e to designate the development of the counter
electro-motive force of galvanic elements, and also that essentially
different condition of badly conducting substances that is brought about
by the simultaneous influence of quantities of opposite electricity.

In Germany, the word _induction_, coupled with the word _wire_, for
example, according to the formation of compound words in that language,
may also have a double meaning, and it is by the sense alone of the
phrase that we learn whether we have to do with an induced wire or an
inducting one. The examples might be multiplied.

At its session of November 5, 1884, the International Society of
Electricians, upon a motion of Mr. Hospitalier, who had made a
communication upon this question, appointed a committee to study it and
report upon it. The English Society of Electricians likewise took the
subject into consideration, and one of its most active and distinguished
members, Mr. Jamieson, presented the result of his labors at the May
session of the society in 1885.

A discussion arose in which the committee of the International Society of
Electricians was invited to take part. The committee was represented by
its secretary, Mr. Hospitalier, who expressed himself in about these
words: "The committee on electric notations presided over by Mr. Blauvelt
has finished a part of its task, that relative to abbreviations,
notations, and symbols. It will soon take up the second part, which
relates to definitions and agreements." He broadly outlined the
committee's ideas as follows:

In all physical magnitudes that are made use of, we have: (1) the
physical magnitude itself, aside from the units that serve to measure it;
(2) the C.G.S. unit that serves to measure such grandeur (granted the
adoption of the C.G.S. system); (3) practical units, which, in general,
have a special name for each kind of magnitude, and are a decimal
multiple or sub-multiple of the C.G.S. unit, except for time and angles;
(4) finally, decimal multiples and sub-multiples of these practical
units, that are in current use.

The committee likewise decided always to adopt a large capital to
designate the physical magnitude; a small capital to designate the C.G.S.
unit, when it has a special name; a "lower case" letter for the
abbreviation of each practical unit; and prefixes, always the same, for
the decimal multiples and sub-multiples of the practical units.

Thus, for example, work would be indicated by