954 



NATURh 



Ll>>KLhMHt.k 29, 1923 



The Jubilee Celebrations of the French Physical Society. 



IT was in 1873 that the Soci6t6 Iran^aise de 

 Physique came into \»-\\\^< :mrj the first volume 

 of the i'rocccHlings of th' contains a report 



by Lissaious on the pr( > steps that were 



taken. The statutes include one by which any 

 <li>,nission *' (^trangdre k la physi<iuc " is prohibited. 

 r the 1^'rench physicist of fifty years ago was 

 1 pohtician we do not know, but it seems to 

 liave been desirable to provide against extraneous 

 matters more rigorously than is our wont in Great 

 Britain. 



A glance at the first list of members reveals a 

 number of very well-known names, such as the 

 Beccjuerels, Herthclot, Bouty, Cornu, Jamin, Joubert, 

 Koenig, Lippmann, Li.ssajous, Mascart, Sainte-Claire 

 Deville. and Violle. The first president was Kizeau, 

 and the following eight succesj/ivc presidents were 

 Berlin, Jamin. puet, E. Becquerel, Blavier, Berthelot, 

 Mascart. and (!ornu. The first honorary member 

 was the elder Becquerel. In 1876 there were five 

 honorary members, including Kegnault and Sir 

 William' Thomson ; and in 1878 the names of Fizeau 

 and Joule were added. 



In the early part of this month, the founding of 

 the Society was celebrated by a number of meetings. 

 Apart from these there has been the Exhibition, which 

 has hitherto been held by the Society at Easter, but has 

 this year been combined with a Wireless Exhibition. 

 It has been on an unusually large scale, as may be 

 realised when it is said that the Grand Palais in the 

 Champs £lys66s, in which the annual Automobile 

 Show is held, was used for the purpose. The Exhibi- 

 tion was excellent from many points of view, and was 

 characterised by many demonstrations, more or less 

 popular, which were very attractive. 



The anniversary lectures were given at the Sorbonne. 

 the first on Saturday, December 8, by Col. Robert, on 

 the relations of physical and technical aeronautics. 



On Monday morning, December 10, an attraction of 

 another kind presented itself in the general meeting 

 of the International Union of Physics. The chair 

 was taken by M. Brillouin with Prof. H. Abraham as 

 general secretary. The business was largely formal, 

 the main item being the adoption of the statutes. 

 After some discussion as to whether the value of the 

 franc for the contributing countries should be taken 

 in the French or Swiss currency, the former was 

 adopted, notwithstanding the reduction in the 

 contributions by so doing. The date of the next 

 meeting of the Union was fixed for the year 1925. 

 the normal three years' interval being reduced, and 

 the question of an international congress will then be 

 decided. A somewhat pious resolution was adopted 

 oh the desirability of authors supplying abstracts to 

 their papers, such abstracts being left in the hands 

 of the editor of the journal concerned for final revision. 

 The meeting was followed by a luncheon. 



On Monday evening a lecture was given by Prof. 

 H. A. Lorentz on the old and new mechanics. The 

 motion resulting from the impact of two balls was 

 considered, and generalised equations were obtained 

 which were applicable to two observers in relative 

 motion. This was followed by the gravitational 

 deflexion of light, and a discussion of the quantum 

 theory and kindred subjects. The address was a 

 model of lucidity, and at its conclusion Prof. Lorentz 

 received quite an ovation from a crowded audience. 



On Tuesday, December 1 1 , Lord Rayleigh gave an 

 interesting account of his investigations on iridescent 

 colours in Nature. He dealt successively with the 

 colours observed in light reflected from potassium 

 chlorate crystals, mother-of-pearl, Labrador felspeir, 



NO. 2826, VOL. 112] 



and scarabcc. This work was desirilM'd : 

 a series of papers read before the Koyal S<j . 



At the conclusion of the lectun- Prof. \ 

 presented, on the behalf of the Accadtimi lei ! 

 two volumes of the collected works u\ 

 volumes are in pr<*paration. 



Wednesday, I ' 12, was marked L . 



at wliich the . were royally • 



The chair was occupied by the l/nder S' 

 State for Public Instruction. M. Picarrl 

 of the Soci6t6 Fran9aisc de T" 

 foreign delegates, and resjxii 



Volterra, Prof. Ia>rentz, Ix)rd ivaynign, 1 roi. r^irjnner, 

 and Prof. Knudsen. 



The culminating point in the cfl- '-■•*•— • --. — r> on 

 Thursday afternoon, when the < ^y 



the President of the Republic n. ... .\- 



theatre of the Sorbonne. There w. ; .t 



the Ministers of Commerce, of Public i id 



of Public Works. After speeches by A 



M. Brylinski (president of the French J. d 



Committee), Prof. Lorentz presented the addresses 

 which had been brought by the delegates. These 

 were numerous, and, in the alphabetical order of the 

 countries from which they came, were from the 

 following societies : L'Acad^mie Royale de Belgique, 

 La Soci^te Scientifique de Bruxelles, L' Academic 

 Royale de Danemark, LTnstitut d'Egypte, L'.\cad^mie 

 des Sciences de Madrid, Bureau of Standards, Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington. L'Acadcmie des Sciences 

 de Finland, Royal Society, Royal Institution, Physical 

 Society of London, Rontgen Society, Accademia dei 

 Lincei, Accademia di Torino, La Section de Physique 

 du Conseil National de Recherches du Japon, I.f 

 Minist6re de ITnstruction Publique du Grand Due!, 

 de Luxembourg, La Society de Physique de Chri-i 

 tiania, L'Academie Royale des Sciences d' Amsterdam, 

 La Society HoUandaise des Sciences de Haarlem, 

 L'Acadcmie de Cracovie, La Societe Polonaise de 

 Physique, La Soci6t6 Suisse de Physique, La Societe de 

 Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, La S 

 Zurichoise de Physique et I'ficole Polytechniqui 

 rale de I'Universite de Zurich, 1/ Union des Mathcma- 

 ticiens et des Physiciens tchecoslovaques a Prague. 



After this part of the ceremony came a speech b\- 

 M. BCrard (Minister of Public Instruction), followed 

 by remarks by the President of the Republic. The 

 latter with his ministers then withdrew, and we 

 settled down to a discourse by Prof. C. Fabry on the 

 domain of radiations. The programme was inter- 

 spersed throughout by a selection of music rendered 

 by the celebrated band of the Garde Rdpublicaine. 



The magnificent amphitheatre of the Sorbonne. in 

 which these proceedings were held, seats about 3001 

 people, and gave rise to some reflections, possibly not 

 only on the part of the present writer. Where is such 

 a theatre to be found among our educational institu- 

 tions in London ? Unfortunately, nowhere; and if 

 we had such a theatre, would an audience of, say, 

 2500 people come on such an occasion, and listen to 

 an address (unillustrated) on the difficulties exp>eh- 

 enced in exploring the field of radiation, from the 

 longest waves, as used in wireless telegraphy, to the 

 shortest, as shown by X-ra^"^ ? We doubt it, even 

 if the Prince of Wales were present. The value of 

 science is obviously recognised more fuUy in Paris 

 than in London. 



Lectures by Prof. Storraer on the aurora borealis, 

 on Friday, December 14, and by Prof. Knudsen on 

 the mechanism of evaporation and condensation, on 

 Saturday, brought to a close these very interesting 

 and very successful celebrations. 



