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Nature [April 2G, I 900 614 NATURE [APRIL 2G, I 900 ·corresponds to its one degree of freedom on Boltzmann's the adults or larv<e, and to prevent the insects from theory of partition of energy,. I am afraid the amount of breeding. It was not always possible to discover the energy of this kind on each particle is hardly sufficient to breeding pools of the Anopheles infecting a particular account for any observable phenomenon. That it ·may, spot ; for instance, none could be found at 'Wilberforce, however, be much greater seems justified by the failure the nearest pools where larv<e were found being nearly of this theory, so far as is known, in other cases, and this a mile away. Dr. Fielding Ould tried experiments with must be my excuse for calling attention to what seems tar, and found the film on the surface of the pool lasted certainly a vera causa for structures and actions in longer than a film of kerosene oil ; while both killed the matter of a size comparable with the heat vibrations i.n larvre and prevented them from hatching so long as the the ether, even though the amount of this cause may, film lasted. when ful\v investi!{'tted fi.Jrn out to be so small as to be In the addenda are some good micro-photographs of insufficient to produce observable effects. both zygotes and blasts from the gnat. GEO. FRAS. FITZGERALD. - ------------ --· ·--·---------,---- JOSHPH BERTRAND. REPORT OF THE MALARIA EXPEDITION AMONG the heavy losses which science has suffered TO SIERRA LEONE . during the past few months, few will be the subject OLLOWING close on the "Instructions for the of such universal regret as the death, on April 3, of M. F Prevention of Malaria," the Liverpool School of Joseph Bertrand. The loss will be felt, not only by Tropical Meclicine have issued the report of the malaria mathematicians, but also by the great body of scientific expedition sent out to Sierra Leone by that body in men with whom Bertrand was brought into contact in August last. Their objects, as stated in the report, his capacity of life-secretary of the Paris Academy of were:- Sciences. (1) To find one or more species of insects hospitable Joseph Bertrand was born at Paris in 1823, a nd at an to the human H<emamt.tbid<e on the West Coast of early age commenced his mathematical studies under the Africa. guidance of his father, who had been a pupil of the Ecole (2) To study the bionomics of these insects, with a view Polytechnique. Subsequently Bertrand entered the to suggesting better modes of prevention of malarial College de St. Louis, and at the age of eleven he suc· fever than those. hitherto known to us; c,eeded in passing the examination for entrance into the The terminology adopted is that used by Major Ross Ecole Polytechnique, although it was not till six years in consultation with Prof. Herdman, already noticed in later that he actually entered the college, when he headed N ATURE (August 3, 1899). It is proposed to abolish the list of candidates. As a boy, Bertrand would nowa­ the word mosquito, and use the old English equivalent, days be styled an " infant prodigy," by analogy with the gnat, as there is no difference between the two, and be­ youthful musicians who created such a furore at London cause the terms malaria and malarial fever no longer concerts a few years ago ; and it is interesting to learn hold-they propose the term hce mamre biasis, or gnat from M. Maurice Levy that this title (enfant prodige) fever. was actually bestowed on him by the scientific men who The genus Anopheles was chiefly looked for, because welcomed Joseph as a young colleague at an early stage these had been shown to be concerned in the trans­ of his existence. The analogy between music and mathe­ ference of the parasite. In the ba rracks at Wilberforce, matics seems, moreover, to have suggested itself to M. Sierra Leone, 25 per cent. of the soldiers suffered from Jules Lemaitre, Director of the French Academy, who all three forms of malaria or gnat fever. ·All the gnats remarks that such precocity of genius is sometimes found .caught in the barracks were Anopheles costalis except in mathematics and in music, but is never seen in litera­ one, and out of 109 of those examined, parasites were ture. We find Bertrand publishing a paper on the theory found in 27. of electricity in 1839, w_hen he must have been about Some experiments on feeding Anopheles on a patient sixteen years old, and it is hardly surprising in view of with H . malariae gave positive results, several young this to learn that his precocity amazed his masters. In zygotes being found in the gnat. These gnats were 1841 he wrote papers on indeterminate forms, Jacobi's caught in a building where there were .· no fever patients, theorem and differential equations, and from that time and numbers of them had been examined and found free onward he was fairly launched on his career as a writer from parasites. When, however, Anopheles bred from the of mathematical papers, his output being five papers in larv<e and kept in test tubes were applied to the skin 1842 and seven in 1843. But whereas most of the young of a patient, they were found not to feed copiously, and musical dl butants, to whom reference has just·been made, negative results, a.s regards zygotes, were obtained on have enjoyed only ephemeral reputations, and have ex­ dissecting them. It is suggested that the explanation hausted their energies in their premature efforts to an of the failure was the non-fertilisation of the females ; it extent which must have prejudiced their future careers, seems that the female gnat requires blood for the nutri­ Bertrand succeeded in achieving all that was predicted tion of the eggs. If the ova are not fertilised, the blood . of him ; he showed no diminution of energy in. advancing is possibly evacuated without some digestive. process years, a nd, moreover, to judge from all accounts, ·he being performed which may be necessary to the vitality developed into a good man of business, a quality which of the zygotes. is commonly regarded by "the general public" as incom­ Measures of precaution against the bite.s of gnats, and patible with being a genius. measures for reducing their numbers, are discussed in In 1842 he had a narrow escape from being killed the chapter on prevention. It is that neither in a railway accident near Meudon. In company with Europeans nor natives made any effort to keep down his brother, Alexandre Bertrand, now distinguished as an the numbers of gnats, which constitute a very. serious archreologist, he had gone to Versailles to see the foun­ pest in Sierra Leone, as they do in all tropical towns. tains, and on the return journey the accident occurred in this report and the" Instructions for the Preven­ which Admiral Dumont d'Erville was killed. Both of tion of Malaria " should be invaluable to residents abroad, the Bertrand brothers suffered, Joseph losing the bridge a s indicating how they may protect themselves from the of his nose-a misfortune which disfigured him for life­ annoyance from gnats, and from the evil results that may while Alexandre's leg. was fractured. Joseph rescued his arise from their "bites.'' brother by dragg ing him through "the skyli ght," the E xperiments were instituted with a view to destroying carriage doors being, locked. A few months later he NO. 1591, VOL. 6rJ © 1900 Nature Publishing Group APRIL 26, 1900] NATURE married the si ster of one of the injured, a :'llademoiselle ":\lccanique analytique," with copious notes, and ril Acloque. At the l'olytechnique, Bertrand acquired a small volume of lectures on electricity, in which I3ertrand knowledge of rnininR, and on leaving he became an in- gives the true origin and reason of Faraday's notion of spector of mines. He was subse4uently appointed pro- "electric flux, " although, being a mathematician, he fessor at the Lycce St. Louis. naturally favoured the rigorous methods of Ampere, for In 1844 he be_came teacher of analysis (r/p/- . whom he expressed great admiration. lilcur d'amzlyse) in the Ecole Polytcchnique; from 11i47 [ l'assing from these standard treatises to the numerous to 1851 he was examiner for admission to the same in- . papers published in scientific journals, a glance down stitution, which raised him to the rank of professor of I the list of these shows that, from the outset, Bertrand in tS;r,, a post which he held till 1895 , just after de,·oted his attention largely to applied mathematics, he had r.ompleted his jubilee as a member of the teach- and to those portions of pure mathematics requirelt ing staff, an e,·ent which was commemorated on May 27, in the solution of problems in applied m;uhematics. 1894, by a committee of his old students, who presented llis early papers deal chiefly with the differen­ him with a medal engr;,ved by Chaplain. In 1847 he tial and integral calculus, differential equations, the was appointed deputy professor to Biot in the depart- calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, and in par­ ment of physics and mathematics at the College de ticular the integration of the equations of dynamics. France, and on the death of Biot, in I8(>2 , he was ap- His papers on the theory of surfaces, dating from pointed to the chair. From then up till I8<)o he lectured on the principle of similitude in mechanics, on the­ regularly, with the exceptions that his work was taken propagation of sound and on capillary phenomena, are­ by Darboux in 1867, by ;\Iaurice Levy in 1874-76 and among the best known of his minor writings.
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