Notes

Abstract

ON Monday next, August 6, the International Congress of Physics will be opened at Paris with an address by the president, Prof. Cornu. The Congress will then be divided into the seven following sections, which will meet in the rooms of the Société francaise de Physique: (1) general questions, instruction, measurements; (2) mechanical and molecular physics; (3) optics; (4) electricity and magnetism; (5) magneto-optics, radio-activity, discharges in gases; (6) cosmical physics; (7) biological physics. As many of our readers are aware, much attention has been given to the organisation of the Congress. The secretaries of the committee, Prof. Poincaré and Dr. Guillaume, have been entrusted with the production of three volumes, already in the press, containing more than seventy reports on physical questions of current interest and importance, contributed by physicists of various nationalities. Among the subjects dealt with by British physicists are: the movements produced in an indefinite solid by the displacement of a material body, by Lord Kelvin; the constant of gravitation, by Mr. C. V. Boys; the propagation of electricity, by Prof. Poynting; electric discharges in gases, by Prof. J. J. Thomson; properties of alloys, by Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen; and the unit of heat, by Mr. E. H. Griffith's. In addition there are contributions by Profs. Lorentz, van 't Hoff, Warburg, Voigt, van der Waals, H. Poincaré, Cornu, Lippmann, Potier, Becquerel, Arrhénius, Exner, Spring and others. The sectional meetings will partly be held simultaneously and partly at different hours, in order to give members an opportunity of hearing papers of interest to all physicists. In addition to the serious work of the Congress, provision has been made for lighter entertainment. The Municipal Council of Paris will hold a reception on Tuesday, August 7, and the French President will give a reception to the members on August 9. Prince Roland Bonaparte will give a soirée on August II, and in his splendid library an exhibition of new apparatus and experiments will be held. There is thus every promise that the meeting will be both interesting and pleasant to all who are able to take part in it.