The International Congress of Mathematicians

A CONGRESS of mathematicians was held at Chicago during the World's Fair; but this was an isolated one. The series of international congresses was in-augurated at Zürich in 1897, and the second congress of this series met in Paris from the sixth to the eleventh of the present month. About 225 mathematicians of various nationalities, with 25 members of their families, were present. It had been expected that the numbers would be very much greater, as many as one thousand provisional acceptances having been received before last December; the diminished attendance was doubtless due partly to the great heat of the preceding month, but probably in greater measure to the fear of exhibition crowds and exhibition extortions. It had been supposed that the Exhibition would attract people to the Congress; on the contrary, it seems to have kept them away. The composition of the Congress was certainly international; the numbers of members from the different countries were approximately as follows:—France, 90; Germany, 25; United States, 17; Italy, 15; Belgium, 12; Russia, 9; Austria and Hungary, 8; Switzerland, 8; England, 7; Sweden, 7; Denmark, 4; the remainder being from South America (4), Holland, Spain, Roumania, Servia, Portugal, Turkey, Armenia, Greece, Canada, Mexico, Japan.