716 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 435. 



unanimously voted to recommend tlie adop- 

 tion of the plan and the making of a moderate 

 appropriation for carrying out its purposes to 

 the several American countries. It was also 

 decided by a unanimous vote to assemble in 

 session for final organization on the third 

 Monday in December, 1903, and meantime to 

 invite the several American governments to 

 designate commissioners to attend this session 

 and participate in the organization. 



Under the plan adopted the commission is 

 designed to form an administrative corps and 

 include a scientific corps, the former to be 

 made up of commissioners officially designated 

 by the participating governments, to a number 

 not exceeding three from each, and to have a 

 president, two vice-presidents, and a secre- 

 tary, to be elected for terms of four years ; 

 the commissionerships and these administra- 

 tive offices to be honorary. The scientific 

 corps is designed to include trained scientists 

 and scientific attaches, to be chosen by the 

 commission, with a director-general and a 

 secretary, and a director for each participa- 

 ting country ; these positions to be either hon- 

 orary or salaried, and commissioners being 

 eligible. The specified objects of the com- 

 mission are (1) to promote the unification of 

 laws relating to antiquities in the Western 

 Hemisphere; (2) to increase and diffuse Knowl- 

 edge concerning these antiquities and the 

 aboriginal peoples by whom they were 

 produced; (3) to awaken interest in the 

 vestiges of a vanishing race; (4) to unify 

 museum methods throughout the American 

 countries; and (5) to work for the estab- 

 lishment of one or more archeologic and eth- 

 nologic museums of international character. 

 Provision is made for the acquisition, preser- 

 vation and transfer of museum and office prop- 

 erty, for the exchange of collections and sci- 

 entific workers among the several countries, 

 for annual and special sessions of the commis- 

 sion and the scientific corps, and for the pre- 

 paration and publication of reports. The 

 recommendations of the International Confer- 

 ence extended to the custody and preservation 

 of aboriginal structures, and it is planned to 

 take up this duty as the work of the commis- 

 sion proceeds. 



SGIEXTrFIG NOTES AND NEWS. 

 At the stated session of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences on April 21, 22 and 23, new 

 members were elected as follows : T. C. Cham- 

 berlin, professor of geology. University of 

 Chicago; William James, professor of philos- 

 ophy. Harvard University; E. L. Mark, pro- 

 fessor of anatomy. Harvard University; 

 Arthur G. Webster, professor of physics, Clark 

 University; Horace L. Wells, professor of 

 analytical chemistry and metallurgy, Yale 

 University. President Ira Eemsen, of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, was elected vice- 

 president, and Professor Simon Newcomb, 

 foreign secretary. Professor George E. Hale, 

 director of the Terkes Observatory, was 

 awarded the Draper medal and made a mem- 

 ber of the council. Foreign associates were 

 elected as follows : W. C. Brogger, professor 

 of mineralogy and geology. University of 

 Christiana ; Eobert Koch, professor of hygiene. 

 University of Berlin; E. Ray Lankester, di- 

 rector of the British Museum of Natural His- 

 tory; D. J. Mendeleef, professor of chemistry, 

 St. Petersburg; Wilhelm Pfeiier, professor of 

 botany. University of Leipzig; M. Picard, pro- 

 fessor of mathematics. University of Paris ; 

 J. J. Thomson, Cavendish professor of physics, 

 Cambridge University; H. K. Vogel, director 

 of the astrophysical observatory near Pots- 

 dam; and Ferdinand Zirkel, professor of 

 mineralogy. University of Leipzig. 



Professor Simon Newcomb, of Washington, 

 has been appointed a delegate from the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences to the Inter- 

 national Association of Academies, which 

 meets in London this coming June. Mr. S. F. 

 Enamons and Mr. Geo. P. Becker, of Washing- 

 ton, and Professor C. E. Van Hise, of Madi- 

 son, Wis., have been appointed delegates to 

 the International Geological Congress, which 

 meets in Vienna in August of this year. 



At the request of the Secretary of State, the 

 president of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences has appointed a committee to consider 

 what means, if any, should be taken to preserve 

 the original copy of the Declaration of In- 

 dependence. The signatures of the signers 



