654 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. IIU 



Stratton and G. P. Marvin, unanimously reports 

 the following resolution, and moves its adoption. 



The National Academy of Seienees shares the 

 desire of scientific men in general for international 

 and world-wide uniformity in units of measure- 

 ment of all kinds, and with this object in view it 

 favors the introduction of the Centigrade scale of 

 temperature, and units of the metric system gen- 

 erally, as standards in the publications of the 

 United States government. 



It must be recognized that considerable initial 

 expense must be incurred by the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau in changing its apparatus to conform to 

 the proposed act. Furthermore, on account of the 

 more open scale of the Centigrade system that 

 Bureau will be subject to a continued cost of pub- 

 lication, owing to the necessity of printing the 

 first decimal place in order to maintain the pres- 

 ent accuracy. The use of negative temperatures 

 and minus signs entails greater liability to errors, 

 and more clerical labor would be required in check- 

 ing the accuracy of the reports of cooperative ob- 

 servers of the Weather Bureau, and in computing 

 monthly and other mean temperatures. 



Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Academy is 

 in favor of legislation to make the Centigrade scale 

 of temperatures the standard in publications of 

 the United States government, and funds should 

 be made available by Congress to accomplish the 

 desired result. 



The Academy favors Bill H. R. 528, ' ' To discon- 

 tinue the use of the Fahrenheit thermometer scale 

 in government publications, ' ' but recommends that 

 it be amended by the addition of the following: 



Sec. 4. When in the publication of tables con- 

 taining several meteorological and climatic ele- 

 ments, the use of data in Centigrade temperatures 

 leads to manifest incongruities, the chief of the 

 Weather Bureau is directed to publish related data 

 in such units as are necessary to make the tables 

 homogeneous and to secure international uniformity 

 as far as practicable. 



Sec. 5. Nothing in this act shall prevent the use 

 of the absolute Centigrade scale of temperature in 

 publications of the government. 



Upon recommendation of the Council the follow- 

 ing minute was adopted: 



That in accordance with the request of the chair- 

 man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

 House of Representatives a committee of the Acad- 

 emy be appointed to prepare a report upon the 

 joint resolution (H. J. Res. 99), "That the Presi- 

 dent be, and he is hereby, requested to ascertain 

 the views of foreign governments regarding the 



proposition to appoint an international commis- 

 sion to prepare a universal alphabet," and that 

 the report be submitted to the president of the 

 academy, who in turn will transmit it to the chair- 

 man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

 House of Representatives, reporting his action in 

 the matter at the next annual meeting of the Acad- 

 emy. 



Messrs. Cattell, Bell, Boas, Dewey and Lindgren 

 were appointed members of this committee. 



The council also recommended to the academy 

 the appointment of a committee to discuss possible 

 plans of cooperation with a committee of engineers. 

 The following committee was appointed: George 

 E. Hale, chairman, J. S. Ames, John P. Hayford, 

 E. L. Nichols, M. I. Pupin, E. B. Rosa, Elihu 

 Thomson, C. R. Van Hise, C. D. Walcott, R. S. 

 Woodward. 



The president announced that an invitation had 

 been received from the members of the Academy 

 living in Boston that the Academy hold its au- 

 tumn meeting in the year 1916 in that city. The 

 following members were appointed to serve as a 

 local committee of this meeting: William M. 

 Davis, chairman, W. T. Councilman, Arthur A. 

 Noyes, George H. Parker, E. C. Pickering. 



Mr. George E. Hale was reelected foreign sec- 

 retary of the academy for a term of six years. 



Mr. R. H. Chittenden and Mr. M. I. Pupin 

 were elected members of the council for a term of 

 three years. 



New members of the academy were elected as 

 follows : 



Gilbert Ames Bliss, University of Chicago, Chi- 

 cago, Illinois. 



Frank Schlesinger, University of Pittsburgh, 

 Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Gregory Paul Baxter, Harvard University, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. 



Marston Taylor Bogert, Columbia University, 

 New York City. 



Leland Ossian Howard, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Alfred Goldsborough Mayer, Carnegie Institu- 

 tion, Tortugas, Florida. 



Raymond Pearl, Maine Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, Orono, Maine. 



Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene, Rockefeller In- 

 stitute for Medical Research, New York City. 



■Otto Folin, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 

 Mass. 



Aethur L. Day, 

 Some Secretary 



