278 



NA TURE 



[March 2, 1922 



amount of data ; other genes are less accurately 

 placed. Still others, not so well determined, have 

 been omitted from this diagram. 



The localisation of the genes has been calculated 

 from numerical data independently of any assumption 

 as to how crossing-over takes place in the animal. 

 Perhaps it might be safer to let the matter rest on the 

 genetic evidence alone in the present uncertain frame 



of mind of most cytologists concerning the conjugation 

 of the chromosomes at maturation ; but there are at 

 least certain facts admitted by a number of cytologists 

 concerning the maturation of eggs and sperm that 

 seem to fall into line with the simple mechanism that 

 the genetic evidence for crossing-over calls for. This 

 evidence may next be considered. 



{To he continued}) 



Science in Poland. 



DURING the past seven years Poland has suffered 

 all the miseries of war. Amid the desolation in 

 which the country was plunged, the votaries of science 

 did their best, until 191 9, to uphold the interests of 

 study and education against inimical and contending 

 Governments ; since the Polish State was resuscitated 

 they have been engaged in laying the foundation of 

 the work of the future. In 1914 only two Polish 

 universities (Cracow, Lwow) were in existence ; in 

 1922 five large State-endowed universities are actively 



Fig. I. — Interior Court of the Library of the Jagellonian University, 

 Cracow, with the statue of Copernicus. 



at work ; the University of Warsaw was started in 

 1915, those of Poznan and Wilno in 1919. Centres 

 of technical teaching and research are springing up ; 

 in Warsaw and Lwow important colleges of mechanical 

 and electrical engineering, of applied chemistry, of 

 architecture, etc., are well attended, and in 1919 a 

 High School of Mines was established in Cracow. 

 These institutions are sufficiently equipped with 

 appliances required for practical teaching. 



Agricultural science also receives a good deal of 



attention ; in addition to faculties or other schools 



of university rank existing in Cracow, Warsaw, Lwow, 



and Poznan, a National Institute of Agricultural 



NO. 2731, VOL. 109] 



Research was founded in Pulawy in 1917. This 

 institute is under the direction of Profs. Godlewski 

 and Marchlewski, and shows a remarkable completeness 

 of arrangement. For the study of the mineral re- 

 sources of Poland, a National Geological Institute was 

 created in 1920 in Warsaw, under Prof. Morozewicz ; 

 a branch institution in Cracow, under Dr. Nowak, has 

 for its object the investigation of oil-bearing regions. 

 An Epidemiological Institute, a Central Meteorological 

 Ofhce, and a Natural History Museum have been 

 constituted ; but within the brief compass of an article 

 it is impossible to do more than refer simply to the 

 fact of their inauguration. 



At the head of Polish educational institutions stands 

 the Jagellonian University of Cracow, founded by 

 Casimir the Great, King of Poland, in 1364. In 1400 

 the university was restored and enlarged by King 

 Ladislas Jagello, who thus complied with the last wish 

 of his universally honoured and beloved wife. Queen 

 Jadwiga. At the end of the fifteenth century the 

 university was at the height of its influence and fame ; 

 there was probably no contemporary school in Europe 

 where mathematics and astronomy were prosecuted 

 with more zeal and success. An undergraduate 

 matriculated in the university in 1491 who was to 

 transmit his name to the remotest posterity. At 

 that time Wojciech Brudzewski (Albertus de Brudzewo) 

 had attained a wide and established reputation as an 

 astronomer, and it was probably by him that young 

 Copernicus was taught to employ his genius. 



In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the 

 university suffered much from the insecurity *of the 

 times, and for many years was on the decline. A 

 new epoch began about 1870 ; an impulse was given 

 to study, and research, although hampered by financial 

 embarrassments, had greater importance assigned to 

 it than at any previous period. Among the mathe- 

 maticians of that period are Jlertens, Baraniecki, and 

 Zrawski ; Rudzki did creditable work in geophysics, 

 especially seismology ; Zygmunt Wroblewski and Karol 

 Olszewski, by their activity in the domain of low 

 temperature research, achieved success that shed 

 lustre on the Cracow laboratories ; Witkowski, by 

 the pains he took to ensure accuracy, paved the way 

 for much subsequent thermodynamical investigation ; 

 Smoluchowski (whose untimely death, in 191 7, was a 

 matter of universal regret) accomplished brilliant work, 

 largely influencing progress towards a kinetic theory 

 of matter. Within the precincts of the Jagellonian 

 University, Janczewski, E. Godlewski, Sen., Rostafinski, 

 Raciborski, Rothert, Kulczynski, Prazmowski, Wier- 

 zejski, Jentys, Adametz, Majer, Kopernicki, and Talke- 

 Hryncewicz — names well known to students of 



