February io, 192 i] 



NATURE 



777 



hands of the University an additional benefaction of 

 as much as 200,000!., hoping to enable the buildings 

 and design to be fully carried out. It is reassuring 

 to note that these two public-spirited citizens are not 

 allowing their munificent gift of 1913 to fail of fulfil- 

 ment even in the difficult circumstances of the present 

 time. 



The universities in Australia are apparently suffer- 

 ing, like our own institutions, from an inability to 

 make their incomes meet their expenditures under 

 post-war conditions. \t Sydney the University 

 authorities have decided to raise the fees in all the 

 various schools, in some cases by as much as 50 per 

 cent., in order to meet the increased cost of materials. 

 Melbourne University has issued an appeal for 

 ioo,oool., towards which it has obtained only the 

 sum of 30,000/., subscribed in small amounts; it 

 hopes to raise a further sum of 2o,oooJ. in a similar 

 way, but no large gifts have yet been made. Sir 

 W. H. Irvine, Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, dis- 

 cussed the situation at Melbourne on January 31, 

 according to a Times correspondent, and suggested 

 that wealthy Victorians might well follow the example 

 set by Sir ). Langdon Bonython in South .Australia, 

 who has presented the sum of 40,000/. to .Adelaide 

 University. 



We learn from an article in the Times Educational 

 Supplement that the V ice-Chancellor of the University 

 of .Madras, Mr. K. Srinivasa Iyengar, who is now 



member of the Madras Executive Council, laid 

 .leat stress on the neglect of science and technology 

 in India in his recent convocation address. Tlie 

 careers of 18,500 graduates of the University had 

 been traced, and of this number about 3700 were 

 engaged in teaching, 765 had taken up medicine, while 

 only 56 had devoted themselves to science ; the 

 remaining 14,000 were divided between law and 

 Government administrative service, with a big 

 majority for the former. The V ice-Chancellor con- 

 cluded his account of tlie statistics he had accumulated 

 with the words : " You will search in vain for any 

 solid contribution to the sum of human knowledge 

 among the magnificent number." These facts have 

 been appreciated bv many leaders of Indian thought, 

 and several of the more wealthy men have en- 

 deavoured by their munificence and influence to 

 create a stronger feeling for science. The Indian 

 Institute of Science at Bangalore owes its existence 

 to the late Jamsetji Tata, and some eight years ago 

 the late .Sir Taraknalh Pallt made over money and 

 land of the aggregate value of 15 lakhs of rupees 

 (100,000/.) to the University of Calcutta for the pro- 

 motion of scientific and technical education in Bengal. 

 University chairs of chemistry and physics which can 

 be filled onlv by persons of Indian birth were created 

 from this fund. In 1913 Sir Rash Beliarv Ghose 

 gave 10 lakhs of rupees (66,(>66/.) to the I'nivcrslty 

 for the establishment of chairs of applied mathe- 

 matics, physics, chemistry, and botany, all in relation 

 t(i agriculture; these again ran be held only by 

 Iii'lians. \ year or so ago this gift was supplemented 

 a further sum of 11 lakhs of rupees (73,332/.), 

 „;ven bv Sir Rash Ghose for the propose<l techno- 

 logical Sranch of the College of .Science. This gift 

 enabled the I'niversity to send .Sir Prnfulla Chandra 

 Rdy, the dean of the faculty of science, on a three 

 months' lour of the univertities of Great Britain. 

 Sir P. C. R.ly is a distinguished chemist who has 

 heen closely associated with numerous industrial ron- 

 tns in Bencal, and he has been appointe<l to super- 



'• the equipment of the technological department, 

 liile four young research workers are being trained 



London imder the terms of Sir Rash Ghose 's gift. 



NO. 2676, VOL. T06] 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



February 10, 1868. Sir David Brewster died. — -A 



founder of the British .Association and the biographer 

 of Newton, Brewster made important discoveries in 

 optics, for which he was awarded the Rumford, Royal, 

 and Copley medals of the Royal Society. 



February 10, 1878. Claude Bernard died.— .A great 

 physiologist, Bernard for many years held the chair 

 of exf>eriniental physiology at the College de France. 



February 10, 1891. Sonia Kovalevsky died.— One of 

 the best known of women mathematicians, Sonia or 

 Sophie Kovalevsky studied under Weierstrass, and 

 after her husband's death in 1883 became professor of 

 higher mathematics at Stockholm. 



February 11, 1650. Ren^ Descartes died.— Born in 

 1596, and educated by the Jesuits, Descartes served for 

 a while in the Army, and in 1629 settled in Holland, 

 where his principal works were written. He has been 

 called "the father of modern philosophy." He made 

 manv improvements in mathematics, and is regarded 

 as the founder of analytical geometty. His theory 

 of vortices, devised to explain the motion of the 

 heavenly bodies, held the field until it was superseded 

 by the Newtonian philosophy. He died at Stockholm, 

 but his remains now rest in Paris. On the pedestal 

 of his statue at Tours is inscribed, " Je pens, done je 

 suis." 



February 11, 1868. Jean Bernard Leon Foucautt 

 died.--lo l-'oucault we owe the demonstration, by 

 means of the pendulum and the gyroscof)e, of the 

 rotation of the earth. In 1850 he showed that light 

 travelled more slowly through water than through 

 air. He was physicist to the Paris Observatory. 



February 12, 1787. Rugglero Giuseppe Boscovlch 

 died. — The Society of Jesus has produced many 

 notable workers in science, but none with a wider 

 reputation than Boscovich. He was a mathematician, 

 physicist, and astronomer, and is remembered for the 

 famous theory of matter which he propounded. For 

 some years he resided in Paris. His last days were 

 passed in neglect and misery, and he died insane at 

 Milan. 



February 12, 1709. Lazaro SpallanzanI died.- Hold- 

 ing various chairs at Mo<lena and Padua, Spallanzani 

 was interested in all branches of science, but^ his 

 main discoveries related to physiology. He especially 

 studied digestion and fertilisation. 



February 13, 1839. Edward Turner died.- The first 

 profesMir of chemistrv in the I'niversity of London, 

 Turner made many accurate determinations of atomic 

 weights. 



February 13, 1909. Hans Peter Jurgen Juliua 

 Thomsen died. Ati ((luratituiist, administrator, and 

 technologist, Thomsen held the chair of chemistry at 

 Copenhagen. He made long and important investiga. 

 tions in thermo-chemistrv, comparable with those of 

 Berthclot, 



February 14, 1744. John Hadley died.- A mathe- 

 m.iti( i.iii .ind scientific me« li.uiist. Ihulley produced 

 the first M-rviceable reflecting telescope and invented 

 the reflecting quadrant. 



February 15, 1680. Jan Swammerdam died.— While 

 practising as .1 (!<« tor ;it .\nf.ter(l.iiii .iivl Ley<len, 

 Swammerdam became one of the earliest and most 

 successful entomologists. He especially studied the 

 analomv of the bee. 



February 15, 1736. Steahen Gray died.— The first 

 recipient of the Copley prize of the Royal Society, 

 Gray was a [x-n-iioner in the Charterhouse, London, 

 where he made many successful electrical experi- 

 ments. E. C. S. 



