100 YEARS AGO

There are, it is estimated, about 400 lepers in France. They are scattered about in Brittany, in the Pyrenees, on the shores of the Mediterranean, and in Paris, where they number 150. Among the lepers there are missionaries and nurses who have fallen victims to their devoted care of sufferers in other countries, and officials and soldiers who have contracted the disease in the colonies. An anti-leprosy committee has, says the British Medical Journal , recently been formed… for the care of the lepers in France and the prevention of the spread of the disease.

EXCELLENT results have been obtained by the French Government from experiments made with wireless telegraphy. The Engineer of June 15 says that the demonstrations showed that communication could be maintained, between ship and shore, to a distance of about sixty miles with comparative ease, only the height of the masts of the Government ship Utile preventing longer distances being attained. In consequence of these achievements the French Government have decided to equip their Mediterranean Squadron with the necessary apparatus.

From Nature 28 June 1900.

50 YEARS AGO

There exists in the Cavendish Laboratory an extensive collection of apparatus used in the great era of classical physics. The start of modern physics is generally identified with J. J. Thomson's experiments on the electron in 1896, but a revolution of equal importance was taking place in the time of Maxwell and Rayleigh, the first two holders of the Cavendish chair. Physics was becoming established as an experimental science… and for the first time a home was being officially provided for it by the University, where students could do experiments and the staff could pursue research. It is rather startling to realize at what a late date the idea of an experimental laboratory took shape. The earliest record of anything of the kind appears to be the laboratory in a wine-cellar in one of the professors' houses at Glasgow, which Kelvin fitted up in 1846… Until that time the tradition throughout British universities had been that while the professor gave his lectures in natural philosophy in university lecture rooms, research was his private concern, to be carried out where he could.

From Nature 1 July 1950.