Statesmen-Scientists

Europeans have a way of combining erudition and statesmanship. Lord Balfour is a distinguished philosopher. Raymond Poincare is a well-known litterateur and comes from a famous scientific family. Now Paul Painleve, mathematician and former Premier of France, has come forward with a new variation on the theme of relativity. He has not made public its details, but has thus far written two parts of a work on his new theory, and intends to complete it during the coming summer.

Professor Painleve asserts that his conception is based on mechanics of broader lines than Einstein's. It is an attempt to reconcile the old Newtonian school of gravitation with the new Einsteinian school. " I consider Einstein's theory a step in the right direction," he says. " Certainly it was necessary to explain phenomena which could not be explained under the old theories."

Painleve is 60 years old and for more than a decade has been a prominent figure in the politics of the Republic. He has held professorships at the Sorbonne, the Ecole Normale, the Polytechnique, the University of Paris. He is a member of the Institute (the highest French scientific body) and the author of several important mathematical works.