582 



NATURE 



[Sept. 26, 1878 



It will have been seen that in the investigation ^of which I 

 have given an imperfect account, free scope has been given to 

 speculation, but that speculation has been governed and directed 

 in every case by appeal to the numerical results of a dynamical 

 problem, and I therefore submit that it stands on a different 

 footing from the numerous general speculations to which the 

 nebular hypothesis has given rise. 



NATURAL SCIENCE IN HUNGARY IN THE 

 LAST TEN YEARS 



Tj*EW of the readers of Nature are aware that Hungary has 

 ■*• of late years become the scene of active efforts in science, 

 and especially the natural sciences. 



The following sketch of an article, written by Mr. Coloman 

 Szily, member of the Academy of Sciences, and Professor of 

 Physics at the Polytechnic of Budapest, and published in the 

 Budapesti Szemli {Budapest Review), may therefore not be alto- 

 gether without interest. 



The first active sign of native scientific life in this direction in 

 Hungary was the founding of the Academy of Sciences in 1830. 

 Up to that time there were single men of science, but no 

 organised scientific life. But the chief object aimed at by the 

 Academy was the cultivation of the national language, and the 

 excessive zeal with which it pursued this aim did much harm 

 to the cause of the natural sciences here. An erroneous attempt 

 to substitute purely Hungarian words for the mathematical and 

 other scientific expressions universally accepted elsewhere, threw 

 great obstacles in the way of the progress of the natural sciences 

 in our country. 



This and other errors soon brought a reaction. 



The" General Assembly of Physicians and Naturalists" was soon 

 started amid general enthusiasm. The meetings of the assembly 

 were held yearly in different cities from 1841 up to 1848, and 

 then renewed in 1863, after a cessation of fifteen years, caused 

 by political events. A yearly report was issued, containing the 

 various papers read at the meeting, as well as an account of 

 physical characteristics of the district in which it was held. 



Far more brilliant was the success reached in the cultivation 

 and promulgation of the natural sciences by the " Termiszettu- 

 domanyi Tarsulat" (Society of Natural Sciences), which was 

 started at the same time. By 1848 the number of the members 

 rose to more than 400. Its first yearly report was then issued, 

 and a contract made for the starting of a scientific magazine, 

 entitled " Magyar Iris." This powerful start, which was made 

 independently of the Academy, and which proved of ever- 

 increasing importance, could not remain without effect. In 

 1844 a proposition that the two classes of mathematicians and 

 naturalists might hold their meetings and carry on their financial 

 and other operations separately from the rest was partially 

 accepted. Some years later {1861) it only required a single 

 lecture (of Prof. Joseph Izabo's) to bring the whole Academy to 

 pronounce a resolution against the attempt to Magyarise the 

 nomenclature. 



In the meantime the events of 1848-49 were followed" by a 

 long period of despotism, which tended to paralyze all attempts 

 at association. The most distinguished men of science were 

 forced off the field of action, the Academy could hold no meet- 

 ings, the Society of Natural Sciences was on the brink of disso- 

 lution, its members were scattered, its collections had to be given 

 away for lack of funds to pay the rent of the accommodation 

 needed for them, and it was barely able within ten years to 

 publish two of its yearly reports. 



Between 1850 and i860 the nation began to breathe more 

 freely. Its very first efforts were turned towards the advance- 

 ment of science. A very fine building was raised for the 

 Academy, and its capital considerably increased, by means of 

 private subscriptions. It thus became able to do much [more 

 than it did previously, both for the improvement of our native 

 language and for the cultivation of the various branches of 

 science. In i860 it appointed a committee of mathematicians 

 and naturalists, whose duty it was to explore the whole country 

 and give an account of its natural and technical features. Ever 

 since the year 1868 Government has devoted the yearly sum of 

 5,000 florins to the furtherance of the labours of this committee. 

 But this sum frequently proves insignificant. Fourteen volumes 

 of the publications of the committee, entitled, "Scientific 

 Treatises Relating to Home Topics" (Termiszettudomanyi 



kozlemenysk, vonatkozolag a hazai viszonyokra), edited by its 

 secretary. Prof. Joseph Szabo, have already appeared. At the 

 same time with this the Academy started a second series of 

 periodicals for publishing mathematical and scientific treatises, 

 not confined to topics within the limits of our country. They 

 appeared yearly from i860 to 1867, six volumes in all. 



After the renewal of constitutional life in 1867 our naturalists 

 were also filled with a strikingly-increased zeal for labour. The 

 Academy has up to the present day issued thirty-two volumes 

 in all. Many articles, treating of the original researches of our 

 naturalists, have appeared in foreign periodicals. The meetings 

 of the department of natural sciences in the Academy have of 

 late borne witness to a truly diligent and scientific spirit, there 

 scarcely being one in which less than six or eight treatises have 

 been presented upon topics of original research. 



In 1868, though no preliminary agreement had taken place 

 between the two institutions, the department of Naturalists of 

 the Academy, having arrived at the conviction that the popularis- 

 ing of the natural sciences was not their calling, abandoned the 

 attempt, and decided that they should henceforth direct their 

 efforts solely to the cultivation of the sciences and the making of 

 scientific researches in our country, while the Society of Natural 

 Sciences took upon itself the spreading and popularising of them. 

 To this end the Society started a monthly periodical ; the number 

 of members of the Society rising in the very first year of its exist- 

 ence from 600 to 1,600, the second year to 2,200, until at pre- 

 sent it borders upon 4,800. A short time later the Society began 

 to arrange lectures connected with experiments for the benefit of 

 the public. These lectures have now been kept up for eight 

 years, and the large lecture-hall in which they have been held 

 has always been crowded with hearers. As long as it was 

 possible these lectures were published in the Journal of Natural 

 Sciences ; now, however, they appear in the form of a new 

 series of publications under the title, " Collection of Popular 

 Treatises upon Topics pertaining to the Natural Sciences." In 

 1872 the Society again started a new undertaking, namely, the 

 translating into Hungarian and issuing of foreign works of a 

 popular kind upon the natural sciences. The result of this 

 undertaking, which has enjoyed the support of 1,500 subscriber.'^, 

 as well as a yearly aid from the Academy, has up to the present 

 time been the issuing of twelve volumes, such as " Geologie der 

 Gegenwart," by von Cotta ; Darwin's "Origin of Species," 

 Helmholtz's " Populare Vorlesungen," Huxley's "Lessons in 

 Physiology," Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," Proctor's "Other 

 Worlds than Ours," and Tyndall's "Heat as Motion." An 

 Anthology has also been compiled, containing a treatise from 

 every scientific author who has contributed to the popularising 

 of the natural sciences, from the time of Arago and Humboldt 

 downwards, and a volume containing the complete works of the 

 late Julius Greguss. These books always find a large number of 

 purchasers. 



But there is another branch of activity which is of more im- 

 portance, perhaps, than all those, namely, its efforts for the 

 encouragement of original research. From 1870 the legisla- 

 ture of our country, in appreciation of the labours of the 

 Society, has voted a yearly sum at first of S,ooo, and afterwards 

 of 4,000 florins, for the promotion of such researches as stand 

 most nearly connected with the interest of our country, and the 

 publication of an account of the same. In this series of publi- 

 cations the following have appeared up to the present time : — 

 " The Rise and Fall of Tide in Fiume Bay," by Emile Stahl- 

 berger; "The Ice Grotto of Dobsina," by Dr. Joseph Alex- 

 ander Krenner; "Sketch of the Ligaridas of Hungary," by 

 Dr. Geza Horvath; "The Spiders of Hungary: Vol. I. General 

 Part," by Otto Hermann ; " The Iron Ores and Iron Products of 

 Hungary, with Special Reference to the Principal Chemical and 

 Physical Qualities of the Iron," by Anton Kerpsly. 



In searching out and making known the physical character- 

 istics of our country, the Society of Geologists (Magyar fbldtani 

 tarsulat), founded in 1851, can also boast considerable merits. 

 The Society also publishes a monthly periodical under the title 

 of Geological Review. 



In 1872 there was also a Geographical Society founded, which 

 did not aim so much at the advancement of geographical re- 

 searches as at keeping the public informed of any progress made 

 on this field by means of a two -monthly review. 



This active interest in the natural sciences is not confined only 

 to our capital, but has taken root throughout the country. To 

 prove this we have but to note the interest manifested in the 

 labours of the Society of Natural Sciences in all grades of 



