December 9, 1915] 



NATURE 



409 



of no small impcmtance at the present crisis. Switzer- 

 land, one and indivisible, her children diverse in 

 speech and modes of thought, only the more efficient 

 tor that diversity, were mirrored in that patriotic 

 confraternity of science, inaugurated by a citizen of 

 Romance Geneva and one of Allemannic Berne. 

 Among the names, too, of the great Swiss naturalists, 

 French and German as they sound, Swiss as they 

 are — .Xgassiz, de Candolle, Vogt, Forel, Escher, 

 Merian, Studer — whom President Motta cited as 

 written in golden letters in the great book of Euro- 

 pean science, he placed one more, that of Luigi Laviz- 

 zari, not only as worthy of as high a place, but more 

 especially for having devoted his life to the descrip- 

 tion of the natural beauties of that corner of earth 

 which the president called "his own," which unites 

 on a small surface, eternal snow and plains rich in 

 corn, sombre pines and sweet olive-trees, the severe 

 shadows of the north, and the brilliant lights of 

 southern landscapes. 



"How," the president exclaimed, "can one be 

 Swiss without loving Nature? It is the sense of the 

 infinite and the insatiable thirst for perfection and 

 for truth which confer on man, with his royal little- 

 ness — the idea is Pascal's — his true greatness. How 

 can one love Nature without loving Science, whose 

 aim is disinterested research, and whose condition of 

 e.xistence is intellectual liberty? And how can we 

 love Nature and Science without being attached to 

 the soil of our country with all .the fibres of our 

 heart ? 



"Certainly the country is not only the soil on which 

 tiie people dwell ; it is more than that ; it is composed 

 of the patrimony of the past and the aspirations of 

 the future ; it is formed by the holiness of customs 

 and the spirit of institutions ; it is the physical and 

 moral tradition which binds the dead to the living 

 and the living to those that shall be born ; but the 

 soil remains an essential part of the country. And 

 when this soil itself represents a little world, when 

 it offers to its children the most touching and the 

 most picturesque sights, grace and sublimity side by 

 side, oh ! then the soil is sacred. It becomes the 

 source of the sanest thoughts and the purest emotions. 

 It explains in some sort our history and why Switzer- 

 land cannot be other than a democracy, that is to 

 say, a popular government aspiring always to more 

 liberty, more justice, and more fraternity; to defend 

 it, to defend this soil, each of us in the hour of 

 danger would be ready, if need were, to sacrifice his 

 blood and his life. 



"No," he continued, "none of us will ever admit 

 in our midst the struggles and the competition of 

 races. The present hour, which has given birth in 

 all the belligerent countries to proofs of self-sacrifice 

 and devotion, arousing oh our part cries of admira- 

 tion and of pity, brings out that which is murky, 

 sad, and almost inhuman in these struggles and 

 antagonisms. 



"Switzerland will remain for ever a fraternal 

 republic. No one has ever demanded that the differ- 

 ences of race, language, and education should dis- 

 appear. The ideal of a State like ours is not uni- 

 formity; we know that our State would lose a 

 capital part of its force and its value if it ceased to 

 exhibit that variety of tendencies, languages, and 

 methods of education ; but varietv means emulation 

 and not contrast. ... To set the Latins against the 

 Germans, as irreconcilable enemies, would be not 

 only a bad deed, contrary to the moral and political 

 constitution of the country, but also an attack on 

 Christianity and civilisation." 



•In concluding, the president referred in moving 

 words to the work of the Red Cross, and to its 



founder, the Swiss Henri Dunant. "What more 

 appropriate wish," he cried, "can I formulate for the 

 Swiss Natural History Society than that it should, 

 in /the second century of its existence, become the Red 

 Cross of Science, to bind up and to heal the most 

 distressing of ulcers and the most mortal of wounds, 

 those which torment souls and part spirits?" 



In spite of the war, which in Switzerland, as else- 

 where, has affected scientific productivity, a valuable 

 series of communications was presented to the society. 

 The programme was as follows : — 



(i) Mathematics. — L. G. Du Pasquier, On systems 

 of complex numbers ; G. Polya, Is a series of powers 

 in general capable of analytic continuation?; M. Plan- 

 cherel, On the convergence of a remarkable class of 

 definite integrals, involving an arbitrary function ; 

 W. H. Young, On integration with respect to a 

 function of bounded variation ; G. Chisholm Young, 

 On curves without tangents ; D. Mirimanoff, On the 

 tile theorem ; L. Crelier, On a theorem in kinematic 

 geometry; R. de Saussure, The geometry oi feuillets 

 c6Us ; G. Cailler, Analytical discussion of the same. 

 (A feuillet c6t6 is a geometrical form consisting of a 

 point, a straight line through it, and a plane through 

 that, all being weighted, or "c6td," with an addi- 

 tional number. The theory has much analogy with 

 the theory of screws, but has two more degrees of 

 freedom.) H. Berliner, A new analytic geometry ; 

 Gonseth, Two generalisations of a theorem of 

 Poncelet. 



(2) Physics. — L. de la Rive, On the movement of 

 the ether relative to the earth ; A. Hagenbach and 

 W. Rickenbacher, Comparison of the thickness of 

 soap films when measured optically and electrically ; 

 E. Guillaume, On Maxwell's law of repartition; 

 C. E. Guye and C. Levanchy, Experimental verifica- 

 tion of the formula of Lorentz-Einstein for cathodic 

 rays of high velocity ; A. Schidlof , Recent researches 

 into the charge of the electron and Avogadro's 

 number ; A. Tcherniawsky and Z. Popoff, The flow 

 of mercury along tinned wires ; S. Ratnowsky, The 

 constants of entropy for gases and the theory of 

 rigid bodies ; A. Piccard and A. Cherbuliez, A new 

 method of studying paramagnetic salts in very dilute 

 solution; J. de Kowalski, On the radiation of an 

 oscillating electric spark ; A. Gockel, On rays which 

 pierce through the atmosphere ; J. Andrade, An exact 

 balance for the measurement of horizontal force. 



(3) Geology and Geophysics. — A. Brun, The action 

 of steam on eruptive rocks at a high temperature; 

 L. Rollier, On the Mesozoic palaeography of Switzer- 

 land; M. Lugeon, Some new facts in the geology of 

 the Dent de Morcles ; R. Billwiller, The chief types 

 of great deposits in Switzerland; A. de Quervain, 

 Report of the Commission of glaciers in Zurich (1915), 

 and the work done in the seismological department 

 of the Swiss Meteorological Institute ; J. Maurer, On 

 the repetition of the sun-spot periods in the observa- 

 tions of the Northern Lights made in Switzerland 

 since 1540; A. Heim, On the relation of variations 

 of gravity to the geological structure of Switzerland ; 

 P. Girardin, The changes of the limit of perpetual 

 snow in Savoy and the Alps in historic times ; L. 

 Collet, The subterranean outlet of the Seewlisee 

 (Uri) ; A. Buxtorf, The geology of the Grenchenberg 

 Tunnel ; B. G. Escher, Stones with furrows and rills. 



(4) Chemistry. — E. Noejting and F. Steimle, The 

 preparation of compounds with closed chains ; E. 

 Noelting and E. Kempf, On the properties of tri- 

 anisylcarbinol for dyeing; L Reutter, A contribu- 

 tion to the chemistry of the physiological powder of 

 juniper; A. Werner, On compounds containing at the 

 same time asymmetric carbon atoms and an asym- 

 metric cobalt atom; F. Fichter, Electrochemical re- 



NO. 2406, VOL. 96] 



