Avaust 6, 1897. ] 
yellow to orange-red color, according to the 
length of time of heating. The depth of 
penetration of the color depends upon the 
duration of the reaction. Such glass is 
yellow by transmitted light, but by reflected 
light shows a yellowish-green to violet-blue 
fluorescence. By using a silver photo- 
graphic plate on red glass colored with cop- 
per, it is possible to obtain a picture, visible 
by reflected light, but not by transmitted 
light, since the yellow of the picture is ob- 
secured by the red glass. Gold, copper and 
iron give results similar to silver; indeed, all 
metals experimented with, except manga- 
nese, were absorbed by the glass imparting 
to it color. 
A contrisuTion to the effect of light upon 
the union of hydrogen and chlorin is made 
by A. Gautier and H. Hélier in the Comptes 
Fendus. A mixture of carefully purified 
chlorin and hydrogen was kept in sealed 
tubes in absolute darkness for over fifteen 
months. No trace of hydrochloric acid was 
found, and the result was the same, whether 
the mixture was dry or moist. Similar 
experiments were tried, but the mixtures 
were exposed to the light of a candle, four 
meters away from the tube, and again one 
meter away. At the end of ten days it was 
found there had been no hydrochloric acid 
formed, showing that sunlight, or some 
source of light containing the more re- 
frangible rays of the spectrum, is necessary 
for the union of hydrogen and chlorin at 
ordinary temperatures. 
Vo Ibp Jel, 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
AN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 
THE meeting of the British Association in 
Canada in 1884 was thought a favorable op- 
portunity for the proposal of an International 
Scientific Association, and the plan was edi- 
torially commended in this JouRNAL and sup- 
ported by Professors Newcomb, Hunt, Minot 
and other American men of science. At that 
time Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson gave a fund to be 
SCIENCE. 
209 
administered by the Association when organized. 
The second meeting of the British Association 
in America and the plans for an exchange of 
courtesies between it and the American Asso- 
ciation and between the British and French 
Associations in 1899, together with the develop- 
ment of international congresses for the sepa- 
rate sciences, seemed to make it desirable 
again to call attention to the importance of an 
international association for the advancement 
of science, and this was done in an article pub- 
lished in the issue of this JoURNAL for October 
9, 1896. 
The plan was approved in editorial articles 
in the Scientific American and Appleton’s Popu- 
lar Science Monthly and was quoted and dis- 
cussed in foreign scientific journals. For rea- 
sons which we need not repeat, the advantages 
of an international conference seem to out- 
weigh the difficulties, and we should like to see 
steps taken at the meetings of the American 
and British Associations for the organization of 
a congress to meet in 1900. Should it, how- 
ever, be thought that the time has not yet come, 
then we should be glad tosee the National Asso- 
ciations undertake in alternation to give their 
meetings an international character. This will 
to a certain extent be accomplished this year 
by the British Association. Arrangements 
should be made next week to secure the repre- 
sentation of foreign associations and societies 
by delegates at the next meeting of the Ameri- 
can Association on the occasion of its. fiftieth 
anniversary. 
THE NEW TARIFF LAW. 
THE tariff bill, now printed, fortunately con- 
tains none of the provisions inimical to sci- 
ence and education, against which we protested 
when the bill was first presented to the House 
of Representatives. The present bill does not 
materially alter the regulations in force during 
the last four years. The sections of the free 
list which concern apparatus, books, ete., read 
as follows : 
Philosophical and scientific apparatus, utensils, 
instruments and preparations, including bottles and 
boxes containing the same, specially imported in 
good faith for the use or by the order of any society 
or institution, neorporated or established solely for 
religious, philosophical, educational, scientific or lit- 
