March 31, 1921] 



NATURE 



i57 



of French women students increased by a similar 

 amount. In another table are shown the numbers of 

 students who attended at the faculties of law, medi- 

 cine, science, arts, and pharmacy for the various 

 vears. From these it appears that the faculty of 

 science is alone in claiming an increase on previous 

 years in the numbers of its students, the figures given 

 being 1175 for 1913, 1999 for 1919, and 1558 for 1920. 



The seventh annual report of the Carnegie United 

 Kingdom Trust gives an account of the activities of 

 the Trust during 1920. The high cost of materials 

 and labour made it impossible to erect buildings even 

 when the plans had been already approved ; indeed, 

 the trustees felt that they ought not to divert labour 

 and material from the urgent needs of housing. 

 Meanwhile, a special reserve of 414,765?. has accumu- 

 lated to meet the claims of those who had been 

 promised building grants. Unfortunately, this sum 

 will be quite inadequate to carry out the work pro- 

 posed unless there should be a heavy fall in the cost 

 of building. For the quinquennium 1921-25 the 

 trustees allot provisionally 250,000?. for library grants 

 of all kinds. They had already promised, in the event 

 of statutory powers being granted to county authori- 

 ties enabling them to maintain county library schemes, 

 to provide the capital outlay for every countv in Great 

 Britain which had not yet adopted a pioneer scheme 

 under the auspices of the trustees. These powers 

 were granted bv the Public Libraries Act of 19 19. and 

 the trustees will now fulfil their promise. The Trust 

 has continued its support to the Central Library for 

 Students, and now proposes to help the rural libraries 

 to lend to genuine students who mav live far from 

 any public library the more expensive books necessarv 

 for their studies. Among other grants made during 

 1920 we notice 4000?. ■ to the London School of 

 Economics in connection with the verv large exten- 

 sion of its premises, loooZ. towards the initial ex- 

 penses of a library to provide merchant seamen with 

 I)ooks while at sea, and icoo?. to the National Institute 

 of Psvcholog^-. An important function of this institute 

 will be to advise manufacturers as to factorv condi- 

 tions and economy of labour. 



DuRiNCx the summer term at King's College. Strand, 

 Mr. J. H. Jeans will give four lectures on "Cosmo- 

 gony and Stellar Evolution " on Mav 3, 10, 17, and 24 

 at 5 p.m. The first lecture will deal with observation 

 evidence, the second with the effect of rotation on 

 gaseous masses, the third with the effect of rotation on 

 liauid or semi-liquid mass<^s, and the last with the 

 effect of tidal encounters. Mr. Jeans 's intention is to 

 give an account of recent observational and theoretical 

 research in non-technical form so as to be intelligible 

 not only to astronomers and mathematicians, but also 

 to geologists and all acquainted with simple scientific 

 terminologv. On Mav c. 11, and 13, at 5 p.m. in 

 King's Collefi-e, Prof. N. Bohr will lecture on "The 

 Ouantum Theory of Radiation and the Constitution of 

 the -Atom." At University College a course of three 

 lectures on " Oceanography, with Soecial Reference to 

 the British Isles," will be delivered by Prof. H. N. 

 Dirkson on June 17 and 24 and Julv i at 5.30 p.m. 

 It is also announced that the course of lectures entitled. 

 " .\ Historical Review of Meteorological Theorv," by 

 Sir Napier Shaw, has been postponed ; it will com- 

 mence on April 29, and one lecture will be given each 

 week until June 10. .All the lectures mentioned are 

 intended for advanced students of the Universitv and 

 others interested in such subjects ; admission is in all 

 cases free and, with the exception of Sir Napier 

 Shaw's lectures, without ticket. Tickets for Sir 

 Napier .Shaw's lectures can be obtained from the 

 Meteorolopriral Oflfice, South Kensington, .S.\V.7. 



NO. 2683, VOL. 107] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



April 1, 1863. Jacob Steiner died. — Referred to as 

 " the greatest geometrical genius since the time of 

 Apollonius," Steiner treated geometry synthetically. 

 A chair of geometry was created especially for him 

 at Berlin. 



April 1, 1900. St. George Jackson Mivart died. — 



Originally a barrister, Mivart took up medical and 

 biological studies, and became well known by his 

 writings. For short periods he held professorships at 

 the Roman Catholic University in London, and also 

 at Louvain. 



April 1, 1901. Frangois Marie Raoult died. — From 

 1870 until his death, Raoult was professor of 

 chemistry at Grenoble. His work on solutions, begun 

 in 1878, had a profound influence on the development 

 of both chemistry and physics. He was awarded the 

 Davy medal in 1892. 



April 2, 1872. Samuel Finlay Breese Morse died. — 



An artist by profession, Morse first transmitted mes- 

 sages by electricity in 1835, exhibited his apparatus in 

 New York in 1837, and in 1844 connected Baltimore 

 and Washington by telegraph. His well-known 

 alphabet was invented during a voyage in 1832. 



April 3, 1879. Heinrich Wilhelm Dove died. — A pro- 

 fessor of natural philosophy in the University of 

 Berlin, Dove added much to the science of meteoro- 

 logy. 



April 3, 1900. Joseph Louis Francois Bertrand 

 died. — Secretary of the Paris Academy of Sciences and 

 a professor in the Ecole Polytechnique, Bertrand for 

 fifty years was a prominent member of the French 

 mathematical world. 



April 4, 1617. John Napier died. — .\ man of many 

 interests, Napier first published his invention of 

 logarithms in 16 14 when si.xty-four years of age. His 

 work has been described as one which in the history 

 of British science can be placed as second only to 

 Newton's "Principia." 



April 4, 1827. Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni 

 died. — One of the founders of the science of acoustics, 

 Chladni was of Hungarian extraction, and for some 

 time held the chair of jurisprudence at Leipzig. 



April 4, 1870. Heinrich Gustav Magnus died. — A 



physicist of Berlin, Magnus was an inspiring teacher, 

 and was known for his researches on heat and other 

 subjects. 



April 4, 1919. Sir William Crookes died. — Trained 

 as a chemist by Hofmann, Crookes at an early age 

 attained high rank as an investigator. His discovery 

 and study of thallium, invention of the radiometer, 

 study of electric discharges in high vacua, experi- 

 ments on the rare earths and on glasses, and inves- 

 tigation of psvchic phenomena were but a few of the 

 subjects with which he dealt. His work, moreover, in 

 manv cases was a starting-point of important modern 

 developments. Knighted in 1897, ^^ received the 

 Order of Merit in 1910. and during 1913-14 served as 

 president of the Royal .Society. 



April 6, 1829. Niels Henrick Abel died. — Still under 

 twenty-seven years of age when he died, Abel held a 

 place among the greatest mathematicians of his day. 

 His main work related to the theory of elliptical 

 functions, 



April 6, 1913. Adolf 0. H. Slaby died.— The inven- 

 tor with Count Arco of a system of wireless tele- 

 graphy, Slabv made his first successful experiments in 

 1897 in the Roval Gardens on the Havel. 



E. C. S. 



