June 13, 1918] 



NATURE 



29. 



-^an-Donino) of the subject as " Berta che filava " ; and 

 Lhains are shown as traces to harness the griflfins. 

 llie detail of the mosaic pavement, a.d. 1165, in 

 Otranto Cathedral bears the name Alexander, to 

 prove there is no doubt of the subject. 



kf '^ 



Fig. r. — Detail of mosaic p.-ivemeiit. a.d. 1165, Otranto 

 Cathedral. From the' Biirlington Maoazine. 



In "Dynamics of Mechanical Flight" (1912) 1 have 

 given, on p. 7, a vignette representation from an 

 English MS. in the British Museum, bearing a strong 

 resemblance to the Tournay tapestry in Fig. O of 

 Prof. Loomis's article. The subject was thus evi- 

 dently a favourite as familiar to readers of medieval 

 romance. 



Ne eke the wretch Dedalus, 



Ne his childe nice Icharus 



That flew so hie that the hete 



His wyngs molte, and he fel wetc 



In midde the sea, and there he dreint, 



For whom was made a great complaint. 



Chaucer returns to it in "The Squieres Tale," 

 alluded to by Milton as the one — 



that left half told 

 The story of Cambiiscan bold 

 And of the wondrous steed of brass 

 On which the Tartar king did ride — 



the subject of the Scribe-Auber opera of "The Bronze 

 Horse " (" Le Cheval de Bronze ") in the Tartar- 

 Chinese legend. In the Chinese euphemism the Em- 

 peror is said to mount the dragon when he ascends to 

 heaven. 



Prof. Loomis traces Greek inspiration in the bas- 

 relief on St. Mark's, and conjectures it was brought 

 from elsewhere as a trophy of war. Later ages, he 

 tells us, identified Alexander with Antichrist and 

 Lucifer, for his impious experiment and scientific 

 research. 



Here is an opportunity to rectify the omission of 

 the interpretation of the line in the ode to Archytas 

 (Nature, March 14), 



animoque rotundum percurrisse polum, 



as a reference to another of the mathematical text- 

 books of Horace's schooldays, the treatise of Archytas 

 on Spherics, what we call' the Use of the Globes, a 

 study highly commended by Lord Kelvin for its 

 stimulus.' G. Greenhill. 



THE VISIT OF DELEGATES FROM • 

 ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES. 



I 



P/ioto] 



Fig. 2.— Detail, about a.d. 1345, from Gloucester Cathedral. Fiom the £ 



Prof. Loomis tells us (p. 136) that the story of 

 Alexander the Great is not to be found in the earliest 

 body of romantic Alexander tradition of the Greek 

 Pseudo-Callisthenes, but must be considered a late 

 medieval or Renaissance interpolation. But no men- 

 tion of this can be found in the edition by Carolus 

 Muller, 1846, in the Reading Room of the British 

 Museum, where the Greek version of the Pseudo- 

 Callisthenes is given in chap, xli., book ii., p. 91. 



The legend was familiar to Chaucer, from the 

 reference to it in his " House of Fame " : — 



for never halfe so hye as this 



N'as Alexander of Macedon _ 

 _ King— ne of Rome dan Scipion, 

 " That saw in dreame at point devise, 



Heaven and Earth. Hell and Paradise, 



NO. 2537, VOL. lOl] 



F the British Government in courteously inviting 

 a delegation from the Italian universities to make 

 a tour of England and Scotland in order to' inspect 

 the higher educational institutions of the Ujiited King- 

 dom had as its purpose to show to the Italians to 

 w'hat an extent the war had exer- 

 cised an influence on national 

 studies, and how far the students 

 had participated in the work of 

 military preparation and in the risks 

 of the war, certainly that purpose 

 was fully achieved. The Italian 

 professors, welcomed in the historic 

 university towns and in the other 

 centres of knowledge with the 

 utmost kindness, found the halls 

 and colleges empty and transformed 

 into barracks for troops. It is pre- 

 cisely the same in Italy, where, 

 except for the medical students, who 

 have been sent back from the front 

 in order to complete their studies, 

 the schools have been practically 

 closed. Among the Italian pro- 

 fessors and students the killed 

 and wounded are numerous. It has always been a 

 tradition of the educated youth of Italy to lend its 

 aid to national movements, and in the present war 

 the first sign of the decision of Italy to intervene with 

 those who are now our Allies was given by the uni- 

 versity classes, either as active participators in the 

 work of government or as members of the body of 

 students. 



But the Italian professors had yet another man- 

 date, that, namely, of making themselves acquainted 

 with the course of education m Great Britain and of 

 comparing it with that of their own country. How- 

 ever the external forms of the various English uni- 

 versities may differ among themselves, and differ 

 from ours, we have found that, after all, the founda- 



[G. C. Dnice. 

 'lington Magazine. 



