NovEMBER 5, 1897. ] 
the first conference on an alternate common 
language for international trade intercourse, 
letters, science and arts, let us suppose that 
_ whenever a sufficient number of avowals of 
interest in the subject shall have been re- 
ceived from representative bodies an invi- 
tation shall be addressed by the Secretary 
of State of the United States, or by this As- 
sociation, or some similar body, to like as- 
sociations and guilds in the following coun- 
tries to choose delegates to meet at some 
suitable time and place in central Hurope: 
1. Great Britain, including colonies and India. 
2. United States of America and Canada. 
3. Germany, not including Austria. 
4. Austria and the Hungarian and adjacent Slav 
States. ( 
5. France including her colonies and Belgium. 
. Spain and Portugal. 
7. Italy. 
8. Greece. 
9. Holland. 
0 
1 
2 
for) 
— 
. Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). 
. Russia. 
12. The Spanish and Portuguese republics of North 
and South America. 
13. Japan (by courtesy, not voting). 
ray 
Each of these units to be represented by, 
say, five delegates drawn respectively from 
the larger international interests : 
- Political—diplomatic and jurisprudence. 
. Scientific —mechanical and medical. 
Foreign commerce and navigation. 
. Telegraphic, foreign exchange and postal. 
. Pedagogy, publishing and philology. 
HS Qh 
Here we may have a polyglot convention 
of say sixty-five persons, with sixty votes 
representing various pursuits. All that it 
need do is to pass resolutions, after pream- 
ble, recommending to their respective gov- 
ernments that it be made lawful on and 
after a certain date, say January 1, 1901, 
or as soon thereafter as may be, to use the 
language adopted, and that it shall be taught 
in all public schools as a second, or alterna- 
ting, language; and further that all docu- 
ments for interlingual use, such as pass- 
ports, cable and telegraph blanks, naviga- 
SCIENCE. 
687 
tion charts and astronomical codes, postage 
stamps, money orders, letters of credit, 
coins, tables of metric systems, shall be in- 
scribed in both media. Similar action on 
the part of the guilds and institutions them- 
selves would be sufficient to ensure the 
trial. 
The work of simplifying the adopted 
tongue, so as to make it more acceptable 
and more easily acquired by the rest is 
quite another function, belonging to a dif- 
ferent body, and can be reported on from 
year to year without limit of time. Our 
newest dictionaries contain already some 
thousands of minor and acceptable changes. 
It would greatly add to the regularity and 
euphony of the English (if it should be 
chosen ) to incorporate and substitute freely 
from the Spanish as written (not, however, 
including the eccentricities of its pronuncia- 
tion) in which case the Latin and Italian 
methods should be taken; in this way the 
good will of our neighbors on the American 
continent might be secured, with no detri- 
ment whatever to ourselves. Computations 
are sometimes made to show the enormous 
ageregate loss from the use of redundant or 
silent letters in writing and typesetting. 
This economy is easily embraced within the 
larger reform outlined above. 
If it is the pleasure of the Section, during 
this meeting, to take any action on this sub- 
ject, it will give us pleasure to urge it be- 
fore the Council. 
Ricwarp T. CoLBuRN. 
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY, U.S. A. 
APPENDIX. 
The following resolution was _ subse- 
quently adopted by the Council, and copies 
ordered printed for corresponding societies, 
universities, etc.: 
WHEREAS this Association is from time to time 
called upon to recommend or choose delegates to in- 
ternational conferences seeking to promote uniformity 
in scientific classification nomenclatute, metrology, 
publications, and is likewise interested in uniformity, 
of navigation and postal regulations, and researches 
