantages of Montego Bay as com- 

 pared with Port Antonio, Kingston and the 

 Tortugas, where one or another of them 

 had previously worked. 



Barring the necessary expense of the 

 long sea voyage, a temporary or a perma- 

 nent laboratory could be opened at Mon- 

 tego Bay with very small outlay and eco- 

 nomically maintained, since labor and the 

 necessities of life produced in the island 

 are cheap and readily obtained. While 

 suitable buildings are few, concrete block 

 construction there has been demonstrated 

 a success by the American consul, so that 

 a permanent laboratory might be rapidly 

 constructed. 



E. A. Ajstdrews 



TEE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF RADI- 



OLOGT AND ELECTRICITY, BRUSSELS, 



SEPTEMBER 13-15, 1910 



Up to the present time two congresses of 

 radiology have been held, the first in Liege, 

 1905, and the second at Brussels during the 

 past autumn. The second International Con- 

 gress of Eadiology and Electricity opened on 

 September 13 with a large attendance and it 

 was somewhat surprising that subjects so 

 relatively modern as those to which the con- 

 gress was devoted should have attracted so 

 many interested workers in these special 

 fields. The attendance during the congress 

 approached closely to five hundred and much 

 interest and enthusiasm was shown by those 

 who took part in the many meetings. 



Participants in the congress began arriving 

 in Brussels as early as the tenth and at the 

 first formal gathering, a reception held at the 

 Bourse on the evening of the twelfth, the 

 number present had already attained consid- 

 erable proportions. Many notable scientists 

 from all parts of the world were there, in- 

 cluding Mme. Curie, Eutherford, Soddy, 

 Arrhenius, Eieke, Esner, St. Meyer, Eigi, 

 Hahn, Du Bois, Goldstein and others, and in 

 fact the congress was particularly conspicu- 

 ous in the relatively large number of promi- 



nent workers in radiology and electricity that 

 attended. The work of the congress began on 

 Tuesday, September 13, with a meeting at the 

 Palais des Fetes in the grounds of the exposi- 

 tion, where Professor de Heen, the president, 

 delivered an address, and a number of details 

 in connection with the organization were ar- 

 ranged. 



In the afternoon of the same day a very in- 

 teresting meeting was held in the buildings 

 of the university in which the problems of the 

 nomenclature and standards were discussed. 

 The proceedings were begun by Professor 

 Eutherford, who stated that he had recently 

 compared, by the y-ray method, the radium 

 standards employed in the leading labora- 

 tories of several different countries and had 

 observed very considerable differences, 

 amounting in some cases to 20 per cent., be- 

 tween them. He pointed out the importance 

 of a uniform, international standard by which 

 the results and experiments of workers in all 

 parts of the world might be brought into ac- 

 cord. As the subject of radioactivity had 

 reached a stage of development where accu- 

 rate, quantitative measurements and compari- 

 sons are being constantly made, and as cer- 

 tain radioactive quantities, such as the 

 number of a particles emitted by one gram of 

 radium, the volume of the emanation pro- 

 duced, and the heating effect, can now be de- 

 termined with considerable precision, it is 

 highly desirable that the necessary informa- 

 tion as to the exact amount of radium in any 

 given specimen of the substance should be 

 definitely and readily determinable by differ- 

 ent workers. It was therefore suggested that 

 a specimen of the purest obtainable salt of 

 radium should be prepared and accepted as 

 an international standard and that facilities 

 be afforded by which all workers in the science 

 might be able to express their results in terms 

 of that standard. The subject was generally 

 discussed and it was finally decided that a 

 committee, to be appointed by Professor 

 Eutherford and Mme. Curie, should be formed 

 and that this committee should consider the 

 special needs in the matter and determine the 

 conditions under which the standard should 



