September i, 192 i] 



NATURE 



31 



Among the publications summarised are two of 

 ^pecial importance by outside experts, who were 

 called in by the Egyptian Government to report on 

 their cotton problems within the last few years, 

 namely, Mr. H. A. Ballou, a West Indian entomo- 

 logist,' and Mr. H. Martin Leake, a botanist in the 

 service of the Indian Government. These indepen- 

 dent reports have been of great value to those who 

 are following the development of the cotton position 

 in Egypt. The appendices contain some rather dis- 

 concerting statistics of the crop, an account of cotton 

 legislation in Egypt during 1920, and a verj' useful 

 summary of botanical research on cotton carried out 

 in Egypt up to 19 18, along with a bibliography of 

 the chief cotton pests of Egypt. 



There is always room for difference of opinion as 

 to the scientific value of the results achieved by re- 

 search work, and no one who knows the difficulties 

 under which scientific workers in Egypt have laboured 

 in the past would expect any very large results in 

 the short time in which the Cotton Research Board 

 has been in existence. These two years have, in fact, 

 been largely spent in preliminary work, and indeed 

 the new research laboratory at Giza was scarcely 

 finished when the report was written. But no one 

 can question the value of such a compendiurri of a 

 great deal of the work that has been done in the 

 past. The report will form a useful summary for 

 those interested in all the various lines of activity 

 regarding Egyptian cotton. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



The Merchant ^'enturers' Technical College, which 

 provides and maintains the facult}- of engineering in 

 the University of Bristol, has issued a prospectus for 

 the academic year 1921-22. A prominent feature is 

 the "sandwich" scheme, which engineering students 

 have the option of adopting. Bv this arrangement 

 the course of five vears is divided into three periods 

 of ten months each, which are spent at the Uni- 

 versity, and three periods of fourteen, two, and- four^ 

 teen months respectively, spent in engineering works. 

 More than twenty well-known engineering firms in 

 Great Britain co-operate with the University for this 

 course, in many cases offering to receive students with 

 reduced, or even without, premium. The scheme 

 provides an opportunity for a thoroughly well-balanced 

 training for the profession. 



The Edinburgh and East .of Scotland College of 

 Agriculture has issued a calendar for the year 1921-22, 

 in which a full account of the courses available at 

 the college will be found. The classes are arranged in 

 conjunction with the science faculty of Edinburgh 

 University, and two courses are open to students : 

 (a) for the degree in agriculture conferred by Edin- 

 burgh University, and (h) for the college diploma in 

 agriculture. Part of the course required for the 

 University degree in forestry is also provided, and 

 there are, in addition, a number of classes devoted to 

 horticulture. A novel feature is the five weeks' 

 course provided in January and February of each year 

 for the benefit of farmers and others who cannot 

 attend a full diploma course. The course extends 

 over two years, the first being devoted chiefly to 

 soils, manures, and farm crops, and the second to 

 feeding-stuffs and the management of livestock ; in 

 the coming winter the second part of the course will 

 be given. Local farmers co-operate with the staff of 

 the college in investigating new conditions or special 

 problems arising out of their farming operations, and 

 a number of useful papers have already been pub- 

 lished dealing with the results obtained. 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



September 1, 1648. Marin Mersenne died. — A 



schoolfellow and friend of Descartes, Mersenne occu- 

 pied various ecclesiastical appointments, translated 

 Galileo's "Mechanics," experimented on sound, and 

 was one of the group of eminent men whose meetings 

 led to the founding of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



September 2, 1832. Franz Xavier, Baron von Zach, 

 died.— Retiring from the Austrian Army as a colonel, 

 Zach became the first director of the observatory at 

 Seeberg, Gotha. His Monatliche Correspondenz, 

 founded in 1800, was the forerunner of Schumacher's 

 Astrono}msche Xachrichfeti. 



September 2, 1836. William Henry died. — Awarded 

 the Copley medal in 1809 for his contributions to 

 chemical literature, Henry experimented on gases and 

 enunciated the law connecting the pressure with the 

 solubility of a gas. 



September 2, 1865. Sir William Rowan Hamilton 

 died. — After a remarkable career as a student, during 

 which he wrote mathematical papers of a high order, 

 Hamilton in 1827, at the age of twenty-two, became 

 Andrews professor of astronomy at Dublin. For many 

 years a correspondent of De Morgan, he was, like 

 him, of a speculative mind. He is best known for his 

 "Theory of Systems of Rays," his prediction of 

 conical refraction, his " General Method of Dynamics," 

 and his discoverv- of quaternions. 



September 2, 1883. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley died. 

 — One of three brothers who were all concerned with 

 the early telegraphs, Varley did valuable work in 

 connection with the Atlantic cables. His brother, 

 Samuel \'arley, was a pioneer worker on the dynamo. 



September 4, 1784. Cesar Francois Cassini de 

 Thury died. — The third of the five members of the 

 Cassini family who became members of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, Cesar Cassini is best known for 

 his trigonometrical survey of France. 



September 4, 1852. William Macgillivray died. — 

 Macgillivray in 1841 became professor of natural his- 

 tory at Aberdeen. His " Histor\' of Birds " was pub- 

 lished in 1837-52. 



September 5, 1902. Rudolf Virchow died. — Placed 

 in the foremost rank of pathologists by the publication 

 of his "iCellular Pathology " in 1856, Virchow for 

 many years was director of the Pathological Institute 

 at Berlin. In later life he rendered important ser- 

 vices to ethnology, anthropolc^y, and archaeology, and 

 as a public man he was instrumental in transforming 

 Berlin from one of the most unwholesome of cities to 

 one of the most healthy. The centenary of his birth 

 occurs on October 13, 1921. 



September 5, 1906. Ludwig Boltzmann died. — A dis- 

 tinguished worker in mathematical physics, Boltz- 

 mann studied the work of Clausius and Maxwell, 

 and became an authority on the kinetic theory of gases 

 and on thermodynamics. He 'held chairs at Gratr, 

 Munich, Leipzig, and Vienna. 



September 6, 1902. Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 

 Bart., died. — One of the first pupils of Hofmann at 

 the Royal College of Chemistn,', Abel in 1854 became 

 chemist to the \Var Office, a post he held for thirty- 

 four years*. He made valuable researches on gun- 

 cotton, with Dewar invented cordite, and was an 

 authority on petroleum and coal-mine explosions. He 

 served as president of various institutions, and in 1893 

 was made a baronet. 



September 7, 1882. Joseph Liouville died. — An en- 

 gineer in the Ponts et Chauss^es, Liouville resigned 

 his position, devoted himself to the study of mechanics 

 and pure mathematics, and from 1836 to 1874 edited 

 the Journal de Maihimaiique. To Liouville and 

 Regnault Kelvin was much indebted as a student. 



E. C. S. 



