
1904.]| Anniversary Address by Sir Wilkam Huggins. ! 17 
establishment to the initiative of the Royal Society. In 1897, the Royal 
Society was invited to send representatives to a Conference of a Union of 
German Academies and Societies which met from time to time. The Society 
sent delegates, but declared that the Society’s permanent adhesion to any 
such association must be conditional on its being made truly international in 
character. The principle of an international association of learned Societies 
suggested by the Royal Society, was accepted, and a Conference was held at 
Wiesbaden in 1899 for the purpose of taking steps for the formation of such 
an association. Statutes were drawn up and arrangements made for the 
holding of the first General Assembly in Paris in 1901. 
The primary objects of the Association are the initiation and promotion of 
scientific undertakings of general interest and of universal concern to mankind, 
especially of such matters as are outside the power of a single Academy 
and require for their promotion the assistance of the Governments represented 
by the Association. Indirectly by its triennial General Assemblies in different 
countries, it should become an instrument of no mean power for the 
promotion of the brotherhood of mankind and for hastening the day 
“When the war drums throb no longer and the battle flags are furl’d, 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.” 
The Association, as now constituted, consists of twenty Academies and 
learned Societies of Europe and America. The second General Assembly of 
the Association was held this year in London under the auspices of the Royal 
Society, which, as directing Academy, had had general charge of the conduct 
of its business during the last three years. The Section of Letters met under 
the direction of the newly-founded British Academy. 
The Society has accepted heavy responsibilities at the instance of the 
Government in respect of the control of scientific observations and research 
in our vast Indian Empire. In 1899, the India Office inquired whether the 
Royal Society would be willing to meet the wishes of the Indian Government 
by exercising a general control over the scientific researches which it might 
be thought desirable to institute in that country. A Standing Committee 
was appointed in consequence by the Council for the purpose of giving 
advice on matters connected with scientific enquiry, probably mainly 
biological, in India, which should be supplementary to the Standing Obser- 
vatories Committee which was already established at the request of the 
Government as an advisory body on astronomical, solar, magnetic, and 
meteorological observations in that part of the Empire. 
An investigation, onerous indeed, but of the highest scientific interest and 
VOL. LXXVI.—B. C 
