464 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and he has attempted to organise prosperity for those two islands owned by 

 him and called Lewis and Harris. It appears that the inhabitants have long 

 been under the impression that they would become perfectly happy if each 

 of them were to be given a small croft with a cottage and a few cows. But 

 Lord Leverhulme, who is perhaps the most able and one of the richest business 

 men in Britain, has come to the conclusion, after scientific thought, that such 

 crofts would really not pay ; and so we suppose. Instead of such a programme, 

 he wishes the people of these islands to develop the magnificent harvest of fish 

 which remains, so to speak, uncut at their doors ; and he asks for ten years in 

 which to develop the business. Of course the people affected were surprised at 

 first. Any new thing appeals to human beings much in the same way as would 

 a demonstration of the binomial theorem to a herd of cows in a field, but after a 

 time they begin to understand ; and we hope and believe that Lord Leverhulme 

 will ultimately succeed. If we talked less about our rights, our privileges, our 

 constitutional powers and the various methods of government, and really tried 

 to think out what we should do to improve our happiness in the world, we 

 should be wise — wiser perhaps than human beings can be. 



Shide Hill House 



In the summer of 1895 Prof. Milne returned to England after his twenty years' 

 residence in Japan. The seismographs which he brought with him, improved and 

 added to in the following years, were erected at Shide Hill House, near Newport, 

 Isle of Wight, which then became the centre of the operations of the British 

 Association Seismological Committee, and the most important and well-known 

 earthquake observatory in the world. After Prof. Milne's death six years ago 

 (see Science Progress, April 1914, pp. 713-20), the house became the property 

 of his widow, who is a native of Japan ; but the instruments were allowed to 

 remain there and the work with them was carried on as before under the direction 

 of Prof. H. H. Turner, of Oxford, the chairman of the Seismological Committee. 

 Owing to Mrs. Milne's decision to return to Japan, the house was sold by auction 

 last autumn, and the seismographs have been transferred to Oxford, where they 

 will be under Prof. Turner's immediate care. It is satisfactory to learn that, 

 except for the brief interruption of the records, there will be no actual loss 

 caused by the change of station. 



Toothbrushes— a Warning 



The great prevalence of decayed teeth among the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and, 

 to a less extent, among other white races, is notorious, and has been ascribed to 

 many causes, but, in my opinion, without sufficient consideration. White wheat 

 flour seems to be the most popular ascription in the medical press, such flour 

 being specially favourable to the growth of organisms in dental caries. How, 

 then, we ask, do races which live on white flour, such as several peoples of 

 northern India, possess such beautiful teeth ? The eating of soft, cooked food is 

 another alleged cause ; why, then, do not the people of southern India, who live 

 almost entirely on soft-boiled rice, suffer as we do ? National degeneration is yet 

 another supposed cause — which must be dismissed in view of the fact that 

 physically and mentally we are certainly stronger than many races and tribes 

 whose teeth remain almost perfect until old age — and the same may be said of 



