The place fitted for the establishment of an International Institute should be one which can be reached with comparative facility by investigators of the different nationalities. It must be one free from the objections due to national susceptibilities. It should also be, if possible, a place agreeable to live in; a place where work can be carried on through the year; and a place where expenses, both the personal expenses of the investigators, and the general expenses of the Institute, are not excessive. Venice has been suggested as a place fulfilling the above requirements. It can be reached readily from all parts of Europe, and is as accessible to Americans as any other European city. Living is very cheap, and, indeed, all expenses are very moderate.

On sea level itself, Venice is within near distance of very high altitude, and hence offers facilities for the study of the effects of climatic influence on nutrition. It is also sufficiently near the Regina Margherita Laboratory, on Monte Rosa, to enable the observations made at the two places to be coordinated. Venice is, moreover, a cosmopolitan centre; and persons of many different nations and races might readily be obtained as subjects for observation and experiment.

On the other hand, it may be regarded as essential to the complete success of the proposed Institute that both the director and those engaged in investigation should have ample opportunities of ready and frequent intercourse with eminent men engaged in investigation in Physics, Chemistry, and the allied sciences. The help which is thus gained by intercourse with men at the very head of various scientific inquiry cannot be supplied in any other way. There is also an urgent reason for ready access to a most thoroughly equipped scientific library. It is also essential that the Institute should have facility of obtaining, or of getting constructed, with the least possible delay such apparatus as it might need. These essentials cannot be supplied otherwhere than in great centres of scientific activity. A small university cannot supply them. If they are insisted on, the Institute must be located in a place which has metropolitan distinction and holds not only a large but an active university. The choice of a situation, from this point of view, in Europe, is thus almost limited to such places as Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or London. Of these London probably best recommends itself for. international purposes.

But, on the other hand, London is distinctly an expensive place to live in. Indeed, all expenses there are great, and the same may be said of any great metropolitan centre. Moreover, London cannot be reached from the countries of Europe without sea transit.

The choice between such a place as London and such a place as Venice must depend upon the relative weight attached, on the one hand, to the scientific advantages dwelt on above, and, on the other hand, to the advantages other than scientific.