March 2, 1922] 



NA TURE 



279 



botanical, zoological, or anthropological science — 

 were engaged in teaching and research. The medical 

 faculty will always be associated with the names of 

 Dietl, Teichmann, Cybulski, Browicz, Jordan, Pieniazek, 

 Korczvnski, Jaworski, Mikulicz, Rvdygier, Wicher- 

 kiewicz, and others. 



The Jagellonian University always consisted, and 

 now consists, of four faculties. The faculty of theology 

 has nine professors ; the faculty of jurisprudence has 

 sixteen professors and four lecturers ; while the faculty 

 )t medicine includes twenty-six professorial chairs 

 and thirteen lectureships. The philosophical faculty 



embraces literature and philology, history and philo- 

 sophy, mathematical, physical, and natural science ; 

 in connection with this faculty there is a college of 

 agriculture, a department of pharmaey, and a teachers' 

 training school. No less than sixty-eight professors 

 and twenty-two lecturers are engaged in the work of 

 this faculty. The total number of matriculated 

 students during the session 1921-22 is 4631. 



Space will permit only of a reference to the library 

 of the university (Biblioteka Jagiellonska), renowned 

 for the precious MSS. it contains. 



L. N. 



Current Topics and Events. 



the 



i 



The national manifestation of rejoicing on the 

 occasion of the marriage of H.R.H. Princess Mary to 

 X'iscount Lascelles on Tuesday, February 28, is a 

 sign of the secure place which the Royal Family 

 occupies in the hearts of the British people and also, 

 we hope and believe, a token of national unity. In 

 common with all classes of the community, workers 

 in scientific fields marked the occasion, with affec- 

 tionate interest and shared with much satisfaction in 

 the chorus of good wishes by which the nation ex- 

 pressed itself in perfect harmony with a happy event. 



The following fifteen candidates have been selected 

 by the Council of the Royal Society to be recom- 

 mended for election into the Society: — Prof. T. H. 

 Bryce, Mr. C. G. Darwin, Dr. C. G. Douglas, Dr. S. R. 

 Douglas, Prof. A. J. Ewart, Dr. A. Hutchinson, 

 Dr. F. W. Lanchester, Mr. J. Mercer, Prof. S. R. 

 Milner, Prof. M. S. Pembrey, Prof. F. Lee Pyman, 

 Prof. G. A. Schott, Dr. N. V. Sidgwick, Mr. D. M. S. 

 Watson, Sir Alfred Yarrow, Bart. 



The Report of the Aeronautical Research Com- 

 mittee on the causes which led to the loss of the 

 airship R. 38 was issued by the Air Ministry on 

 February 23. The Committee has come to a number 

 of clear findings and has summarised them at the end 

 of its report ; it has concluded, from an examination 

 of the evidence available, that the airship broke in 

 two as a result of defects in design, but that the 

 loss of life was to be attributed largely to a subse- 

 quent fire. It appears that the only calculations 

 niade by the designers were of the type used in general 

 engineering and had little special reference to airships. 

 In addition, no account was taken of the aerodynamic 

 forces wliich an airship might reasonably experience in 

 normal usage. Information as to the importance of 

 the air forces is said to have existed from experiments 

 n models of airships in the wind tunnels, but the 

 rning was not acted upon even to the extent of 

 'erring the problem to the Aeronautical Research 

 mmittee. Shortly expressed, the result of the enquiry 

 ows the marked deficiency of rule-of-thumb as 

 compared with scientific methods as an instrument of 

 progress. The accounts of the accident in America to 

 the semi-rigid airship, Roma, further point the moral. 

 The obvious fundamental fact in engineering design is 

 that the details of a structure should depend on the 

 forces it has to withstand. In an airship the bending 

 arises in part from the distributed weights and in 



NO. 2731, VOL. 109] 



part on aerodynamic loading, the former being 

 independent of the speed of flight and the latter to 

 its square. Hence an airship moving at 30 knots' 

 may have the stresses due to weight and buoyancy 

 twice those due to aerodynamic causes, whilst at a 

 speed of 60 knots the proportions are exactly reversed. 

 The accident to R. 38 appears to have occurred when 

 the air loading was at least five times that provided 

 for by the designers on the basis of weight alone. 

 There is great difficulty in introducing improvements 

 into aircraft with the present official organisation, 

 and it is to be hoped that the report will receive due 

 consideration from the point of view that it is desirable 

 to provide for scientific progress rather than for a 

 process of trial and error on a large scale and at 

 great expense in life and money. 



The third and final Report of the Committee on 

 National Expenditure (Cmd. 1589, price 4s.), issued 

 on February 24, deals, among other services, with 

 the British Museum, National Gallery, National 

 Portrait Gallery, Wallace Collection, London Museum, 

 Imperial War Museum, Geological Museum, and 

 National Galleries (Scotland). The Estimates for 

 1921-22 and the Provisional Estimates for 1922-23 are 

 respectively £5o6,'jyi and ;^405,864. Over 80 per cent, 

 of the Estimate is in respect of the cost of personnel. 

 The Committee thinks that further economies might be 

 produced by a close investigation into the size of the 

 warding staff, especially in the case of the British 

 Museum and the Natural History Museum. It recom- 

 mends that there should be four paying days a week 

 for all National Museums and Art Galleries without 

 distinction. The Committee is of opinion that the net 

 sum of ;^405,864, which is asked for in the Provisional 

 Estimates for 1922-23, should be reduced to ^392, 264, 

 a saving of ;^i3,6oo. With regard to the 'grants for 

 scientific investigation, amounting in all to ;^200,423, 

 it is recommended that the grant to the Medical 

 Research Council — ;^i 30,000 — should be as proposed 

 by the Treasury. As regards the smaller grants, the 

 Committee says : " We are averse from an arbitrary 

 and uniform reduction on a percentage basis on the 

 ground that the saving to the Exchequer would be 

 small compared with the detriment which would be 

 caused to the activities of the learned and scientific 

 world and the discouragement which would be given 

 to private subscriptions and donations if the Ex- 

 chequer grants were reduced. We therefore recom- 



