462 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. No. 5.34. 



ly, the invitations issued by the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences brought together, 

 from ten countries, seventeen members of 

 the committee besides aboiit sixty other 

 meteorologists and aeronauts, the latter 

 both civil and military. At the head of 

 the local committee of arrangements was 

 General Rykatchef, director of the Central 

 Physical Observatory, and to him the suc- 

 cess of the meeting is chiefly due, for, al- 

 thoiTgh the Avar with Japan had reached an 

 acute stage, it was not allowed to alter the 

 scientific and social program. The first 

 session was held in the palace of the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences on August 29 (new style), 

 Avhen the order of business was adopted, 

 and the same afternoon the conference was 

 formally opened by the Grand Duke Con- 

 stantine Constantinowitch, president of the 

 Academy, who brought the greetings of the 

 Czar: General Rykatchef then explained the 

 arrangements that had been made for the 

 meeting and Professor Hergesell reported 

 on the work that had been accomplished 

 since the committee had met two years 

 before. 



The following day the scientific meetings 

 were begi;n, these being open to members 

 of the conference, and, with the exception 

 of two days devoted to excursions, they 

 continued until September 3. There were 

 sessions both morning and afternoon which 

 were presided over successively by two 

 members of the committee, and the ques- 

 tions considered came under the following 

 heads : Organization of international ob- 

 servations, special investigations, instru- 

 ments and technical matters, resolutions. 

 As regards the first, it was deemed essential 

 that each country should possess a special 

 organization for the exploration of the at- 

 mosphere and that the results should be 

 published regularly. During the past 

 three years the cost of publishing such 

 observations in monthly volumes has 



amounted to $10,000, and this has been 

 borne entirely by the meteorological serv- 

 ice of Alsace-Lorraine. It is now pro- 

 posed that the various countries participat- 

 ing in the exploration of the atmosphere 

 shall contribute $1,000 or $1,200 annually, 

 receiving in exchange copies of the publi- 

 cation, and this proposition is to be trans- 

 mitted through diplomatic channel.3 to the 

 countries represented at the conference. 



With respect to the international ascen- 

 sions of kites and balloons which, for sev- 

 eral years, have taken place on the first 

 Thursday of each month, it was decided to 

 continue this practise, but, in order to 

 study the successive diurnal changes, there 

 will be, in addition, ascensions on three con- 

 secutive days during April and August, 

 1905, the dates during the latter month 

 including the day of the total solar eclipse, 

 August 30, when an ascent of a manned 

 balloon was promised at Burgos, by the 

 Spanish representative. Colonel Yivez y 

 Vich. It was also decided that the balloons 

 should be despatched in each country at 

 the hour which corresponded to its daily 

 synoptic weather-map. A statement of the 

 number of hallons-sondes lost in Europe 

 showed that this did not exceed four per 

 cent, of those liberated. The committee 

 recommended that observations of clcud- 

 drift should be made at the time of each 

 balloon ascension, in order to determine the 

 motion of the upper currents, and in these 

 observations the nomenclature of the clouds 

 ought to correspond exactly with the inter- 

 national classification. For this purpose 

 a new edition of the * International Cloud 

 Atlas,' which is now out of print, will be 

 issued. 



Dr. Assmann, director of the aeronautical 

 observatory of the Prussian ]\Ieteorological 

 Institute, described the new observatory to 

 be erected in large grounds, thirty-five miles 

 southeast of Berlin, because at the existing 



