December 22, 192 1] 



NATURE 



553 



physics, tenable at Birkbeck College. Since 19 17 Dr. 

 Simons has been lecturer in physics at the South 

 African College, now the University of Cape Town. 



The following doctorates have been conferred : 

 D.D.: Rev. \V. R. Matthews, an internal student of 

 King's College, Theological Department, for a 

 thesis entitled "Studies in Christian Philosophy." 

 D.Sc. {Chemistry) • Mr. K. G. Naik, an internal 

 student of the Imperial College, Royal College of 

 Science, for a thesis entitled "The Interaction of 

 Sulphur Monochloride with Substances containing the 

 Reactive Methylene Group or Substituted Methylene 

 Group." D.Sc. [Economics): Mr. Sih-Gung Cheng, 

 an internal student of the London School of 

 Economics, for a thesis entitled "■ Modern China: A 

 Political Study." 



Manchester. — The following appointments have 

 been made : Mr. C. B. Dewhurst, dean of the faculty 

 of science; Dr. J. P. Buckley, lecturer in regional 

 surgen-; Mr. J. M. W. Morison, lecturer in applied 

 anatomy ; Dr. T. H. Oliver, lecturer in clinical medi- 

 cine; and Mr. H. S. Leigh and Mrs. Leonore Pearson 

 to honoran- research fellowships. 



The honorary degree of Doctor of Science has been 

 conferred by the University of Calcutta on Sir W. J. 

 Pope, professor of chemistry, Cambridge Universit}-, 

 and on Prof. C. V. Raman, professor of physics, Uni- 

 versitv of Calcutta. 



The general council of the Trades Union Congress 

 and the executive of the Labour Part\- passed the 

 following resolution on December 15: — "That this 

 joint meeting views with profound disappointment the 

 apparent intention of the Government further to 

 reduce expenditure on education, and in particular 

 condemns the decision of the Treasury to reduce the 

 annual universities grant from 1,500,000!. to 

 i,2oo,oooI., which can do virtually nothing to relieve 

 the national finances, but which will be a serious blow 

 to higher education." 



The twenty-second annual meeting of the Science 

 Masters' Association will be held in the chemical 

 <iepartment of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology (Royal College of Science) on January 3-4 

 next. The president of the association, the Master 

 of Balliol, will deliver his address on January 3, 

 taking as his subject "Science and Histon.'." The 

 topics for discussion on the first day of the meeting 

 are The Teaching of Mechanics and The Teaching of 

 Geography in Relation to Science, while Physical 

 Chemistry in Schools and Post-Certificate Science for 

 Non-Specialists will occupy the second day. Exhibi- 

 tions of apparatus and books by members, instrument- 

 makers, and publishers will be open during the 

 meeting. 



The annual meeting of the Mathematical Associa- 

 tion will be held at the London Day Training College, 

 Southampton Row, London, W.C.i., on Januarv 2 

 and 3 next. The following are among the papers to 

 be submitted during the meeting : — Mathematics in 

 Artillery, by Sir George Greenhill ; The Structure of 

 the .\tom, by Prof. J. W. Nicholson ; Vectors, by Prof. 

 C. Godfrey ; The Dalton Plan and the Teaching of 

 Mathematics, by Miss F. A. Yeldham ; and The late 

 Srinivasa Ramanujan, by Prof. G. H. Hardy. There 

 rwill also be discussions on the simultaneous teaching 

 " pure and applied mathematics and on methods of 

 ping mathematics teachers in touch with modem 

 elopments of the subject. Sir Thomas L. Heath 

 s been nominated president of the association for 

 le years 1922 and 1923 in succession to the Rev. 

 anon J. M. Wilson. 



NO. 2721, VOL. 108] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



December 22, 1590. Ambroise Pare died.— Surgeon 

 to four Kings of France, Pare served through many 

 campaigns, doing much to improve the treatment of 

 wounds, especially by the substitution of ligature of 

 the arteries for cauterisation with a red-hot iron after 

 amputation. He is regarded as the father of modern 

 surgery. 



December 22, 1722. Pierre Varignon died. — In 1687, 

 the year Newton's " Principia " appeared, Varignon 

 published his work on mechanics based on the com- 

 position of fcH-ces. Like I'Hospital, he was a powerful 

 advocate in France of the use of the differential 

 calculus. 



December 22, 1828. William Hyde Wollaston died.— 

 Abandoning medicine for scientific research, Wollaston 

 made investigations over a wide field and contributed 

 much to chemistry and optics. He first noticed the 

 dark lines in the sf>ectrum, invented the camera 

 lucida and a reflecting goniometer, showed the iden- 

 tity of galvanism and frictional electricity, and dis- 

 covered palladium and rhodium. By making platinum 

 malleable he gained a fortune of 30,000!. 



December 22, 1887. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden 

 died. — A great geological explorer, Hayden was 

 prominently connected with the survey of the Western 

 States of America and wrote valuable works on natural 

 history and economic science. The idea of the National 

 Park on the Yellowstone River w^as his. 



December 23, 1901. Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert died. 

 — The fellow-student of Lawes at University College, 

 London, Gilbert worked under Liebig at Giessen, and 

 in 1843 began his lifelong collaboration with Lawes in 

 agricultural chemistry. For some years he held the 

 chair of rural economy at Oxford. 



December 23, 1907. Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen 

 died. — Janssen was the pioneer of si>ectroscopic 

 astronomy in France. Well known for his scientific 

 expeditions, in 1868 in India indef>endently of Lockyer 

 he discovered the method of observing the solar pro- 

 minences in daylight. In 1876 he became director of 

 the observatory at Meudon, and he also established 

 a meteorological observator}- on the summit of Mont 

 Blanc. 



December 24, 1872. William John Macquorn 

 Rankine died. — Distinguished alike as an engineer and 

 physicist. Rankine from 1855 held the chair of en- 

 gineering at Glasgow and published standard text- 

 books on various branches of engineering. His 

 "Steam Engine" contained the first systematic 

 treatise on thermodynamics, and he made important 

 researches in molecular physics. 



December 26, 1886. Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer 

 died. — Professor of astronomy in the University of 

 \'ienna, Oppolzer paid special attention to theoretical 

 astronomy, did valuable work on the European degree 

 measurement, and published a "Canon der Finster- 

 nisse " containing the elements of eclipses of the sun 

 and the moon from 1207 b.c to a.d. 2162. 



December 28, 1850. Heinrich Christian Schumacher 

 died. — The founder a century ago of the Astronomische 

 Xachrichten, thirty-one volumes of which he edited, 

 Schumacher held positions in Copenhagen and Mann- 

 heim, and in 1821 became director of the Altona 

 Obser\'atory. 



December 28, 1899. Karl Friedrich Rammeisberg 

 died. — Born in 1813, two years after Bunsen, Ram- 

 meisberg passed his life teaching and experimenting 

 in Berlin, adding immensely to the knowledge of 

 inorganic chemistrv, mineralogv, and crvstallographv. 



E. C. S.' 



