International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

THE CINEMA IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 77 of reaction to the various stimuli with the utmost exactitude. Fundamental results have been obtained in the studies on " vitro " cultures which have been made in nearly all the biological laboratories of the world, and especially in the biological laboratory of the Rockfeller Foundation in New York. The researches made by Faure, Fremiet, de Francoise Frank, Vies and many others on the kinetics of development form a fresh treasury of facts wrested from science. Jolly and Comandon have registered the movements of the chromosomes in the canocinesis of the haematia of tritons. In other fields there have been, perhaps fewer applications, but the results have certainly been no less important and significant. Victor Henri has registered and analysed the Brownwinian movements of the minutest particles suspended in liquids. Dr. Siedentopp has made motion pictures of the photo-chemical transformation of white phosphorus into red phosphorus. In ballistic studies, new light has been thrown on the speed of projectiles and the way they pass through certain resistant bodies, and new progress has been made in this field. Aero-dynamic research has found a valuable aid in certain cinematographic machines which have been expressly manufactured and which enable us to take a simultaneous registration of three images, that is to say, the object, the chronometer at 1/500 of a second and the registrator of the angle of horizontal displacement. These apparata enable us to measure the speed of air machines at the moment of starting and landing. Scientific Institutes In the field of the scienand Cinematograph tjnc organization of laApplications. boui% the dnema con, tinually gives us more numerous and more important contributions. Indeed, certain great manufacturing organizations have set up psycho-technical laboratories of their own where the cinematograph is frequently made use of for special experiments and for the examination of men seeking work. The principal scientific institutions of the world are continually improving and developing their cinematograph installations. In France, for instance, the cinematograph service of the army, the navy and aviation makes an extensive use of moving pictures for the improvement of machines and motors and for ballistic instruments. The National Research and Patent Office possesses a special organization which makes use of the film for purposes of investigation and documentation. In the Marey Institute, the cinematograph is one of the means of study most used, while the College of France has a complete and well equipped micro-cinematographic installation which is under the direction of Mde Francoise Frank, and another in the Cancer Institute of the Medical Faculty in Paris. The University of Lyons has also a modern micro-cinematographic laboratory. (Comandon). In England, Germany and Japan, cinematograph organizations for scientific research are continually growing in number and importance. In the universities of Yale and Harvard, special pavilions have been built and fitted out with every modern camera and projection apparatus, while in Russia, at the instigation of Pawlew and other illustrious scientists, the application of cinema apparatus to scientific research is rapidly gaining ground. The Use of the Cin There are two fields ema for Science ;n wnjch a knowledge Classes in Schools. c j . 1 or science needs to be spread, namely in schools and among the general public. In the former case, we use didactic films ; in the latter, films belonging to what may be called cultural cinematography. Forty years have passed since the first presentation of the cinema to the public, and thirty-six years since the youthful Dr. Dayen had a film made of one of his surgical operations. The problem of the didactic cinema is still with us, and is the subject of lively discussions, which seem likely to