Resolutions Adopted by the Congress 417 



of the International Geographic Con- 

 gresses exert over the decision of the 

 official authorities. To these geographi- 

 cal societies are urged to give wide 

 publicity. 



INTRODUCTION OF THE FRACTIONAL 

 SCALES OF MAPS 



The Seventh International Geographic 

 Congress expressed the urgent wish that 

 upon all charts, including those pub- 

 lished by those lands still employing the 

 English and Russian systems of meas- 

 urement, along with the scale of geo- 

 graphic cobrdinance, the scale of reduc- 

 tion should be expressed in the usual 

 fractional form, i : x, and that the lat- 

 ter be added to all lists of charts cov- 

 ering land and sea, and requested the 

 Executive Committee of the Congress 

 to bring this decision to the attention of 

 all governments, geographical societies, 

 and establishments engaged in the pub- 

 lication of charts. 



The advantage to be derived from the 

 support of this resolution, which had its 

 origin with the editor of Peterman's 

 Mitteilungen, and the extensive dissem- 

 ination of the resolution is at once evi- 

 dent. In English publications a custom 

 has arisen of adding a statement of the 

 ratio 1 : x to the usually employed x 

 miles to one inch. In America the cus- 

 tom has arisen of going even a step be- 

 yond this, namely, the addition of the 

 ratio of reduction has led to the direct 

 application of the decimal system in the 

 units of measure adopted upon the chart. 

 To this geographical societies are 

 urged to give wide publicity. This 

 resolution of the Seventh Congress is 

 reaffirmed. 



THE DECIMAL SYSTEM 



The Seventh International Geographic 

 Congress expresses itself in favor of 

 using a uniform system in all geograph- 

 ical researches and discussions, and it 

 recommends for this purpose the em- 

 ployment of the metric system of weights 



and measures, as also the employment 

 of the centigrade thermometric scale. 



It is at least highly desirable that 

 there should always be added to the in- 

 troductions of the Fahrenheit scale and 

 to the Reaumur scale their equivalent 

 upon the scale of Celsius. Similarly, 

 the revived activity in this question, 

 which reaches even more deeply than 

 the former into the well established 

 customs of daily life, has proved that 

 the Congress is not without value in 

 promoting international uniformity and 

 simplicity. Although the metric sys- 

 tem of weights and measures has made 

 slow progress, and this alone through 

 the portals of scientific work, its appli- 

 cation to geophysics and geography has 

 already made a fair beginning. In Eng- 

 land a special organization entitled the 

 Decimal Association has taken charge 

 of the matter. The Commonwealth of 

 Australia has entrusted the subject to a 

 commission. We are without knowl- 

 edge of the efforts in this direction thus 

 far made in Russia. Geographical so- 

 cieties are urged to give wide publicity 

 to this resolution. These resolutions 

 are reaffirmed by the Eighth Interna- 

 tional Geographic Congress. 



COLLECTION OF RECORDS OF DRIFT 

 ICE 



This work is progressing satisfactorily 

 in charge of the Danish Meteorological 

 Institute, with the cooperation of vari- 

 ous national offices. The Eighth Inter- 

 national Geographic Congress expresses 

 its thanks to the Datiish Meteorological 

 Institute and the cooperating offices for 

 their systematic collection of records of 

 drift ice. 



STATISTICS OF POPULATION IN COUN- 

 TRIES WITHOUT CENSUS 



The following resolution was intro- 

 duced by the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, 

 the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, and 

 was agreed to : 



Moved that a committee of five be 



