78 



NA TURE 



[July 15, 1922 



and above the effects due to the components taken 

 separately can be traced at temperatures far higher 

 than the critical point, and the indicated changes 

 in the polarisation of the scattered light are also 

 easily observed. 



It is clear that the case of liquids which are com- 

 pletely miscible at ordinary temperatures stands on 

 the same footing as that of imperfectly miscible 

 liquids above the critical temperature, and the recent 

 observations of W. H. Martin on this point [Jour. 

 Phy. Chem., Jan. 1922) agree with the indications 

 of the theory outlined above. 



I may take this opportunity of directing attention 

 to a very important result observed in experiments 

 on light-scattering in liquids conducted by Mr. 

 Seshagiri Rao and the writer. It is found that the 

 molecular anisotropy which results in a scattering 

 of unpolarised light is noticeably a function of the 

 frequency of the incident light. This indicates that 

 the anisotropy is really due to the difference of the 

 optical frequencies of the molecule in different 

 directions, a conclusion which has a bearing on the 

 recent interesting work of Havelock (Proc. Roy. 

 Soc, May 1922). Debye and others have suggested 

 that some molecules possess an appreciable permanent 

 electric moment, and would thus exercise perceptible 

 orienting influences on each other even in the gaseous 

 and liquid states. Indications are already forth- 

 coming that this may exercise an observable in- 

 fluence on the phenomena of molecular scattering of 

 light. 



Finally, it may be mentioned that a very carefully 

 carried out series of experiments on "the light- 

 scattering in ether, benzene, and normal pentane, 

 over a large range of temperatures above and below 

 the critical temperature, has confirmed quantita- 

 tively the Einstein-Smoluchowski theory of molecular 

 scattering of light. C. V. Raman. 



210 Bowbazar Street, 

 Calcutta, May 25, 1922. 



Transcription of Russian Names. 



Mr. Druce's letter in Nature of June 17, p. 777, 

 makes little of my typographical objection to a Czech 

 transcription for the names of Russian men of science, 

 by saying that Nature and other journals already 

 employ letters with diacritical marks. For my part, 

 I venture to estimate that not one in twenty English 

 newspapers has Czech type among its founts, or, if 

 it had, would know how to use it in transcription. 

 Are, then, Russian scientific names to be rendered on 

 one system in Nature and on another in almost every 

 other newspaper — or even book ? And are Russian 

 scientific names to be rendered differently from 

 Russian literary and musical names — or' place- 

 names ? 



Nobody questions that it is possible, and indeed easy, 

 to transliterate Russian into Czech, all Slavonic 

 tongues being closely akin. But is it more helpful 

 to Britons to render h by c than by ch, or n by t than 

 by t$, even though you save a letter by doing so ? 

 (I wonder how many Britons would pronounce this 

 " c " correctly !) Czech journals naturally transcribe 

 Russian names into Czech, but that seems to be no 

 reason why journals in other languages should do so. 



Mr. Druce, by the way, ignores my remark that 

 Serbo-Croatian, with its ready-made "official system 

 of transliterating Cyrillic into" Latin characters, has 

 as good a claim as Czech, if a Slavonic language is to 

 be used for this purpose. 



Surely what is wanted in this country to replace 

 the "Id conventional French and German (and 

 hybrid) forms of Russian names is not a Croat nor a 



NO. 275O, VOL. I io] 



Czech system, but an intelligible British system of 

 transcription, uniform for all Russian names alike : 

 and this we have ready-made in the R.G.S. II. 

 system (obtainable at any of the geographical book- 

 sellers, or at the Royal Geographical Society). Why 

 not use it ? Edward Gleichen. 



Royal Geographical Society, 

 Kensington Gore, 

 London, S.W.7, June 23. 



The Influence of Science. 



The defect of the disappearance of Greek from 

 scientific education makes itself felt in the treatment 

 of the history of science (Nature, June 24, p. 801). 

 The controversy between Galileo and the Inquisition 

 was carried out with pretended hostility, but amicablv 

 in reality in the manners of good scientific society, 

 as an academic university disputation on an agreed 

 accepted thesis, taken from Plutarch's " Aetia 

 Physica," the source of such disputations as " An 

 detur vacuum ? " or " de tempore," or whether the 

 tide is due to the influence of the moon. 



The Pythagoreans were prepared to maintain 

 against ail comers that the sun was the centre of 

 our cosmos, in opposition to the Stoic philosophers; 

 and so on for other subjects of disputation in the 

 University of Athens. 



Mr. Lones, of the Patent Office, has retrieved for 

 us at last the passages in " De caelo " and elsewhere, 

 of Aristotle that set Galileo to make a test by experi- 

 ment, with the two weights dropped from the Cam- 

 panile of Pisa, of density such as not to be affected 

 appreciably by the resistance of the air. The weights 

 struck the ground with one thud apparently ; but 

 if Galileo had thrown himself over after, his thud 

 would have been distinctly later. 



Because Aristotle was discussing the terminal 

 velocity of rain and hailstones, or even a meteoric 

 stone, from a height high up in the air, the ascent of 

 a bubble in air, or else in water, compared with a 

 stone sinking ; he had no air-pump except his lungs, 

 he could not be certain whether air was really a 

 substance in Nature. 



" Don'ts for Students in Science and History," 

 compiled by G. S. Boulger (Tract 74, Catholic Truth 

 Society), should be consulted before accepting the 

 common version of many similar controversial stories. 

 Huxley is quoted, writing to Prof. Mivart in 1885 : 

 " I gave some attention to the case of Galileo when I 

 was in Italy, and I arrived at the conclusion the Pope 

 and College of Cardinals had rather the best of it." 

 And so the Inquisition was entitled to a parting 

 shot of jubilation, as it would be again to-day on the 

 doctrine of Relativity. 



The rival theories of the Greek philosophers could 

 serve as dialectical exercises till the crucial experi- 

 ment of the " optic tube of Fiesole " ; and here Galileo 

 destroyed all previous uncertainty by his use of the 

 telescope, the most powerful instrument in history 

 for revolutionising the ideas of science. 



G. Greexhill. 



Staple Inn, June 27, 1922. 



[Fortunately, inability to maintain a scientific 

 thesis before philosophic or other authorities no 

 longer involves such penalties as those to which 

 Galileo was subjected. The whole purpose of the 

 article to which Sir George Greenhill refers was to 

 show that the freedom of experimental inquiry thus 

 secured had far-reaching social and intellectual 

 consequences, and we judge from his last paragraph 

 that he agrees with this view. — Editor, Nature.] 



