Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/426

420 knowledge; to look after Grecian grave inscriptions and to create a commission for the study of oceanography. It shares with the Berlin Academy and with the academies of Munich, Göttingen and Leipzig in the preparation of a Latin dictionary. The work is done in Munich and on a scale which may require twenty years to complete. Together with the academies of Munich, Göttingen and Leipzig, it has carried through and nearly completed an 'Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Related Knowledge,' and has agreed to join with them in the future in any work which ought to be undertaken, but which is too large for the resources of a single academy. It joined the international association of academies in 1900, and is taking part in the publication of the international catalogue of scientific literature. Statements by the secretary of what was done during the year 1899-1900 show the great place the academy now fills. The Prehistoric Commission, he says, continued its investigations at Töplitz near Krain, and discovered in graves which had never been opened many articles belonging to a prehistoric race. The work is nearly complete and full reports of it will soon be published. Successful efforts have been made to obtain a complete collection of objects needed for the 'Phonographic Archives' of the academy. The third part has been published of the report of the Austrian Plague Commission on the morphology and biology of the bacillus, and on the means to be used for the disinfection of man and beast and their future protection against danger from this source. A report of the visit to India to photograph meteors and observe the eclipse has been printed. Opportunity was taken during this visit to secure measurements of the intensity of the sun's heat and to collect twenty specimens of orchids. The petrographic survey of the Alps has been continued and provision made for publishing part A of Vol. VI. of the 'Mathematical Encyclopedia.' The material is in hand for nearly all the work. The Earthquake Commission has made observations in Istria and Dalmatia, in Krain and Görz. The number of earthquakes studied is 190, in the previous year 209. Reports from several hundred meteorological stations have been received and tabulated for use not only in the study of meteorology but for the study of terrestrial magnetism.

Under the patronage of the 'historical class' of the academy important publications have been brought out on the early history of Austria-Hungary. Some new historical facts have been discovered during the year. Work on the edition of the Latin church fathers has continued, and the writings of Arnobius Minor have been worked over by J. Schnarnagl, those of Cæsar Arelatorius by G. Morris, those of Prudentius by J. Bergmann. It is hoped to get these writings into such shape as to make them valuable. The collection of manuscripts belonging to the library, through the aid of other libraries and by