798 



NATURE [August i8, 192 i 



base. This is the usual position in slow-speed flight. 

 In rare cases the fins are inclined very slightly down- 

 wards, and this "down" position is probably used 

 for flight at highest speed. Now soaring vultures 

 have their wings in the "up " position for slow-speed 

 flight, and use the " flat " wing-disposition for flight 

 at high speed. 



A further resemblance between flying-fish and soar- 

 ing vulture is indicated by the observation that the 

 tips of the pectoral fins may be bent up, forming an 

 angle of perhaps 45° with the rest of the fin, which 

 is comparable to the bending up of the terminal quills 

 ■of the vulture's wing during horizontal soaring flight. 



Dr. Hankin confirms the conclusion that while 

 there may be flapping of the pectoral fins at the 

 start, there is none after the fish has got well under 

 "wav. A speed of 10 metres per second was observed 

 •during eight seconds, and a maximum of 20 metres 

 per second is probable. Taking advantage of species 

 •of Exocoetus with coloured pelvic fins, Dr. Hankin 

 -vvas able to discover how the displacement of these 

 IS used to check the velocity in both high-speed and 

 low-speed flight. In a species with the pelvic fins 

 small in size and placed far forwar4s,^Jherefore un- 

 suitable for checking speed or for steering, in the 

 vertical plane, the fishes at the end of theif flight 

 steer downwards by drawing the pectoral fins back 

 through an angle of about 45°. They then pl^inge 

 head foremost into the water without any visible 

 attempt to check their speed. ) 



It seems that flying-fishes sometimes make riiis- 

 takes as to the suitability of the air for flight. They 

 may emerge with low-speed disposition when high- 

 speed disposition would have been appropriate ; they 

 may emerge tail~^-up " when they should have tried 

 tail "down." Thus their "flights" are often in- 

 voluntarilv short. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



London. — The Ph.D. degree in the faculty of 

 science has been conferred on the following : — Connell 

 Boyle (Royal College of Science), for a thesis entitled 

 "Studies in the Physio'ogy of Fungi"; Sri Krishna 

 (East London College), for a thesis entitled " The 

 Condensation of Phenols with Acid Anhydrides, with 

 Special Reference to Coumarin "; Isabel Soar (Birk- 

 bcck College), for a thesis entitled "The Structure 

 and Function of the Endodermis in the Abietineae " ; 

 Nellie Barbara Eales (L'niversity College, Reading), 

 for a thesis entitled " Monograph on the General 

 Morphology of Aplysia punctata " ; Frederick H. 

 Newman (Royal College of Science, and Universitv 

 College, Exeter), for a thesis entitled "The Absorf>- 

 tion of Gases in the Electric Discharge Tube"; and 

 George N. Pell (University College), for a thesis 

 entitled "The Trajectory of Bombs Dropped from 

 Aircraft." 



The Bureau of Education, Washington, has issued a 

 pamphlet dealing with the opportunities for the study 

 of medicine in the United States (Higher Educational 

 Circular, No. 22). The system of education in the 

 United States is first briefly surveyed, and details are 

 * given of the preliminary studies and examinations 

 necessary in order to enter a medical school. The 

 medical curriculum is then described, and a list of 

 the medical schools is given, with notes on their 

 numbers of students, graduates, and teachers, and the 

 fees. Other sections of the pamphlet deal with the 

 expenses incident to an education in an American 

 medical school, social opportunities, and scholarships 

 and loan funds. Of the 85 medical colleges in the 

 country, about 60 are open to both sexes. 



NO. 2703, VOL. 107] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



August 19, 1662. Blaise Pascal died.— A religious 

 philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, the author 

 of the "Provincial Letters" and the "Pensees," 

 Pascal spent the earlier part of his life in scientific 

 studies. He made the first calculating machine, 

 measured heights by the barometer, and with Fermat 

 founded the theory of probabilities. 



August 19, 1822. Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre 

 died.^ — During the French Revolution Delambre with 

 Mechain made the geodetic measurements which 

 formed the base of the metric system. He succeeded 

 Lalande at the College de France, and distinguished 

 himself as one of the secretaries of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences. His great " History of Astronomy " was 

 published during 1817-21. 



August 19, 1856. Charles Frederic Gerhardt died.— 

 An Alsatian by birth, Gerhardt became an assistant 

 to Liebig, held a chair at Montpellier, and during the 

 years 1848-55 resided in Paris, where he published 

 his "Traits de Chimie organique," which contains his 

 important views on the structure and constitution of 

 chemical compounds. He died at Strasbourg, where 

 a monument is to be erected to him. 



August 19, 1896. Josiah Dwight Whitney died.— 

 Graduating at Yale in 1839, Whitney rose to a fore- 

 most position among American geologists. In 1865 he 

 became professor of geology at Harvard. 



August 23, 1782. Henri Louis Duhamei du 

 Monceau died. — A botanist, physicist, and technologist, 

 Duhamei du Monceau had an unrivalled knowledge 

 of timber, and as Inspector-General of the French 

 Navy contributed to the advancement of naval archi- 

 tecture. 



August 23, 1806. Charles Auguste de Coulomb 

 died. — \ French military engineer. Coulomb made 

 important researches on friction, invented the torsion 

 balance, and discovered the laws of the attraction and 

 repulsion of electrified bodies. He was an original 

 member of the French Institute, and was employed 

 by Napoleon as an Inspector of Public Instruction. 



August 23, 1835. Leopoldo Nobili died. — Nobili, who 

 was professor of physics in the Archducal Museum at 

 Florence, is remembered for the introduction of the 

 astatic galvanometer and the thermo-electric pile. 



August 24, 1664. Maria Cunitz died.— A native of 

 Germany, during the Thirty Years' War Maria Cunitz 

 removed to Poland, where, with the assistance of her 

 husbgnd, she compiled her astronomical tables, 

 " Urania propitia . . ." From her universal accom- 

 plishments she was called the " Silesian Pallas." 



August 24, 1832. Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot died. 



August 24, 1888. Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius 

 died. — Both famous physicists, Carnot and Clausius 

 are among the founders of thermodynamics. The son 

 of the " Organiser of Victory," Carnot was born in the 

 Luxembourg in 1796, passed through the Ecole Poly- 

 technique, and served in the Army. His essay of 

 1824, " Reflexions sur la Puissance motrice du Feu," 

 called by Kelvin an "epoch-making gift to science," 

 for many years remained unnoticed. Clausius_ was 

 born in 1822, and as a Privatdozent at Berlin in 

 1850 re-stated Carnot's principle, enunciated the 

 second law, and afterwards developed his conception 

 of entropy. His "Die mechanisch Warmetheorie " 

 appeared in 1867. While Carnot's work was the out- 

 come of his study of the steam engine, that of 

 Clausius led to the' application of scientific principles 

 to its improvement. The kinetic theory of gases also 

 owes much to the labours of Clausius, who for some 

 vears was professor of natural philosophy at Bonn, 

 where Hertz was his successor. E. C. S. 



