The portraiture of the honourable Robert Boyle,F.R.S.

“To whom is the Consecration of Medal, Stature or even Pyramid more jusly due, than to … the late Illustraious Boyle? … for the happy Improvement of Otto Guericks Magdeburg Exhausterm and for his Profound and Noble Researches into all the abstruser Parts and Recesses of the most useful Philosophy … I have named the Illustrious Boyle, and fix his Trophy here.”

John Evelyn, Numismata, 1697.

     

Der Briefwechsel von E. S. von Fedorow und F. Klein, 1893

Ohne Zusammenfassung B. L. van der Waerden zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet Vorgelegt von B. L. van der Waerden     

Activity of precocene analogs onLocusta migratoria migratorioides (R. and F.)

Summary Several analogs of precocene have been synthesized and evaluated as potential inhibitors of juvenile hormone onLocusta migratoria. Only 5,7-dimethoxy-2,2-dimethylchromene was active; its ED₅₀ and LD₅₀ were measured and compared to those of precocene I and II.Acknowledgments. This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ministère de l'Education du Québec. We are grateful to Gaston Grégoire for rearing the insects.     

Etat hygrométrique,coloration et résistance chez l'imago deLocusta migratoria migratorioides (R.F.)

Summary This investigation centres on the direct relationship between atmospheric humidity and the proportion of green and brown forms inLocusta ph.solitaria, on the ability of the brown forms to adjust their colours to the tints of their surroundings, and on the survival capacity of unfedsolitaria andgregaria adults.     

Book Review: Current Perspectives in the History of Science in East Asia,edited by Y. S. Kim and F. Bray

In 1670, the Bolognese mathematician Pietro Mengoli published his Speculationi di musica, a highly original work attempting to found the mathematical study of music on the anatomy of the ear. His anatomy was idiosyncratic and his mathematics extraordinarily complex, and he proposed a unique double mechanism of hearing. He analysed in detail the supposed behaviour of the subtle part of the air inside the ear, and the patterns of strokes made on the eardrum by simultaneous sounds. Most strikingly, he divided the musical octave into a continuous set of regions which he colour-coded to show their effects on a listener. His work did not find its way into the mainstream of seventeenth-century mathematical studies of music, but when examined in its context it has the potential to shed light on that discipline, as well as being of considerable interest in its own right. Here, I focus on the anatomical and mathematical basis of Mengoli's work.     

Increased contents of phenylethanolamine, m-octopamine and p-octopamine in the hypothalamus and brain stem of spontanously hypertensive rats (S.H.R. Kyoto)]

Phenylethanolamine, p-octopamine and m-octopamine contents were determined in the hypothalamus and the brain stem of spontaneously hypertensive Rats (S.H.R. Kyto) and the corresponding controls (Wistar Kyoto). In three-week-old Rats, phenylethanolamine and p-octopamine are found to be present in S.H.R. hypothalamus and brain stem at concentrations twice as high as compared to Wistar Kyoto Rats. The amount of m-octopamine is 5-fold higher in the brain stem of S.H.R. Rats as compared to Wistar Kyoto Rats.     

La regola dei segni dall'enunciato di R. Descartes (1637) alla dimostrazione di C. F. Gauss (1828)

Conclusioni Le dimostrazioni algebriche della regola, sia che riguardino il caso a radici reali o quello generale si fondano tutte su una proposizione che descrive il comportamento dei segni di un'equazione quando la si moltiplica per x – a oppure per x + a.Le prime dimostrazioni algebriche relative ad equazioni a radici reali, cioé quelle diSegner (1728),Campbell, Stübner eDe Gua, benchè trovate indipendentemente, presentano notevoli somiglianze. Per esempio tutti gli autori menzionati dimostrano laproposizione di Leibniz ricorrendo al lemma che afferma che, in un'equazione completa a radici reali, il quadrato di ogni coefficiente è maggiore del prodotto dei due coefficienti adiacenti, anche se di esso forniscono dimostrazioni diverse.Nella dimostrazione algebrica relativa al caso generale laproposizione di Leibniz è invece dimostrata direttamente. Già nella dimostrazione diSegner (1756) vengono introdotti, anche se in forma oscura e prolissa, quegli elementi che verranno poi semplificati e chiariti nelle dimostrazioni diWaring, Fourier eGauss.Il punto essenziale delle dimostrazioni analitiche, sia che riguardino il caso a radici reali o quello generale, è una proposizione che trasporta la validità del teorema dall'equazione derivata di un'equazione, all'equazione stessa. La regola viene poi dimostrata per induzione. Nelle prime dimostrazioni analitiche, cioè quelle diDe Gua, Kaestner edAepinus, gli autori fanno diretto riferimento al grafico della curva che rappresenta l'equazione. Successivamente con il consolidarsi delle conoscenze dell'analisi infinitesimale,Euler, Milner, Lagrange eRuffini omettono ogni riferimento al grafico dell'equazione.Osserviamo infine che è proprio l'applicazione dell'analisi infinitesimale alla teoria delle equazioni a suggerire aFourier una generalizzazione della regola dei segni, che condurrà successivamente al più generaleteorema di Sturm.     

The use of F.S.H. gonadotrophins to obtain functioning ovarian grafts in the anterior chamber of the eye

Riassunto È stata studiata la possibilità di ottenere in camera anteriore innesti ovarici, sensibili all'azione di urina di donna gravida.È stato osservato che le gonadotropine F.S.H. favoriscono la crescita dell'ovaio innestato, mentre le gonadotropine L. H. non mostrano alcuna azione.Il preparato innestato in camera anteriore reagisce all'inoculazione di urina di donna gravida, mentre non è influenzato dall'inoculazione di urina di donna non gravida o di urina di uomo.     

P.S. Laplace's work on probability

Taken together with my previous articles [77], [80] devoted to the history of finite random sums and to Laplace's theory of errors, this paper sheds sufficient light on the whole work of Laplace in probability. Laplace's theory of probability is subdivided into theory of probability proper, limit theorems and mathematical statistics (not yet distinguished as a separate entity). I maintain that in its very design Laplace's theory of probability is a discipline pertaining to natural science rather than to mathematics. I maintain also the idea that the so-called Laplacian determinism was no hindrance to applications of his theory of probability to natural science and that one of his utterances in this connection could have well been made by Maxwell's contemporaries.Two possible reasons why the theory of probability stagnated after Laplace's work are singled out: the absence of new fields of application and, also, the insufficient level of mathematical abstraction used by Laplace. For all his achievements, I reach the general conclusion that he did not originate the theory of probability as it is now known. Dedicated to the memory of my Father, Boris A. Sheynin (1898–1975), the first generation of the Russian revolution Cette inégalité [Lunaire] quoique indiquée par les observations, était négligée par le plus grand nombre des astronomes, parce qu'elle ne paraissait pas résulter de la théorie de la pesanteur universelle. Mais, ayant soumis son existence au Calcul des Probabilités, elle me parut indiqués avec une probabilité si forte, que je crus devoir en rechercher la cause.(P. S. Laplace (Théor. anal. prob., p. 361))     

GenusCrotalaria XIII. Crobarbatine,a new pyrrolizidine alkaloid ofC. barbata R.

Zusammenfassung Strukturaufklärung eines neuen Pyrrolizidinalkaloids, Crobarbatin, welches aus dem Samen vonCrotalaria barbata R. isoliert wurde.