March 7, 1901] 



NA TURE 



445 



Dr, Zschokke's memoir is full of most valuable informa- 

 tion and will be for long consulted by all interested in 

 the distribution of life in the Alps. 



Dr. Lorenz's monograph ' deals with a rather isolated 

 range of no great elevation, the culminating point, 

 the Flascherspitz, being only 1137 m. above sea-level, 

 but it is one of great interest, which has attracted the 

 attention of Swiss geologists for quite half a century 

 because of its palaeontology (the strata range from the 

 Inferior Oolite upwards) and its tectonic structure. On 

 the former ground it is chiefly remarkable, because here 

 the fauna of the " Dogger " changes from its western to 

 its eastern facies ; on the latter because its geological 

 structure is extremely complicated, and the . relation 

 which it bears to the neighbouring parts of the chain is^ 

 not easily determined. The range has a general trend 

 from north-west to south-east, the smaller part being in 

 the Principality of Liechtenstein and the rest in Canton 

 Graubunden. A study of the tectonic structure shows 

 the range to consist of Jurassic and Neocomian beds, its 

 south-eastern portion being formed of a much-broken 

 overfold pointing towards the north-west, followed in this 

 direction by a synclinal, which includes a minor overfold 

 and has its axial plane roughly parallel to the former 

 one. Dr. Lorenz connects these crust wrinklings with 

 the famous "Glarner doppel-falte," which, however, he 

 would prefer to call the " Glarner Bogen." The struc- 

 ture, in his opinion, is a result of the sinking (senkung) 

 of the Oberland massif. He gives a succession of sec- 

 tions along the line of curve to prove the relationship, 

 but we should substitute "upheaval" for ''sinking" in 

 explaining the structure. The crystalline core indicates 

 the region where the oldest rocks have been raised to the 

 greatest elevation, and have thus produced, by their re- 

 sistance to further movement, the wrinkling, overfolding 

 and overthrusting of the peripheral sedimentary masses. 

 He thinks also that there have been two sets of move- 

 ments, which indeed is corroborated by other regions of 

 the Alps. 



GEORGE FRANCIS FITZGERALD. 



'T'HOSE who knew the University of Dublin twenty 

 ■^ years ago will remember that the idol of the under- 

 graduates and the hope of the older men was George 

 Francis FitzGerald. He was of high intellectual lineage 

 on both sides : his father was the most distinguished 

 prelate in the Irish Protestant Church, and his uncles are 

 men of large and original scientific achievement. His 

 early education was conducted at home, in company with 

 his two brothers, one (now professor of engineering at 

 Belfast) a year older than himself, the other younger. 

 He was good at physical science and all subjects requiring 

 close observation, from his earliest years ; and the 

 ambition to become a master was soon aroused. The 

 mathematical and physical tendency seems to have come 

 mainly from his mother's side, his strong metaphysical 

 bent from both sides of the family. In his student 

 career he attained all the distinctions that lay in his 

 path with an ease, and wore them with a grace, that 

 endeared him to his rivals and contemporaries. On 

 taking his first degree in 1871 he settled down, at 

 twenty years of age, after the manner of the pick of the 

 Dublin men, to a wide and independent course of reading 

 with a view to a Fellowship. At that time vacancies were 

 of very rare occurrence ; so that it was not until 1877, 

 on his second time of trying, that he attained the position 

 of a Fellow of Trinity College. The examination in 

 mathematical and physical science included papers on 

 selected portions of the works of the great mathematical 



2 " Monographic der Flascherberges." By Dr. Th. Lorenz. Beitrage 

 zur Geologischen Karte der Schweiz, Neue Folge, X Lieferung, with 

 geological map, 4 plates of sec ions, and 13 other illustrations. Pp. 64. 



NO. 1636, VOL. 63] 



physicists ; to a mind of the calibre of FitzGerald's, the 

 early and intimate acquaintance which was thus promoted 

 with the classical writings of Lagrange and Laplace, of 

 Hamilton and MacCuUagh, with their modes of thought 

 as well as the results that they won, must have formed 

 the best possible foundation for a scientific career. A 

 training which aims only at sound knowledge and estab- 

 lished results may find a shorter path in the study of the 

 latest text-books of the day ; but if a man is to be a true 

 leader he must be interested even more in the philosophy 

 than in the facts of his science. It must have been of 

 rare value to a maturing mind of keen temper to observe 

 closely at first hand the lines of attack of the great 

 masters of the past age on problems which were crystal- 

 lising into knowledge. Acquaintance with the present 

 state of science, however detailed and exact, assumes its 

 full value as an instrument of progress only when it is 

 accompanied by appreciation of the difficulties that had 

 to be circumvented in order to reach it, and by obser- 

 vation of the way in which complete logical precision 

 may have to be attained at the expense of temporary 

 limitation. The subjects that were grouped around 

 physical optics were approached in Dublin, in those days, 

 through the study of MacCullagh's optical memoirs ; 

 these writings were based on a remarkable combination 

 of keen analysis of the facts and direct application of ' 

 the generalised dynamical methods of Lagrange, thus 

 presenting all that interest of nascent scientific discovery 

 which the same topics still retain in their wider connec- 

 tion with the general problem of the aether. Whatever 

 may be the defects of MacCullagh's analysis, it had the 

 saving merit that it put forward no claim to finality ; its 

 critical comparison and contrast with those of Cauchy 

 and Neumann and Green, and the difficulties which its 

 procedure suggested from a restricted dynamical point of 

 view, were the very things with which a mathematical 

 analyst might be impatient, but over which a mind con- 

 stituted like FitzGerald's would eagerly brood. When 

 the great Treatise of Maxwell, which threw a flood of 

 light on these fundamental problems from an altogether 

 novel source, came into hands thus prepared for its 

 appreciation, it is not surprising that a main scientific 

 interest became established for life. 



After obtaining his Fellowship, FitzGerald became 

 attached to the department of experimental physics, and 

 conducted or influenced much of the teaching in physical 

 science, in addition to carrying on the work of a College 

 tutor. In the latter capacity he was eminently successful. 

 It was an object of ambition to gain admission to his side, 

 which was always full a long time in advance. He had 

 considerable athletic prowess, which was kept up for 

 many years ; and his services were in great request for 

 presiding overand administering the athletic organisations 

 of the College. He gave up tutorial work in 1881 on 

 succeeding to the chair of experimental philosophy, which 

 he held for the rest of his life. He became a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society in 1883, and in 1899 received the 

 award of one of its Royal Medals. 



In those early years there were three main centres of 

 development of the new departure in electrical theory 

 which has since revolutionised the whole domain of 

 physical science. Maxwell's own presence as a professor 

 had guided the trend of physical thought at Cambridge 

 predominantly into that direction which it has since 

 largely retained ; in Berlin, Helmholtz was devoting his 

 great powers and turning the attention of his pupils to 

 the discussion and elucidation of the subject ; while in 

 Dublin its study and investigation became vital under 

 FitzGerald's lead and influence. His chief formal 

 memoir, " On the Electromagnetic Theory of the Re- 

 flexion and Refraction of Light," was presented to the 

 Royal Society at the end of the year 1878 ; it retains a 

 place among the classical writings of modern physics. 

 In the years from 1880 to 1885 he contributed to the 



