Britannica Research Articles

Alexander von Humboldt and geomagnetic science

The name of Alexander von Humboldt has long been familiar to me, though how and when it became so I cannot recall. Many years ago, I think when I was a student at Cambridge, England, I bought a second-hand set of four volumes of his book Cosmos1. It was highly interesting to read his wide survey of the universe and to see thereby, in addition to his account of his own scientific contributions, what were the scientific problems and views of his time. Recently, seeking in the library of the University of Alaska some further information about Humboldt' s life, I found in the Encyclopedia Britannica the statement that in Europe Humboldt' s fame was eclipsed only by that of Napoleon. "How are the mighty fallen!" I imagine that today Humboldt's name is known only to a minority of educated men and women. It is indeed commendable that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences should in these meetings revive his memory, in the spirit of the writer of Ecclesiastes "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us". Among Humboldt's many and varied important contributions to science, those he made to our knowledge of the earth's magnetism hold a high place. The deviation of the magnetic compass from the true north, observed by Columbus, was known to the instrument makers of Nuremberg as early as 1450. William Gilbert, the writer of the first great modern treatise on electricity and magnetism2, had declared that, "Unless there should be a great dissolution of a continent and a subsidence of the land, such as there was of the region of Atlantis of which Plato and the ancients tell, the variation" (that is, the magnetic declination) "will continue perpetually immutable". However, in I635 Gellibrand3, also of London, discovered the secular variation of the declination. Edmund Halley, second Astronomer Royal of England, was the first to delineate the world distribution of the declination, on his famous isogonic chart,

Exposure to Programmed Learning Material and Reading Comprehension

As part of a general investigation of the of programmed instruction, high school studencs in the Roanoke Public School system took year-long programmed courses in Algebra I, Plane Geometry, and Algebra 11. The senior author was impressed by the number of spontaneous commencs from chese studencs and cheir teachers pertaining co a subjective feeling of marked improvement in the students' reading ability. The present study investigated the hypothesis that students who take mathematics courses in programmed form will improve their reading ability relative to controls taking the same courses with a conventional texcbook. Ss were those students in Plane Geometry (N = 222), Algebra I (N = 105), Algebra I1 (N = 31) who had taken programmed instructional material plus controls (Ns = 84, 45, 27, respectively). (For a description et the overall design, see Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Rep. No. 2, 1961). At the end of the spring term, all Ss in the experimental and control classes were given the Cooperative English Test, Test C 1: Reading Comprehension, Lower Level, Form Y, except those Ss who were ill or absent from school for some other reason on the day of testing. Data were treated by analysis of covariance, using the STEP, Form A reading scores, obtained from the state-wide testing program of Fall, 1959, as the outside variable. Three reading scores were analyzed: total, level of comprehension, and speed of comprehension. Experimental Ss in geometry were significantly better in speed of reading comprehension than their controls (P < .05). None of the other differences were scatiscically significanc. . Utter ( 1961 ) noted that in some experiments at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Ss who went through programs increased their reading comprehension. The reading test used ac Bell was the Davis Reading Test (R. F. Utcer, personalcommunication, February 5, 1962). In the study conducted by Ucter himself at Sandia, using the Bell Laboratories program in basic electricity, there was no rise in reading comprehension. Utcer speculates that this is probably due to the fact that many Ss had initially high reading scores. Our positive resulc in geometry, and that from Bell Laboratories, indicate some evidence for an interesting side effect pertaining co reading compre-a hension, which may occur during exposure to programmed instructional material. The failure of our Ss caking the algebra courses and those at Sandia to show significant increases in reading comprehension indicates that such an increase is related to specific attributes and does not invariably accompany the use of programmed instructional material.

Technology in the Modern World

The broad field of automation covers, inter alia, my first reaction on being awarded difficult but absorbing task of addressing you on Technology in Modem World. I turned automatically and confidently to Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1962 and read avidly every reference indexed under Here it is, verbatim: Moreover, settled agricultural life needed more tools, at first of stone. Thus a professional technology developed. The rest is silence. I moved my calendar back to 1961, not without gain. For Encyclopaedia Britannica 1961 said this: Moreover, settled agricultural life needed more tools, at first of stone. Thus a professional technology developed. Both, however, do condescend to particular in describing technological as the higher levels at which advanced knowledge of theory is important -this in contrast to technical education directed primarily at acquirement of skills in techniques. Compare these fragments, however, with their counterpart in great Eleventh of 1910-11, Philip Magnus on Technical Education together with biographic note on Johann Beckmann (1739-1811) who-in 1772-invented title of Scientific Technology. We are, I hope, going to change all this imbalance. As an unrepentant technologist, I hereby dedicate all effort for which anyone is prepared adequately to pay me, to giving technology its place in sun. In sunshine, that is, of an Encyclopaedia Britannica which should surpass even high standards of an epoch when E signified Edinburgh as well as Encyclopaedia. I do not attempt difficult task of defining my terms; I can approach them only by indirection. Science and technology are Gemini of (not always heavenly) conceptual constellations of human mind. They are far from identical twins, and endless confusion may be generated by failure to recognize their sharply differentiated identities. They are, however, like Siamese twins; they share a common blood stream, but are divergent in their outlook on their common world. This divergence of outlook denies them status of heavenly twins-science may pretend to adjective, but technology is of earth, earthy.

Audio‐visual aids

A PHILOSOPHY OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE IN A DEMOCRACY. Kinescope of a television program presented March 19, 1961, by Dr. Giles W. Gray, Professor Emeritus of Speech, Louisiana State University. 16mm. 30 minutes. Sound. Black and white. Rental: Postage and insurance both ways. Cost: $100.00. Available through Film and Recording Services, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 3, Louisiana. Television Rights controlled by WBRZ‐TV, Baton Rouge. THE CHAMPIONSHIP DEBATE. 331/3 RPM. 12 inch record of the final debate of the 1960 National Forensic League National Tournament, San Diego, California. 24 minutes each side. Cost: $3.95. Available through Robert D. Pellinen Productions, 626 West Rosewood Court, Ontario, California. THE CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST PLACE SPEAKERS IN INDIVIDUAL EVENTS. 331/3 RPM. 12 inch record of the winners of the 1960 National Forensic League National Tournament, San Diego, California. 25 minutes each side. Cost: $3.95. Available through Robert D. Pellinen Productions, 626 West Rosewood Court, Ontario, California. STYLES IN SHAKESPEAREAN ACTING, 1890–1950. Dual Track Tape. 71/2 IPS. 30 minutes each track. Produced by Frederick C. Packard, Jr., Harvard Vocarium. Sponsored by Audio‐Visual Aids Project of the American Educational Theatre Association. Cost: $5.95. Available through Creative Associates, Incorporated, 690 Dudley Street, Boston 25, Massachusetts, and Bureau of Auditory Education, 1612 Lyman Place, Los Angeles 27, California. BOSTON: BIRTHPLACE OF LIBERTY. Dual Track Tape. 71/2 IPS. 57 minutes. Produced by Sidney A. Dimond. Narrated by Robert Walsh and Donald Born. Cost: $5.95. Available through Creative Associates, Inc. 690 Dudley Street, Boston 25, Massachusetts, and Bureau of Auditory Education, 1612 Lyman Place, Los Angeles 27, California. EARS AND HEARING. 1950. Sound. Black and white. 10 minutes. Cost: $60.00. Rental: $2.50. Loan: free from many State Public Health Agencies. Available through Encyclopedia Britannica Films, Inc., 1150 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, Illinois. YOUR CHILDREN'S EARS. 1946. Sound. Black and white. 15 minutes. Loan: free from many State Public Health Agencies. Available through McGraw‐Hill Book Co., Text‐Film Department, 330 W. 42nd Street, New York 36, N. Y. YOUR EARS. 1947. Sound. Black and white. 10 minutes. Cost: $60.00. Rental: consult leading rental libraries. Loan: free from many State Public Health Agencies. Available through McGraw‐Hill Book Co., Text‐Film Department, 330 W. 42nd Street, New York 36, N. Y. This film is a shortened version of Your YOU AND YOUR EARS. Sound. Technicolor. 9 minutes. Cost: $100.00 for long‐term lease to non‐profit organizations by Walt Disney Productions, 300 S. Buena Vista Street, Bur‐bank, California. Loan: free from Modern Talking Picture Service, Inc., 3 East 54th Street, New York 22, N. Y. HOW THE EAR FUNCTIONS. 1940. Sound. Black and white. 10 minutes. Cost: $50.00. Rental: $2.25. Loan: free from many State Public Health Agencies. Available through Knowledge Builders, Visual Education Building, Floral Park, New York. HOW WE HEAR. 1939. Silent. Black and white. 5 minutes Cost: $17.50. Rental: $2.00. Available through Bray Studios, Inc., 729 7th Avenue, New York 19, N. Y. THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM. 1953. Sound. Color. 40 minutes. Not for sale. Free loan. Available through National Foundation, Department of Professional Education, 800 Second Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. THE BRAIN. 1940. Silent. Black and white. 60 minutes. Cost: $225.00. Rental: $10.00. Available through Brandon Films, Inc., 200 W. 57th Street, New York, 19, N. Y. BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR. 1957. Sound. Black and white. 22 minutes. Cost: $130.00. Rental: consult leading rental libraries. Available through McGraw‐Hill Book Co., Text‐Film Department, 330 W. 42nd Street, New York 36, N. Y. MAN IS A UNIVERSE. 1954. Sound. Black and white. 12 minutes. Cost: $40.00. Rental: consult leading rental agencies. Available through National Film Board of Canada, 680 Fifth Avenue, New York 19, N. Y. THE SPINAL CORD. 1940. Silent. 23 minutes. Cost: $90.00. Not for rent. Available through Brandon Films, Inc., 200 W. 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y.

Bayard Taylor and German Letters, in Britannica et americana

Bayard Taylor and German Letters, in Britannica et americana

Franciscan Illumination in Latin Mss. 29-31 of John Rylands Library, Manchester

FRANCISCAN ILLUMINATION IN LATIN MSS. 29-31 OF JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY, MANCHESTER VlTThat's wrong with our present civilization? " There must be something wrong, when mass media like the Saturday Evening Post and the Saturday Review pay money to prominent "authorities" to write articles, while the Foundation for Adult Education spends seventy-five million dollars in ten years to make adult Americans think about their own thinking. The other day, browsing in our library in a big book with excellent illustrations, I personally found one answer. I think possibly one part of what is 'wrong' with our culture is an oldfashioned disease known as "pride of intellect." The very complication of our I.B.M. civilization has bred the cult of the specialist, the pessimism of the average man. What the big book1 taught me was that a bare-footed little Grey Friar, back in the 14th Century, in a little Italian city, without benefit of a slide-rule or a computer or electrical brain, solved, (two centuries ahead of Mercator or Leonardo da Vinci) the problem of portraying a spherical figure on a plane surface. The evidence and proof is contained in three very valuable mediaeval volumes on vellum in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England. Their title is Postilla super omnes libros bibliae tarn veteris tarn nove testimenti, by Nicolaus de Lyra, (1270—1340). Nicolaus was a Franciscan of whom the Jesuit Hugo Hurter wrote in Nomenclátor Litterarius: „Hätte Lyra nicht über die Bibel geschrieben, wäre mancher Doktor ein Esel geblieben." This sprightly couplet refers to the friar's chef d'oeuvre, the first complete Commentary on the Bible. He wrote it while a Franciscan professor at the University of Paris. The John Rylands copy (made before Gutenberg invented printing) was written by a Franciscan scribe and the elaborate picture-borders of each page were 'illuminated' by a brother-Franciscan. 1 Descriptive Catalogue of Latin Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, (England). N. Y., Longmans, Green. 1921. 2 vol. 98 Franciscan Illumination99 Moreover, unwittingly, the artist-illuminator, on one leaf of vellum, folio 123, recto and verso, has left us a holograph note, revealing not only his knowledge of Scripture, but also his integrity and perseverance in his art, and his possession of the faculty styled today 'eidetic imagery .'2 There are very clear reproductions of the two pages, 123a and 123b in the Descriptive Catalogue of Latin Manuscripts of the John Rylands Library at Manchester3 (Plates 67, 68, Vol. II) and a detailed collation (Vol.1, Pp 81—87). In the colophon of each volume, as rendered in the Catalogue, is the statement that the work was done by order of Pandolfo di Malatesta (1377—1427), "der Soeldnerfuehrer und Kunstmaecen."4 The Malatesta family were Lords of Rimini and Pesaro for 250 years, as leaders of the Guelf faction in Italy's long civil wars, until in 1445, they sold their rights to the Sforza family. Pesaro itself, on the right bank of the river Foglia where it meets the Adriatic sea, was a walled city until 1830. While his elder brother ruled, Pandolfo was a soldier of fortune, possibly a university student since he was not more than 18 years old when he commissioned the Franciscans of Pesaro to write and illuminate for him the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra. In 1416, Pandolfo inherited the dukedom at his brother's death and presumably lived at the ducal palace of Rimini. A note at the end of each volume, dated 23 March, 1459, states that Louis de Gonzaga, (1414—1478) Marquis of Mantua, gave the three volumes to the Franciscan monastery at Mantua, "ad fratrum ibidem commorantium usum et spiritualem consolationem." Since the mother of Louis was Paula Malatesta, (d. 1452) he probably inherited the codices through her. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (13th edition), Louis was "a celebrated soldier and also a learned and liberal prince, a patron of literature and the arts." Mantua was besieged by Napoleon in 1796; it would be permissible to speculate whether the vellum Postilla disappeared from the Mantua Franciscan Monastery as war loot, as did another manuscript, an illuminated Antiphonal, now at St. Bonaventure...

The Death-Mask

HE article on Shakespearian portraits the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which first was published the iith edition (i9io), was written by Dr. M. H. Spielmann. Every phrase has been conditioning the minds of readers for half a century. It is interesting to observe the way Spielmann argued. After frowning at the most popular of the portraits of Shakespeare, the Chandos portrait the National Gallery, because in every important physiognomical particular and face-measurement, is contradicted by the Stratford bust and the Droeshout print, Spielmann says of a portrait ascribed to Zuccaro that it is curious that certain respects bears some resemblance not only to the Chandos, and to the Droeshout and Janssen portraits, but also to the What is really curious is not that Spielmann claims non-resemblance of the Chandos and the Droeshout when suits his purpose at one moment, and claims resemblance of the Chandos and the Droeshout when suits his purpose at another moment. The truly curious fact is that the Chandos and the Droeshout, which he tells us are unlike every important particular, can be resembled by a third picture-curious, unless they are portraits of the same human face. A mature person owes the world a special effort to find an adequate basis for some positive belief instead of tending to undermine all existing ones. Our chief disagreement with Spielmann is that his pronouncements their over-all effect tend to discourage us from feeling that we can know what William Shakespeare really looked like. The evidence herewith to be presented may demonstrate that we do know. The Stratford Church bust and the Droeshout print are the portraits of Shakespeare with the best pedigrees. The bust is the earliest representation whose origin is unquestioned. The monument, of which the bust is part, was commissioned by someone, presumably Shakespeare's son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, immediately or soon after Shakespeare's death, all probability i6i6. In any case, had been erected the church before i623, which year was mentioned by Leonard Digges. The bust is thought to have been modelled, Spielmann says, from a lifeor death-mask. According to Sir William Dugdale, was designed and produced by Gerald Johnson (Garratt or Gerrit Janssen). This could mean by one of his assistants or by several of his assistants working together. Johnson, who was from the Netherlands, was the leading tomb monument maker of London. He had a thriving business, employing 5 sons, 4 journeymen, 2 apprentices, and i Engglishman. He seems to have expended great effort upon the construction of the elaborate Shakespeare monument with its conventionalized sarcophagus bearing heraldic insignia and flanked by two seated figures, and the arched

DR. ERNEST JONES (black and white, 16 mm., 30 minutes) Distributed by Encyclopedia Britannica Films. Available on a rental basis from A-V Aids Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa

DR. ERNEST JONES (black and white, 16 mm., 30 minutes) Distributed by Encyclopedia Britannica Films. Available on a rental basis from A-V Aids Library, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa

V. C. Asmous (1891-1960)

Vladimir C. Asmous was a contributor to the Arctic Bibliography from 1948 until his death February 19, 1960. He had an extensive knowledge of the literature of the natural sciences and he selected and abstracted for this Bibliography nearly eight thousand papers mainly by Russian and north European botanists, entomologists, etc. He was fluent in four languages and understood half-a-dozen others. His linguistic capabilities, a capacity for assiduous work and a fine innate sense of discrimination enabled him to direct his energies to literature research after his physical health was shattered in the first World War. Mr. Asmous was born on April 25, 1891 in St. Petersburg, Russia, son of Lieut.-General Constantine Asmous. He was graduated from the Military Engineering College in St. Petersburg in 1912 as second lieutenant in the Engineer Corps. In the war of 1914 he was wounded, shell-shocked and developed TB while he was prisoner of war for 3 years. From 1919 to 1920 he served in the White Russian army under Generals Deniken and Wrangel, after their defeat he lived for 2 years in Turkey and came to the United States in 1923. He worked at first in the library of the New York Botanical Garden, became assistant librarian of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University in 1939; and in 1947 transferred to the Slavic Section of the Harvard College (Widener) Library, from which he retired in July 1957. During these years he published numerous articles on the history of science, lives of scientists and contributed to a succession of works that are standard in their field: Merrill and Walker's Bibliography of eastern Asiatic Botany, 1938; Merrill's Botanical bibliography of the islands of the Pacific, 1947; to the Encyclopaedia Britannica: bibliographies of prominent botanists, etc. Nearly every month for almost 12 years he sent a packet of abstracts to the Arctic Bibliography, the last one, in meticulous order, he left on his desk. He was a man of great industry, who loved his work and fiercely fought the interference of ill-health, rather tall and spare of figure, a constant worrier, yet with a dry humour. He was shrewd in appraisal of work as contribution to knowledge, but he did not recognize his own as such.

High-voltage rectifier transformer problems

The first successful transformer, according to the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” was demonstrated in 1886 by William Staley. This places transformers among the oldest devices in the science of electrical engineering. They are so widely used today that familiarity with their operation is not confined to trained engineers. Even the average housewife is aware of their existence and the part they play in supplying electricity for household uses.

The Spearman and the Archer—An Essay on Selection in Body Build

American AnthropologistVolume 61, Issue 3 p. 457-469 Free Access The Spearman and the Archer—An Essay on Selection in Body Build ALICE BRUES, ALICE BRUES University of OklahomaSearch for more papers by this author ALICE BRUES, ALICE BRUES University of OklahomaSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1959 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1959.61.3.02a00080Citations: 36AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL References Cited Bowen, W. P. 1949 Applied anatomy and kinesiology, Sixth Edition. H. A. Stone, ed. Philadelphia, Lea and Febiger. Coon, C. S. 1939 The races of Europe. New York, Macmillan and Company. Coon, C. S. 1954 Climate and race. Smithsonian Report for 1953, 277– 298. Coon, C. S., S. M. Garn and J. B. Birdsell 1950 Races: a study of the problems of race formation in man. Springfield, Ill., Charles C Thomas. Dart, Raymond A. 1949 The predatory implemental technique of Australopithecus. Amer. Jour. Phys. Anth. 7: 1– 38. Howells, W. W. 1952 A factorial study of constitutional type. Amer. Jour. Phys. Anth. 10: 91– 118. Jones, H. E. 1947 The relationship of strength to physique. Amer. Jour. Phys. Anth. 5: 29– 40. Klopsteg, P. E. 1955 Archery. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 2, 265– 269. Tappen, N. C. 1950 An anthropometric and constitutional study of championship weight lifters. Amer. Jour. Phys. Anth. 8: 49– 64. Ubbelohde, A. R. 1955 Man and energy. New York, George Braziller, Inc. Weckler, J. E. 1954 The relationship between Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens. American Anthropologist 56: 1003– 1025. Citing Literature Volume61, Issue3June 1959Pages 457-469 ReferencesRelatedInformation

FILMED CHEMISTRY COURSE TO AID HIGH SCHOOLS

Two YEARS AGO the Chamber of Commerce of the United States conferred its National Recognition Award upon the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the nation's secondary schools. The program which won this honor for the Society comprised many, activities such as counselling, special lectures, prize summer institutes for teachers. These activities, in which thousands of individual ACS members participate, continue today on an ever broadening scale. In the past year, however, the Society has had an opportunity to help the high schools in an entirely new way—the planning and production of the world's first complete chemistry course on film. Its extensive experience in working with the secondary schools has made the Society thoroughly aware of their problems as they try to give American youth the kind of education needed for a technological era. The Society, therefore, welcomed a proposal by the Fund for the Advancement of Education and Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc., to ...

Studies in the History of Probability and Statistics: IX. Thomas Bayes's Essay Towards Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances

Bayes's paper, reproduced in the following pages, must rank as one of the most famous memoirs in the history of science and the problem it discusses is still the subject of keen controversy. The intellectual stature of Bayes himself is measured by the fact that it is still of scientific as well as historical interest to know what Bayes had to say on the questions he raised. And yet such are the vagaries of historical records, that almost nAothing is known about the personal history of the man. The Dictionary of National Biography, compiled at the end of the last century, when the whole theory of probability was in temporary eclipse in England, has an entry devoted to Bayes's father, Joshua Bayes, F.R.S., one of the first six Nonconformist ministers to be publicly ordained as such in England, but it has nothing on his much more distinguished son. Indeed, the note on Thomas Bayes which is to appear in the forthcoming new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica will apparently be the first biographical note on Bayes to appear in a work of general reference since the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography was published in Glasgow in 1865. And in treatises on the history of mathematics, such as that of Loria (1933) and Cantor (1908), notice is taken of his contributions to probability theory and to mathematical analysis, but biographical details are lacking. The Reverend Thomas Bayes, F.R.S., author of the first expression in precise, quantitative form of one of the modes of inductive inference, was born in 1702, the eldest son of Ann Bayes and Joshua Bayes, F.R.S. He was educated privately, as was usual with Nonconformists at that time, and from the fact that when Thomas was 12 Bernoulli wrote to Leibniz that 'poor de Moivre' was having to earn a living in London by teaching mathematics, we are tempted to speculate that Bayes may have learned mathematics from one of the founders of the theory of probability. Eventually Thomas was ordained, and began his ministry by helping his father, who was at the time stated, minister of the Presbyterian meeting house in Leather Lane, off Holborn. Later the son went to minister in Tunbridge Wells at the Presbyterian Chapel on Little Mount Sion which had been opened on 1 August 1720. It is not known when Bayes went to Tunbridge Wells, but he was not the first to minister on Little Mount Sion, and he was certainly there in 1731, when he produced a tract entitled 'Divine Benevolence, or an attempt to prove that the Principle End of the Divine

Education—A New Era Begins

This is an abridgment of the October 20 Get-Together Luncheon Address delivered by Mr. Mitchell, who is President of Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Inc. Mr. Mitchell's stirring speech, which culminated with the hope that there is “good news in damnation,” challenged the SMPTE to play a large part in the new era of education.

The Great EB; the Story of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (Book Reviewed)

The Great EB; the Story of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (Book Reviewed)

Dictionary of Physics

By H. J. Gray London : Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. Pp. x + 544. Price 84s. Aldous Huxley once said that the best reading on holiday was to be found in a volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica chosen at random ; a dictionary provides something of the same inconsequent fascination, but unless it is of monumental size suffers from the defect that it dispenses its information in exasperatingly small doses. This Dictionary of Physics succeeds in satisfying the inquirer because many articles are long enough to give a bird's eye view of the subject, and references to other authorities are frequent and to the point.

Audio‐visual aids

Discs Sing and Say. By J. J. Thompson. Three albums of two 10”; records each. 78 rpm. Jeri Productions, 2518 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles 27, California. $3.50 per album. MASTER RECORDINGS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. Alpha Records [Allyn and Bacon] XTV23862‐XTV23869. Two albums of two 12”; records each. 331/3 rpm. $11.00 per album. Films DOES IT MATTER WHAT YOU THINK? British Information Services, 1945. Sound. Black and white. 15 minutes. Sale: $55.00. Rental: $3.00. HOW TO JUDGE AUTHORITIES. Coronet Films, 1948. Sound. 10 minutes. Sale: $50.00, black and white; $100.00, color. Rental: $1.75. HOW TO JUDGE FACTS. Coronet Films, 1948. Sound. 10 minutes. Sale: $50.00, black and white; $100.00, color. Rental: $1.75. MAKING YOURSELF UNDERSTOOD. Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1954. Sound. 14 minutes. Sale: $62.50. Rental: $2.25.

News Reports

AbstractJimmy Ernst, whose painting, Planetarium I, is illustrated on our front cover, will teach painting at the summer session of the University of Colorado at Boulder-in-the-Rockies. Ernst teaches at Brooklyn College during the regular year. At the University of Southern California summer session, painting will be taught by Kenneth Callahan of Seattle and a course in Oriental art will be given by Sherman E. Lee of the Cleveland Museum of Art (when Clevèland's new wing is completed there will be enlarged installations of their fine Oriental collection). George Hamilton of Yale delivered a series of lectures on “Artists and Criticis” at the Frick Collection this spring. A print by James Steg of Tulane University was included in the exhibition of American art held at the Tate Gallery this spring. Steg is a college-trained (Iowa) artist. G. Holmes Perkins, Dean of Pennsylvania's School of Fine Arts has been chairman during the past year of the Philadelphia Zoning Advisory Commission. Peter Selz of Pomona is working on an article in the revised section. on “Painting” for the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Carleton Ball, potter at the University of Southern Illinois, and Aaron Bohrod, painter, have been working in collaboration on a series of decorated pots. Hyatt Mayor, one of CAA's board of directors, has been elected President of the Hispanic Society of America. He succeeds the late Archer M. Huntington, its founder and first president.

Leibniz and the Quakers

Notes and Documents LEIBNIZ AND THE QUAKERS By Nicholas Rescher* Early in the life of the Society of Friends, within a decade of George Fox's death, a keen and profound mind passed critical judgment upon Quakerism. A notice was written and was filed away amidst a mass of personal papers to pass — almost — into oblivion. Its author was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz was born in 1648, the son of a professor of law at Leipzig in Germany. His adult life was spent in the service of the court of Hannover, as diplomat, courtier, official historian, and royal librarian. This minor civil servant was the foremost man of learning of his day and one of the greatest minds of all time. Among his contemporaries only Newton rivaled him as mathematician and only Spinoza as philosopher. Co-inventor of the calculus and author of the system of monads, Leibniz was a truly universal genius. He wrote a history which drew praise from Gibbon, constructed a calculating machine, wrote one of the first systematic treatises on geology, fathered an abortive but influential project for the reunion of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, anticipated the Principle of Least Action in physics, and instigated the founding of the Prussian Academy of Sciences at Berlin. Leibniz thought pen in hand. When a new idea came, he made a memorandum; when he cogitated, he wrote drafts; when he read, he made notes. And it has been truly said of him that he was unaware of the function of a wastebasket. He could not bring himself to discard any piece of paper that bore writing. Leibniz's papers — largely unpublished to the present day — were preserved in the Royal Library in Hannover. In sheer magnitude they would, if printed in entirety, amount to roughly half of the Encyclopedia Britannica. * Nicholas Rescher of Pacific Palisades, California, is the author of a Princeton Ph.D. dissertation on the relation between Leibniz's scientific work and his philosophy. 100 Notes and Documents101 Thanks to this combination of circumstances, we are in an unique position as regards Leibniz's ideas. There is no thinker of note whose thought-process can be traced in comparable detail, or whose views regarding any matter within his notice can be as readily determined. In particular, we owe it to Leibniz's unique literary habits that we are able to determine his view regarding the Society of Friends. In 1677 George Fox, William Penn, Robert Barclay, George Keith, and some others undertook a journey through Holland and Germany to "publish truth" on the Continent. In consequence of this journey, copies of Barclay's Apology (in the Latin version printed at Amsterdam in 1676) were distributed among the peace negotiators then meeting at Nijmwegen to end the war between Holland and France. Leibniz—following developments at this conference with a view to Hannoverian state interests—thus became acquainted with Barclay's book. He read it, and, as was his wont, prepared a brief précis. This reading of Barclay's Apology was, in all likelihood, Leibniz's first contact with Quakerism. In Germany, the Quaker visit of 1677 bore fruit. Interest and enthusiasm were generated. The Countess Palatine Elizabeth (sister of Leibniz's patron, the Electress Sophia of Hannover) commented to Penn that history was repeating itself and that Germany was once again being Christianized from England. Her foundation at Herford became a Quaker center. Leibniz was aware of these happenings, for he followed the religious developments of his day with interest and care. Thus he read Penn's Account of . . . Travails in Holland and Germany (1694) not long after its appearance. As was his habit, he wrote out his reflections in a French commentary, of which he made several drafts, a practice not uncommon with him. These were preserved among the Leibniz papers at Hannover, resting unheeded for some two and one-half centuries. In 1948 they were printed in an edition of hitherto unedited Leibniz material published by the French scholar Gaston Grua.1 An English version of the most extensive draft of Leibniz's comments on Penn's Account has been appended at the end of this article. For proper understanding of this commentary...

A clinical study of poliomyelitis in the tropics.

Article1 June 1955A CLINICAL STUDY OF POLIOMYELITIS IN THE TROPICSJOHN P. UTZ, M.D.JOHN P. UTZ, M.D.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-42-6-1190 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptINTRODUCTIONThe epidemiologic aspects of poliomyelitis in the tropics have been described in the past by Sheplan,1 Allwood-Paredes,2 Irazabal,3 Andrade Marin,4 Seddon,5 Paul,6 McFarlan7 and Rosen,8 and recently have been reemphasized by Paul.9 A review of the literature, however, fails to disclose any corresponding clinical studies of this disease in native populations in the tropics. We are therefore reporting a clinical study of poliomyelitis carried out during an outbreak of that disease in El Salvador in July and August of 1953.The use of the word "tropics" in this paper should be explained. Considered geographically, the tropics lie between the...Bibliography1. SheplanTrelles LBBH: Infantile paralysis in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico J. Pub. Health and Trop. Med. 19: 120-131, 1943. Google Scholar2. Allwood-Paredes J: An epidemic of acute anterior poliomyelitis in El Salvador, C. A., Am. J. Pub. Health 34: 941-947, 1944. CrossrefGoogle Scholar3. IrazabalRiequez Iribarren PR: Consideraciones sobre el brote de poliomeilitis anterior aguda ocurrido en Caracas durante los anos de 1940-1941, Arch. venezol. puericult. y pediat. 5: 851-887, 1943. Google Scholar4. Andrade Marin C: Primer brote epidemico de poliomyelitis en Quito, Rev. chilena de pediat. 16: 177-185, 1945. Google Scholar5. SeddonAgiusBernsteinTunbridge HJTHGRE: The poliomyelitis epidemic in Malta 1942-3, Quart. J. Med. 14: 1-26, 1945. Google Scholar6. Paul JR: Poliomyelitis in Japan, Am. J. Hyg. 45: 206-218, 1947. MedlineGoogle Scholar7. McFarlanDickSeddon AMGWHJ: The epidemiology of the 1945 outbreak of poliomyelitis in Mauritius, Quart. J. Med., New Series 15: 183-208, 1946. CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar8. RosenThomas LJA: Poliomyelitis in French Oceania, Am. J. Hyg. 57: 237-252, 1953. MedlineGoogle Scholar9. PaulMelnickRiordan JRJLJT: Comparative neutralizing antibody patterns to Lansing (Type 2) poliomyelitis virus in different populations, Am. J. Hyg. 56: 232-251, 1952. MedlineGoogle Scholar10. Encyclopedia Britannica 19: 904-905, 1952. Google Scholar11. Rand McNally World Atlas, 371, 1946. Google Scholar12. The Columbia Lippincott Gazeteer of the World, 1655, 1952. Google Scholar13. WeinsteinShelokovSeltserWinchell LARGD: A comparison of clinical features of poliomyelitis in adults and in children, New England J. Med. 246: 296-301, 1952. CrossrefGoogle Scholar14. Utz JP: Unpublished data. Google Scholar15. Gear J: Immunity to poliomyelitis, Ann. Int. Med. 37: 1-22, 1952. LinkGoogle Scholar16. Aycock WL: The frequency of poliomyelitis in pregnancy, New England J. Med. 225: 405-408, 1941. CrossrefGoogle Scholar17. Lenhard RE: Prognosis in poliomyelitis, J. Bone and Joint Surg. 32A: 71-79. Google Scholar18. Rivers TM: Viral and rickettsial infection of man, 1952, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, pp. 300-357. Google Scholar19. World Health Organization Technical Report Series 81: 1-68, 1954. MedlineGoogle Scholar This content is PDF only. To continue reading please click on the PDF icon. Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Bethesda, Maryland*Received for publication November 19, 1954.From the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Microbiological Institute, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, Bethesda, Maryland. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics Cited byCurrent pediatric references 1 June 1955Volume 42, Issue 6Page: 1190-1197KeywordsClinical epidemiologyClinical laboratoriesClinical microbiologyMedical servicesPoliomyelitisPopulation statisticsResearch laboratories ePublished: 1 December 2008 Issue Published: 1 June 1955 PDF downloadLoading ...