Accademia Dei Lincei Research Articles

Report of meeting of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union and its sections held at Rome, May 2–10, 1922, prepared by delegates from the United States: General Conference of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union

The first general conference of the International Astronomical Union and of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union, since their establishment at Brussels in July 1919, was held at Rome, Italy, May 2 to 10, 1922. The meetings of the two Unions and of their various Sections were held in the Reale Accademia dei Lincei. About three hundred delegates and guests, representing about twenty countries, attended the various meetings.The first day was occupied by the registration of delegates and the opening of the conference, which was held at the Campodoglio, at which were present the King of Italy and other officials. On the second day there were meetings of the two Unions at which various committees were appointed to consider certain questions of administration and policy. On the last day of the conference the Unions also met to receive reports of committees and to conclude the work of the conference. From May 4 to 9, 1922, inclusive, there were held meetings of the several sections of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Union and of the Committees of the Astronomical Union.

Spectra in Electric Fields

SHORTLY after Stark's discovery that certain spectral lines could be split up into two or more components by an electrical field, an account was given in NATURE (May 14, 1914, vol xciii., p. 280), under the title “An Electrical Analogy of the Zeemann Effect,” of the experiments of the Italian physicist, Lo Surdo, upon the Balmer series. It was shown by Lo Surdo that the resolution of the four lines in the visible spectrum followed some remarkably simple laws. In a paper, dated December 19, 1915, in the Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, C. Sonaglia shows that Lo Surdo's laws hold for the first line in the ultra-violet, i.e. the fifth of the Balmer series. The total number of components into which the line can be resolved is seven, corresponding to the value of the parameter n in the Balmer formula which gives the line, and the number of components the vibrations of which are perpendicular to the field is five, equal to the number which gives the position of the line in the series.

The Anniversary Meeting of the Reale Accademia Dei Lincei

A MELANCHOLY interest attaches to the anniversary meeting of that ancient scientific society, the Reale Accademia dei Lincei, held in June, from the fact that the society was then mourning the loss of its distinguished president, Prof. Beltrami, and has since been plunged into deeper mourning by the untimely and unexpected loss of its patron, King Humbert, who with Queen Margherita had for many years taken part in these yearly meetings. It is, moreover, largely due to the munificence of the late King of Italy that the society is enabled to further the advancement of science by the award of prizes for theses dealing with some subject of scientific research.

Recent Science in Italy

ABRIEF survey of recent numbers of the Transactions published by the Reale Accademia dei Lincei, or by the various other Italian Royal scientific academies, will amply show that the country to which we are indebted in the past for the telescope, the mariner's compass, the voltaic cell and other equally valuable inventions, is keeping well to the fore in all advancements of modern science.

On the Action of Röntgen Rays and Ultra-violet Light on Electric Sparks

IN NATURE of April 30, the writer of “Recent Work with Röntgen Rays” has not exactly described the results of our experiments, published in the Rendiconti dell' Accademia dei Lincei. We had formerly found that the sparking distance between two electrodes, in a, shunt-circuit on the discharge of an induction coil, which illuminates a Crookes' tube, is strongly diminished if the Röntgen rays sent from the tube fall upon the positive electrode. The phenomenon is very interesting, as it is the reverse of the phenomenon discovered by Hertz, in which the ultra-violet light acts on the sparking distance in lengthening it, when falling on the negative pole.

Induced Magnetism in Volcanic Rocks

AN interesting note by G. Folgheraiter, on the magnetism induced in volcanic rocks by the earth's magnetic field, appears in the Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei (vol. iv. part 5, March 3, 1895). The author has performed a number of experiments on volcanic rocks, in order to determine the amount of induced magnetism left when, after heating to such a temperature that they entirely lose their permanent magnetism, they are either allowed to cool slowly or are suddenly cooled, in each case under the influence of the earth's field. From such observations he hopes to be able to deduce some conclusions as to the conditions under which the rocks experimented on, which were originally permanently magnetised, became magnetised. The rocks are cut into small parallelopepedons weighing about 50 grams, and such that the length is about two or three times the depth or breadth, care being always taken to cut the rock so that the axes of these pieces were vertical when the rock was in its place in the earth. The intensity of magnetisation was in every case measured by the method of deflection; a freely suspended magnetic needle being deflected by the sample, which was placed with its length east and west. After measuring the intensity of magnetisation of the samples, they were heated to redness, and then either allowed to cool slowly, or are rapidly quenched with their axes vertical. Their magnetic moment was determined, first immediately they were cool, and then after they had stood under the influence of the earth's field for three months. The specimens of basalt examined may be divided into two groups: in the first may be placed those specimens which were originally only slightly magnetised, and in this case, after heating to redness, the magnetisation is always increased, but to a very different degree in the different specimens. The second group includes those basalts which were originally strongly magnetised, and in this case after heating the magnetisation was considerably reduced. In both groups the magnetisation underwent no change during three months, and sudden cooling gave the same results as slow cooling. Experiments have also been made on tuff and peperino. The results obtained with the first of these rocks are similar to those obtained with the first group of basalts. Peperino, however, differs in that, before being heated, its coercive force seems almost nil, the bar becoming only temporarily magnetised. After heating, the character of the rock is altered, as it can now become permanently magnetised and behaves just like the tuff. From this the author concludes that peperino has been formed at a low temperature, probably by the action of water on cinders, &c.

Scientific Serials

Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, July and August 1888.—In both of these numbers G. Vicentini and D. Omodei continue their important inquiries on the thermic expansion of certain binary alloys in the liquid state. So far they have arrived at the following general conclusions: (1) the variation of volume accompanying liquid metallic mixtures is extremely slight; (2) no relation can be established between the.variations of volume that accompany the formation of alloys in the solid and liquid states; (3) the variation of density at the moment of solidification is in general less than would be the case were the constituent metals to preserve in the alloys the value that they possess in the isolated state; (4) the binary alloys of lead and tin, of tin and bismuth, and of tin and cadmium, possess in the state of perfect fusion an expansion equal to that resulting from the sum of the expansions of the associated metals; (5) the alloy of Bi2Pb possesses a coefficient of expansion far greater than the sun of the expansions of the constituent metals. These experiments, which conclude for the present with a preliminary study of the antimony and zinc alloys, have been carried out at the physical laboratory of the University of Cagliari, Sardinia.

Science in Rome

THE recent changes introduced into the constitution of the Accademia dei Lincei, followed by its removal to new and sumptuous quarters in Trastevere, seem to call for more than a passing notice. There are certainly many other famous societies scattered over the Peninsula, all the large towns of which have long possessed one or more scientific, literary, or artistic corporations. But, with perhaps the single exception of the Florentine Academy, none of them have been so intimately identified with the progress of the physical sciences since the “Renaissance” as this oldest of still existing learned institutions. Founded on August 17, 1603, by the young prince, Federigo Cesi, for the express purpose of cultivating “le scienze matematiche e filoso-fiche,” it began its useful career forty years before the birth of Newton, and six before Galileo had rendered Jansen's telescope a suitable instrument for astronomic observation. The very name of the Lincei, or “Lynxeyed,”1 breathes the quaint spirit of the times, when every capital in Italy had its centres of intellectual movement, bearing such eccentric titles as the Accademia dei Sonnacchiosi (“The Drowsy”), dei Sitibondi (“The Thirsty”), dei Svegliati (“The Wide-Awake”), degli Ottusi (“The Dull”), degli Innomati (“The Nameless”), dei Storditi (“The Dazed”), dei Tenebrosi (“The Darklings”), and so forth. But while most of these ephemeral corporations have left little but their names behind them, the Lincei have gone on prospering and continually widening the field of their utility until the Academy now finds itself formally constituted the chief national exponent of the natural sciences in Italy, thus taking rank with the French Institute and the Royal Society of London.

Scientific Serials

Atti of the R. Accademia dei Lincei, May 6.—Report on Veri and Parona's “Geological Studies of the Fossil Shells of Terni and Rieti,” by MM. Taramelli and Capellini.—Report on Dr. Lucchetti's “Crystallographic Notes,” by MM. Koerner and Spezia.—A memoir (in French) on the invariants and covariants of a function transformed by a quadratic substitution, by W. Spottiswoode—On the nature of the expansions of gas produced by the electric spark, by Sig. Villari.—Distribution of matter acting on the surface of an ellipsoid in order to procure in the interior of such a body a given action constant in force and direction, by Sig. Glaser.—On the relations existing between the refrangent power and chemical constitution of organic combinations, by MM. Bernheirner and Nasini.—On a hypergeometrical differential equation, by Sig. Besso.—Some theorems relative to the binary forms of any power, and their application to the study of the multiple roots of equations of the sixth degree, by Sig. Maisano.—On some derivatives of berberine, by M. Bernheimer.—On the distortion of perspective observed in the telescope, by Sig. Govi.—Meteorological observations at the Royal Observatory of the Campidoglio during the month of April.

On two Inscriptions from Olympia

In a paper read at the R. Accademia dei Lincei in Rome I communicated the result of my studies upon three of the bronze inscriptions (Nos. 362, 56, 363) found at Olympia, and published in the Archäologische Zeitung. Amongst other inscriptions from the same place recently published in the last number of the same periodical there are two (Nos. 382, 383) deserving the same attention, and demanding it all the more since Professor Kirchhoff in giving them to the public has declared himself unable to divine their meaning. Here I submit to the judgment of the readers of this journal my contribution to the question. My studies are only founded on the facsimile taken from a rubbing and published in the Archäologische Zeitung, together with Dr. Purgold's account of the material condition of the two monuments. I have thought it necessary to give my readers a phototypic copy of the facsimile itself, reduced to smaller proportions. Further particulars will be found in the Archäologische Zeitung, 1881, pp. 78 seq.

Notes and memoranda

ABSTRACT Studies of the Microscopic Images of Medullated Nerve Fibre. By Professor FRANZ BOLL (‘Reale Accademia dei Lincei Roma,’ June 4th, 1876.)—The author of this important paper commences by referring to the researches of Zawerthal, Schmidt, and Lantermann, who independently published in 1874 descriptions of the discontinuity of the medullary sheath. The first named, however, confuses the medullary sheath with the sheath of Schwann, to which latter he refers the discontinuity which really belongs to the former; the second considers the appearance of discontinuity to be produced by folds of the medullary sheath, and to be of slight importance ; only Lantermann, in his preliminary publication (‘Centralblatt,’ 1874, p. 706), has accurately recognised and described the discontinuity in question. Boll first recognised this particularity of structure independently, in the autumn of 1875, in the electric nerves of the torpedo, and continued to study the subject further, using exclusively the sciatic nerve of adult Rana esculanta. His descriptions of this and other points are as follows :—

Notes and memoranda

ABSTRACT Studies of the Microscopic Images of Medullated Nerve Fibre. By Professor FRANZ BOLL (‘Reale Accademia dei Lincei Roma,’ June 4th, 1876.)—The author of this important paper commences by referring to the researches of Zawerthal, Schmidt, and Lantermann, who independently published in 1874 descriptions of the discontinuity of the medullary sheath. The first named, however, confuses the medullary sheath with the sheath of Schwann, to which latter he refers the discontinuity which really belongs to the former; the second considers the appearance of discontinuity to be produced by folds of the medullary sheath, and to be of slight importance ; only Lantermann, in his preliminary publication (‘Centralblatt,’ 1874, p. 706), has accurately recognised and described the discontinuity in question. Boll first recognised this particularity of structure independently, in the autumn of 1875, in the electric nerves of the torpedo, and continued to study the subject further, using exclusively the sciatic nerve of adult Rana esculanta. His descriptions of this and other points are as follows :—

Notes and memoranda

ABSTRACT Studies of the Microscopic Images of Medullated Nerve Fibre. By Professor FRANZ BOLL (‘Reale Accademia dei Lincei Roma,’ June 4th, 1876.)—The author of this important paper commences by referring to the researches of Zawerthal, Schmidt, and Lantermann, who independently published in 1874 descriptions of the discontinuity of the medullary sheath. The first named, however, confuses the medullary sheath with the sheath of Schwann, to which latter he refers the discontinuity which really belongs to the former; the second considers the appearance of discontinuity to be produced by folds of the medullary sheath, and to be of slight importance ; only Lantermann, in his preliminary publication (‘Centralblatt,’ 1874, p. 706), has accurately recognised and described the discontinuity in question. Boll first recognised this particularity of structure independently, in the autumn of 1875, in the electric nerves of the torpedo, and continued to study the subject further, using exclusively the sciatic nerve of adult Rana esculanta. His descriptions of this and other points are as follows :—