The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences

Abstract

THE recent issue of the Verhandlungeti der Schweiz-erischen Naturforschenden Gesellscha contains an account of the annual meeting of the Society held at Solothurn in August 1936 and also reports of the work of the previous year. The object of the Society is to promote the study of all branches of natural science in Switzerland. Between the annual meetings for the presentation and discussion of papers, the work of the Society is carried on by a number of commissions. Some of these are concerned with the administration of endowments, while others undertake field work in various sciences. The latter are financed partly from members' subscriptions, but mainly from Government grants. Among the commissions performing work of national importance is the Geological Commission, which is engaged in the publication of a geological survey of Switzerland on scales of 1: 25,000 and 1: 200,000. In addition to the purely scientific commissions, there is a Commission for the Preservation of Nature, which is doing valuable work in preserving sites of scientific interest or scenic beauty, as well as in promoting legislation for the protection of forms of wild life which are in danger of extermination. Besides administering Government research grants, the Society also acts as the official representative of Switzerland on international scientific unions, and the volume under notice contains the reports of the Swiss delegations to a number of such unions.