Notes

Abstract

THE succession of M. Painleve to the Premiership of the French Government ought, even in this country, to excite the interest and friendly sympathy of the scientific world. The new Premier is a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and a mathematician of world-wide reputation; besides contributing to the literature of his subject, he has held, until quite lately, two of the most important mathematical chairs in France. To construct a similar case in our own country, we should have to suppose our Prime Minister to be a man like the, late H. J. S. Smith, or Sir William Ramsay; could anything more improbable be thought of? Yet the evidence is steadily growing that men of the so-called professorial type may show themselves eminent! capable of directing public affairs; President Wilson is a conspicuous example, and as time goes on the number of such cases is certain to increase. We feel that, on behalf of English men of science, we may congratulate, not only M. Painleve, but even France herself, on this appointment; and we confidently hope that the sequel will justify it, and help to make average citizens understand the value, in all national affairs, of a strictly scientific habit of mind.