144 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



were read ; these being divided between the sections of Geodesy, Meteorology, 

 Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity, and Physical Oceanography. Taken 

 together they present an admirable survey of the present positions of these 

 branches of science. The first paper, by Lyman J. Briggs, describes the 

 various appliances which have been devised for the measurement of gravity 

 at sea, including that used by Duf&eld when travelling to Australia for the 

 B.A. meeting in 1914. A paper by Dr. W. F. G. Swann deals with the 

 penetrating radiation which would appear to exist at the earth's surface 

 and to produce ions in the air at the rate of 4-6 per c.c. per second ; while 

 another, by C. F. Marvin, sounds a note of caution in drawing conclusions 

 concerning any connection between solar activity and terrestrial weather. 



Among a number of very interesting exhibits at the Royal Society Con- 

 versazione on May 17 was one illustrating a remarkable phenomenon dis- 

 covered by Prof. H. B. Baker, F.R.S. It is found that when certain liquids 

 {e.g. mercury, benzene, bromine, alcohol, ether, etc.) have been dried in 

 the presence of phosphorus pentoxide for some years (7-9 in the cases 

 dealt with) their boiling-points are very considerably higher than usual 

 (from 26°-62° C. in the case of different liquids). This anomaly is probably 

 due to association increasing the size of the molecules, since the surface 

 tension of the liquids also becomes abnormally high. 



The British Association has published a number of reprints of addresses 

 and reports read at the Edinburgh meeting last year at prices varying from 

 gd. to 3s. 6d. We would particularly recommend to our readers No. i, which 

 contains the address on Science and Ethics delivered by Principal E. H. 

 Griffiths. 



Early in 1915 Mr. J. W. Robertson Scott set out for Japan in order 

 to obtain data for a sociological book on small farming and rural life in 

 Japan in the hope that it might provide some guidance towards our own 

 agricultural reconstruction in post-war days. His residence in that country 

 extended over four and a half years, two of which were spent in founding 

 and editing a monthly review, 2 he New East, whose purpose was to tell the 

 Japanese something about their Western Ally and of the issues at stake in 

 the war. In the rest Mr. Robertson Scott travelled some 6,000 miles in 

 the rural parts mixing and talking with all classes from farm labourers to 

 Ministers of State. The result of his researches is before us in a book entitled 

 The Foundations of Japan (John Murray, 24s. net), which presents in an 

 attractively readable form an enormous amount of information concerning 

 the methods, habits, and outlook of the dwellers in the Japanese country- 

 side — a class little known in England, although it forms more than half the 

 population of the whole country. 



We note from a statement in the March number of the Radio Review 

 that the continued high cost of printing has made it necessary to suspend 

 the publication of that journal. Arrangements have been made to devote 

 a few pages of the Wireless World to research articles such as have been 

 appearing in the Review. It is to be hoped that this suspension wiU not be 

 long continued ; under the direction of Prof. Howe and Mr. Coursey the 

 Review has maintained a high standard, and its disappearance will be greatly 

 regretted by those interested in mathematical and commercial wireless 

 design. 



In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1922, Dr. W. Broughton 

 Allcock and Prof. J. G. Thomson have contributed an article on the sporozoon 

 Eimeria oxyspora, Dobell. This is the second occurrence of a specimen from 

 human faeces in England. It has only once previously been found, by 

 Dobell in 1919, but Thomson's patient had been to the Continent and Malta ; 

 in this paper will be found some excellent drawings by Dr. A. Robinson of 

 cyst spores of Eimeria. 



In the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, June 1921, Mr. 



