220 



NATURE 



[October 14, 1920 



Kiiig from designs by the Persian astronomer Gemal- 

 ed-din, and they are of considerable interest, being 

 the earliest known equatorials. It is curious that 

 Marco Polo never mentioned them, though he was at 

 Peking when they were erected; but excellent pictures 

 of them are given in Yule's " Book of Ser Marco 

 Polo," third edition, vol. i., pp. 448 iqg. 



The Morning Post of October 7 contains the 

 interesting announcement that next Saturday, 

 October 16, a memorial tablet to Descartes is to be 

 unveiled at Amsterdam. The tablet has been placed 

 on No. 6 Westermarkt, the house where Descartes 

 resided during the summer of 1634. Prior to the 

 unveiling there will be a gathering at the University, 

 at which M. Ren6 Doumie, director of the Revue des 

 Deux Mondes, and Prof. Cohen, formerly of Amster- 

 dam University, will speak. Descartes, who was 

 born in 1596, came of a well-to-do family of Touraine, 

 and was always in easy circumstances. Educated by 

 the Jesuits, then the rising schoolmasters of Europe, 

 he afterwards continued his mathematical studies with 

 Mersenne and Mydorge. .^t the age of twenty he 

 adopted the military profession, and saw active service 

 with the Bavarian Army during the early part of the 

 Thirty Years' War. The first ideas of his philosophy 

 and of his analytical geometry are said to have come 

 to him in three dreams on the night of November 10, 

 1619, when bivouacked at Neuberg, on the Danube. 

 Descartes resigned his commission in the spring of 

 1621, spent the next few years in study and travel, 

 and in 1629 settled in Holland, where he found the 

 freedom from distraction necessary to the production 

 of his great works. Twenty years later he accepted 

 the invitation of Queen Christina to take up his resi- 

 dence in Sweden. The Queen wished to found an 

 academy with Descartes at its head, but all her 

 designs were frustrated by his death at Stockholm on 

 February 11, 1650. Buried first in Sweden, his 

 remains were afterwards taken to Paris, where after 

 several removals they now rest in the church of St. 

 Germain-des-Pr^s . 



Representations have on several occasions been 

 made to the Government of the Union of South 

 Africa, in particular by the council of the Royal 

 .\nthropological Institute, that it was urgently neces- 

 sary that the study of the native population should be 

 officially recognised and placed upon a properly con- 

 stituted basis. The Government has, consequently, 

 been much impressed by the great and urgent need 

 for the scientific investigation of the ethnology, 

 history and languages, customs, and religious beliefs 

 of the Bantu race, and has now agreed to render sub- 

 stantial aid in the establishment of a school of Bantu 

 life and language. Several university centres in the 

 Union have from time to time asked for assistance to 

 establish chairs in these subjects, but, acting on the 

 recommendation of a Departmental Committee, the 

 Government has decided that, for the present at any 

 rate, it is desirable to concentrate such work. .\ 

 school will, therefore, be established in connection 

 with the University of Cape Town. A representative 

 Committee, which includes the Secretary for Native 

 Affairs, is now sitting to discuss the general scheme. 

 NO. 2659, VOL. 106] 



It is anticipated that professors of Bantu ethnology 

 and Bantu language will be appointed as a nucleus of 

 the school at an early date. 



Sir Frank W. Dyson, Astronomer Royal, has been 

 elected an honorary member of the .\merican .Astro- 

 nomical Society. Prof. Kdpteyn, of Groningen, is the 

 only other living honorary member Of this society. 



Unusually warm and fine weather prevailed over 

 England during the five days from October 5 to 9. 

 On each day the sheltered thermometer at Greenwich 

 was 70° or above, and the highest reading was 73° 

 on October 5. On two of the nights the minimum 

 temperature was 57°, and on two other nights 56°. 

 The mean maximum temperature for the five days 

 was 71° and the mean minimum 55°, both of which 

 were 10° above the normal. There have been slightly 

 warmer days at Greenwich very occasionally in the 

 early part of October, the highest temperatures re- 

 corded since 1841 being 81° on October 4, 1859, and 

 79° on October 4, 1886. During the last eighty years 

 there have been only twenty-two Octobers with a tem- 

 perature so high as 70°, and only two previous 

 Octobers, 1859 and 1869, with five consecutive days 

 of 70° or above. In recent years the warmest weather 

 in October occurred in 1908, when the thermometer 

 exceeded 75° on each of the first four days, but the 

 nights were much cooler than this year. Prior to the 

 present year the thermometer at Greenwich has only 

 once touched 70° in October during the previous nine 

 years. 



On Thursday, October 7, at University College, 

 London, Sir W. H. Bragg delivered a public intro- 

 ductory lecture on the history of science. A course 

 of lectures on the general history and development of 

 science was first introduced into the college curriculum 

 last session. The course was specially required for 

 students training for the new diploma in journalism 

 instituted by the University of London. It was felt, 

 however, that facilities for the study of the subject 

 might be welcomed by a much wider circle, con- 

 sidering the important part played by scientific ideas 

 and methods in the advancement of civilisation. 

 Moreover, since the subject is obviously vast, it 

 was deemed desirable to provide, so far as possible, 

 courses on the history of special sciences in addi- 

 tion to the course on the general history of science. 

 Accordingly, the number of lectures and lecturers for 

 the new session has been increased considerably. 

 A general introductory course will be given by Dr. .\. 

 Wolf; a course on the biological and medical sciences 

 by Dr. C. Singer (first and second terms), and by 

 Prof. W. M. Bayliss and Prof. J. P. Hill (third term); 

 a course on Egyptian science by Prof. Flinders Petrie ; 

 a course on the history of astronomy by Prof. L. N. G. 

 Filon ; Mr. L. T. Wren w-ill lecture on the history 

 of mathematics (second term) ; and during the third 

 term Sir W. H. Bragg, Prof. Garwood, Mr. Orson 

 Wood, and others will deal with the more important 

 developments of ohvsical science during the nineteenth 

 century. It is hoped that in due course there will be 

 established at the college a flourishing school in the 

 history of science in which teaching and research will 

 both receive due attention. 



