486 



NA TURE 



[April 15, 1922 



Current Topics and Events. 



The centenary of the birth of Pasteur occurs this 

 year, and the University and town of Strassburg, 

 the scene of so much of Pasteur's early work, propose 

 to celebrate the event by organising an exhibition 

 of hygiene and bacteriology from May to October 

 1923, and by setting up a statue of Pasteur before 

 the University. The exhibition will be designed to 

 illustrate the advances in science made as a result 

 of Pasteur's discoveries, and a congress for the dis- 

 cussion of questions relating to the prevention of 

 disease will also take place. In this country a 

 committee, consisting of Sir Charles Sherrington 

 (chairman), Mr. A. Chaston Chapman (treasurer), Mr. 

 H. E. Field, Prof. P. F. Franklin, Sir John M'Fadyean, 

 Prof. C. J. Martin, Sir W. J. Pope, Sir James Walker, 

 and Sir Almroth Wright, has been formed to forward 

 the project and an appeal for support has been 

 issued. Contributions to the memorial fund, which 

 will be closed at the end of June, should be sent 

 to Mr. Chaston Chapman, The Institute of Chemistry, 

 30 Russell Square, W.C.i, or to the general secretary 

 and treasurer of the fund, M. T. Hering, 6 rue des 

 Veaux. Strassburg. Prof. Borrel, 3 rue Koeberle, 

 Strassburg, is in charge of the arrangements for the 

 exhibition and would be glad to hear from British 

 firms who are interested. The Academic de Medecine 

 has decided to celebrate the centenary on December 

 26 next, but representatives of the academy will be 

 present at the celebrations to be held at the Institut 

 Pasteur on December 27 next and at Strassburg on 

 June I of next year. 



The centenary of the birth of Gregor Mendel is to 

 be celebrated in Briinn (Czecho-Slovakia) on Sep- 

 tember 22-24 of ■this year, and subsequently, on 

 September 25-27, a congress of geneticists is to be 

 held in Vienna. The circular of invitation recalls 

 the erection of a statue to Mendel there in 1910. 

 Since that date the significance of his discovery and 

 the ^extraordinary importance of his work in its 

 bearing on the fundamental conceptions of biology 

 and the practice of breeding have been so widely 

 recognised that international support on the present 

 occasion is confidently invited. Those who are 

 disposed to take part are asked to communicate 

 with Dr. H. litis, Backergasse 10, Briinn. 



W^E have received from the authorities a prelimin- 

 ary circular announcing the celebration this spring 

 of the seventh centenary of the University of Padua, 

 one of the oldest and most famous of the Italian 

 universities, immortalised by Galileo and his succes- 

 sors. In connection with the celebrations a very 

 interesting historical account of the University is 

 published in the February number of L'Emporium, 

 the leading art journal of Italy, showing the bearing 

 of the University upon education in the Italy of past 

 centuries, and the vicissitudes through which the 

 institution passed down the ages. In spite of its 

 associations with the great names of the past, Padua 



NO. 2737, VOL. 109] 



is a very modern university in so far as concerns 

 present-day needs, ample proof of this being the large 

 and well-equipped school of electrotechnics. 



Since the School of Hygiene and Public Health 

 of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, was opened 

 in 1918, the Rockefeller Foundation has furnished 

 funds for its maintenance from year to year. Now 

 the Foundation has presented a sum of 1,200,000/., 

 and the trustees of the University are to assume 

 full responsibility for the future needs of the School. 

 In this new type of institution emphasis is laid upon 

 the development of preventive medicine andi» the 

 training of health officers. Instruction is provided 

 in bacteriology and immunology, sanitary engineering, 

 chemical and physiological hygiene, medical zoology, 

 epidemiology, vital statistics and public health ad- 

 ministration, and the regular courses of study lead to 

 the degrees of doctor of public health and doctor and 

 bachelor of science in hygiene. The present gift, in 

 addition to providing endowment, will make possible 

 the erection of the new building for the School on 

 a site adjacent to the Johns Hopkins Medical School 

 and Hospital. 



Prof. A. Wolf, of the University of London, 

 delivered a lecture on the Humanism of Spinoza 

 at a special session of the Spinoza Society held at 

 the Hague on Tuesday, March 28. The Spinoza 

 Society (" Societas Spinozana ") is the offspring of 

 an older society founded more than forty years ago 

 when the Spinoza monument was erected in the 

 Hague as an international tribute to the great 

 philosopher. Among the leading spirits of both 

 societies are Sir Frederick Pollock, of London, Prof. 

 L. Brunschvieg, of Paris, Prof. H. Hoeffding, of 

 Copenhagen, Dr. C. Gebhardt, of Frankfurt, Dr. W. 

 Meyer and Mr. H. G. van der Tak, of the Hague. 

 The Spinoza Society has now in the press the first 

 number of an Annual to be called " Chronicon 

 Spinozanum," to which all the above-mentioned 

 Spinoza scholars and others have contributed im- 

 portant essays. The promoters of the new society 

 and its annual are prompted by the feeling that a 

 wider knowledge of the philosophy and personality 

 of Spinoza may be of special help in these difficult 

 times, and they hope that the society may become 

 a rallying point for those thinkers who still share 

 Spinoza's faith in the ultimate unity and rationality 

 of mankind. 



In appointing an advisory Committee in Seis- 

 mology, the Carnegie Institution of Washington has 

 taken an important step in the promotion of the study 

 of earthquakes in the United States. The preliminary 

 report of the committee recognises that, as compared 

 with England, Germany or Japan, the country has 

 not yet taken a sufficiently active part in seismological 

 research. At the same time, in the State of California, 

 it possesses almost unexampled opportunities for the 

 study of crustal movements, while several public 



