230 



NATURE 



[October 13, 1921 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



October 13, I066. William Hopkins died. — The Cam- 

 bridge tutor of Tait, Maxwell, Kelvin, and Stokes, 

 Hopkins, in 1850, received the WoUaston medal for 

 his researches on the application ot mathematics to 

 physics and geology, and the following year was elected 

 president of the Geological Society. 



October 14, 1831. Jean Louis Pons died. — While 

 connected with the observatories at Marseilles, Lucca, 

 and Florence, Pons discovered thirty-seven comets. 



October 15, 1907. Maurice Loewy died. — Born in 

 Vienna, of Jewish parentage, and trained under 

 Littrow, Loewy was invited to Paris by Leverrier in 

 i860. In 1896 he succeeded Tisserand as director of 

 the Paris Observatory. He completed the great Paris 

 catalogue of stars, and energetically supported the 

 International Photographic Chart. The first equa- 

 torial coude was erected b}' him in 1882. 



October 16, 1793. John Hunter died.— A great 

 comparative anatomist and the founder of the famous 

 Hunterian collection, Hunter for many years was one 

 of the surgeons of St, George's Hospital, London. 

 Interred in St. Martin 's-in-the-Fields, his remains, 

 through the efforts of Frank Buckland, were trans- 

 ferred in 1859 to Westminster Abbey. 



October 16, 1876. Wolfgang Sartorius, Baron von 

 Waltershausen, died. — After carrying out magnetic 

 work in various parts of Europe, von Waltershausen 

 made a study of Mount Etna, and in 1858-61 pub- 

 lished his "'Atlas des Atna." For about thirty years he 

 held the chair of mineralogy at Gottingen. 



October 17, 1757. Rene Antoine Ferchault de 

 Reaumur died. — For nearly fifty years a prominent 

 member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Reaumur 

 has been called the Pliny of the eighteenth century. 

 His investigations on the cementation of steel were of 

 great practical importance. As a naturalist he is 

 best known for his " M^moires pour servir k I'His- 

 toire des Insectes," 1737-48. 



October 17, 1887. Gustav Robert Kirchhoff died.— 

 While professor of physics at Heidelberg, Kirchhoff, in 

 i859> by a comparison of the solar spectrum with 

 the spectra of various elements, created spectrum 

 analysis. Assisted by Bunsen in 186 1, he discovered 

 caesium and rubidium ; his map of the solar spectrum 

 was published by the Berlin Academy shortly after- 

 wards. 



October 18, 1871. Charles Babbage died.— Some- 

 time Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cam- 

 bridge, Babbage was a founder of the British Asso- 

 ciation, and of the Astronomical and Statistical 

 Societies. With Herschel, Peacock, and Woodhouse 

 he was one of the reformers of mathematical studies at 

 Cambridge. For more than thirty years he spent 

 much time and money on elaborate calculating 

 machines, which, never completed, are now in the 

 Science Museum at South Kensington. 



October 19, 1875. Sir Charles Wheatstone died.— 

 A pioneer worker on the transmission of electricity, 

 Wheatstone, in 1834, became professor of experi- 

 mental physics at King's College, London, and after- 

 wards with Fothergill Cooke played an important 

 part in the development of the electric telegraph. 

 He also did valuable work in acoustics. 



October 19, 1906. Friedrich Konrad Beilstein died. 

 — German by birth but Russian by nationality, Beil- 

 stein was widely known for his researches on the 

 aromatic series and on petroleum, and for his 

 '■ Handbuch der Organischen Chemie, " a work of re- 

 ference held in high esteem. E. C, S. 



NO. 271 I, VOL. 108] 



Societies and Academies. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, September 26. — M. Leon Guig- 

 nard in the chair. — A. de Gramont and G. A. Hem- 

 salech : The roie of electrical actions in the emission 

 and appearance of certain types of lines of the mag- 

 nesium spectrum. A detailed account of the varia- 

 tions in the lines produced by changing the conditions 

 under which the arc or spark is mamtained. The arc 

 was struck between magnesium electrodes under 

 water, glycerol, and petroleum, and the sparks were 

 passed in atmospheres of hydrogen, oxygen, coal gas, 

 and nitrogen. During the first phase of the arc struck 

 in a liquid drop, modifications of the lines are caused- 

 by the intense electric fields. — L. Casteels : A type ot 

 doubly continuous quadratic generation of a plane 

 cubic given by nine simple points. — T. Varapoulos : 

 Some properties of increasing functions. — J. Chazy : 

 The Poisson stability in the problem of three bodies. — - 

 J. Guillaume -. Observations of the sun made at the 

 Lyons Observatory during the first quarter of 192 1. 

 Observations were taken on seventy-seven days in the 

 quarter, and the principal facts are resumed in three 

 tables, showing the number of spots, the distribution 

 of the spots in latitude, and the distribution of the 

 faculae in latitude. — K. Ogura : The static field of 

 gravitation. — E. Hulthen : The combinations in band 

 spectra.— M. and L. de Broglie : The corpuscular 

 spectra of the elements. A statement of experimental 

 results on the corpuscular excitation of the heavy 

 metals (uranium, thorium, lead), by the X-rays, and 

 bearing on the L, M, and N levels of electrons.— E. 

 Passemard : The alluvial terraces of Sebou above Fez. 

 There is clear evidence of the existence in the Sebou 

 valley of three terraces, 30 metres, 16 metres, and 

 7 metres. The higher terraces have certainly existed, 

 but are now represented by debris. — A. Luiniere and 

 H. Couturier : Sodium oleate in the phenomena of 

 shock. When a i per cent, solution of sodium oleate 

 is injected into the jugular vein of sensitised guinea- 

 pigs, it is known that these animals can stand, with- 

 out inconvenience, an injection of the antigen which 

 is mortal to a sensitised animal not treated with the 

 oleate solution, and this protective action has been 

 attributed to the property possessed by sodium oleate 

 of diminishing the surface tension of liquids to ts'hich 

 it is added. The authors do not accept this explana- 

 tion, and show that solutions of sodium oleate alone 

 can produce the symptoms of anaphylactic shock. 

 These symptoms can be suppressed by solutions of 

 sodium hyposulphite. 



Brussels. 

 Royal Academy of Belgium, June 4. — M. G. Cesaro 

 in the chair.— A. Demoulin : The mmimum surface ot 

 Enneper.— CI. Servais : A group of three biological 

 Caviean tetrahedra.— M. Stuyvaert : The theorems of 

 Fermat and Euler.— H. Kufferath : The stereogram- 

 matic interpretation ot the sporulation curve of yeasts, 

 described by Hansen. Its application to physiological 

 and biological phenomena. The author has repeated 

 and extended the observations of Hansen on the 

 sporulation of yeasts. The medium used differed 

 from that of Hansen, and the rate of growth wa^^ 

 much slower, but the results fully confirm those ot 

 Hansen, as regards the average time of the first 

 proof of the existence of spores at varying tempera- 

 tures. — P. T. de Chardin and C. Fraipont : The pre- 

 sence in the lower tertiary of Belgium of a member 

 of the Hyopsodus group. — J. Errera : Contribution to 

 the knowledge of the cuprous compounds. Experi- 

 mental evidence is given of the existence of cuprous 



