176 



NATURE 



[June 20, 1895 



The sentences in terms of weeks have their maxima at 

 2. ;. and 9, for reasons which I do not as yet understand 

 sufficiently to write about. 



The general resuh is that if the judges were to act on 

 uniform rules, the cur\-e of distribution of terms of sen- 

 tence would be mainly dependent on two sets of causes 

 only, and would become much smoother in consequence. 

 These are: (1) The distribution of true penal deserts; 

 (2) errors of estimation, which would be distributed about 

 each point in the true curve, according to the ordinary- 

 law of frequency of error, and with a modulus that might 

 perhaps be determined. 



It would be interesting to tabulate the sentences passed 

 by the several judges since their appointments, to discover 

 their respective peculiarities and personal equations, all 

 who exercise extensive jurisdiction in criminal cases being 

 -included under the title of judge. We test the acquire- 

 ments of youths by repeated ex,-vminations, but do not as 

 yet employ the methods of statistics to test the perform- 

 ances of professional men. Examiners, for example, 

 should themselves be tested in this way, and 1 have a 

 fancy that a discussion of the clinical reports at the 

 various large hospitals might enable a cautious statistician 

 to express with some accuracy the curative Capacities of 

 different medical men, in numerical terms. Before putting 

 oneself into the hands of any new professional adviser, 

 it would certainly be a grateful help to know the indexes 

 of capacity of those among whom the choice lay, not 

 merely such as might be inferred from their performances 

 in school and undergraduate days, or by their unchecked 

 professional repute, but as they really arc in their mature 

 and practical life. 



I will conclude by moralising on the large effects upon 

 the durance of a prisoner, that flow from such irrelevant 

 influences as the associations connected with decimal or 

 duodecimal habits and the unconscious favour or disfavour 

 felt for particular numbers. These trifles have been now 

 shown on fairly trustworthy evidence to determine the 

 choice of such widely different sentences as imprison- 

 ment for 3 or 5 years, of 5 or 7, and of 7 or 10, for crimes 

 whose penal deserts would otherwise be rated at 4, 6, 

 and 8 or 9 years respectively. F"r.\\cis Galton. 



PROFESSOR FRANZ NEUMANN. 

 AS already announced (p. 133) Prof. Neumann, the 

 ■'*• eminent physicist and mathematician, died on 

 May 23 at Konigsbcrg at the age of ninety-seven. At 

 a recent meeting of the l\-iris Academy, the Secretary', 

 ]M. Hcrtrand, in announcing the loss the Academy had 

 sustained by the death of such a distinguished Correspon- 

 dent in the (Geometry Section, pronounced the following 

 short I'loge on I'rof. Neumann's contributions to know- 

 ledge : — 



" Franz Neumann, Professor of I'hysics and Mineralogy 

 at the university of Konigsberg, made his lii'hiit in 

 science more than seventy years ago, by some beautiful 

 works on mineralogy. .Soon after he directed his studies 

 towards physics, and by an admirable ' M^moire sur la 

 Theorie des Ondulations,' which was presented to the 

 licrlin Academy in 1835, he took his place among 

 the masters of science. Neumann, like Cauchy, but 

 by vcr>- different means, was led to consider luminous 

 vibrations as taking place in the jjlane of polarisation, 

 while I'resncI thought them perpendicular ; he knew 

 how to follow in the most minute details, always in 

 accordance with the obser\ation, the mathematical con- 

 sequences of his hypothesis. Hut Kresnel's theory is not 

 contradicted by any of the experiments, so doubt con- 

 tinues, and the ever renewed discussions, whatever their 

 conclusion may be, will remain a noble homage to the 

 man of science and profound physicist who was the first 

 to start them. 



'• Neumann's memoir on induction showed again the 



NO. 1338, VOL. 52] 



great mathematical skill of its author. In it Neumann' 

 translated, by general formula;, the discoveries of Fara- 

 day and Lenz's laws ; it is to him that we owe the 

 expression of the potential of a system of two closed cur- 

 rents, of which merely the existence, independently of 

 the very elegant form which he has given it, has 

 played such a great part in science. 



" Franz Neumann was a great Professor. Even at the 

 age of ninety he attracted numerous auditors ; his 

 lessons, received and written out by learned students, 

 have been studied in all the universities of Europe. The 

 study of physics was his aim ; but when he came 

 across a fine mathematical problem, he excelled in 

 interesting his auditors by initiating them occasionally 

 into the highest theories of analysis. It is with justice 

 that in 1S63 the Section of Geometry, making amends 

 for a long neglect, elected this illustrious physicist intO' 

 the .-Xcademv." 



NOTES. 

 The annual meeting of the Royal Society for the election of 

 Fellows was held on Thurs<lay List, when the following gentle- 

 men were elected into the Society : — Mr. J. Wolfe Harry, C.B., 

 Prof .\. G. Bourne, Mr. G. H. Bryan, Mr. John Eliot, IVof. 

 J. R. Green, Mr. E. H. Griffiths, Mr. C. T. Heycock, Prof. S. 

 J. Hickson, Major H. C. L. Molden, Dr. Frank McClcan,. 

 Prof William MacEwen, Dr. Sidney Martin, Prof. G. M. 

 Minchin, Mr. W. H. Power, Prof. T. Piirdie. 



Mr. C. C. H.\rrison has presented a sum of ;£'ioo,ooo to 

 the University of Pennsylvania, in memory of his father, Dr. 

 George Lieb Harrison. The fund is to be known as the 

 "George L. Harrison Foundation for the Encouragement of 

 Liberal Studies and the Advancement of Knowledge.'' Only 

 the income from the fund can ever be used, and it must be 

 devoted to the establishment of scholarships and fellowships 

 intended solely for men of exceptional ability ; to increasing the 

 library of the University, parlicuK-irly by the acquisition of works- 

 of |X'rnianent use and of lasting reference to and by the scholar ;. 

 to the teini>orary relief from routine work of professors of ability 

 in order that they may devote ihemselves to some special work ;- 

 or to securing men of distinction to lecture and for a term to. 

 reside at the University. 



Science gives the following as the preliminary arrangements for 

 the forty-fourth meeting of ihe American .'Vssoci.ition for the 

 Advancement of .Science, to be hold in Springfield, Mass., from 

 August 28 to September 7, 1895 '■ — -"^^ ^^'^ f"'^' general session 

 the President-elect, Prof. E. W. Morley, will be introduced by 

 the retiring President, Prof D. G. Brinton, who will afterwards 

 give an .address on " The .'\ims of .'Xnlhropology." The Presi- 

 dents of the sections, ami Ihe subjects of .some of tlicir addresses, 

 are as follows : — Section of Physics : " The Problem of Aerial 

 Locomotion," W. Le Conte Stevens. Section of Anthroi)ology : 

 F. II. Gushing. .Section of (Jcology .and Geography: "The 

 Geological .Survey of Virginia, 1835-1841 — its History and In- 

 fluence in the Advancement of Geologic .Science," Jed. 

 Hotchkiss. .Section of Economic Science and .Statistics: "The 

 I'rovidcniial Function of Government in Relation to Natural 

 Resources," H. E. Fcrnow. Section of Chemistry: MrMurtie. 

 .Seclion of Botany : " The Development of Vegetable Physiolog)-," 

 J. C. Arthur. Section of Mechanical .Science and Engineer- 

 ing : William Kent. The aflili.ated .societies nieeling in con- 

 junction with the Associalion are : — The Geological .Society of 

 America : Prof. N. S. Shaler, President ; Prof H . L. Fair- 

 child, .Secretary. .Society for Promotion of Agricullural 

 Science ; Prof William S,iundcrs, President ; Prof William 

 Frear, Secretary. Associaticjn of Economic I*>ntf)mo]ngists. 

 Association of .Stale Weather .Service: M.ijor H. II. C. Dun- 



