USE OF OCEANOGRAPHY—DEACON BYE 
seas and Jands which, in turn, would accelerate the rise of temperature 
by reducing the reflection of the sun’s radiation and increasing the 
absorption. Such a train of events might provoke quite important 
changes in climate and sea level. 
WASTE DISPOSAL 
One of the greatest uses of the sea is as a receptacle for the disposal 
of waste. The opportunity thus offered has been so much abused near 
large towns or industrial centers that bathing has to be prohibited, 
and there is even some risk of disease. A satisfactory answer to the 
problem calls for a clearer understanding of the processes of diffusion 
and mixing, and of the manner in which they depend on waves, tides, 
and currents. The disposal of atomic waste has not so far been a 
difficult problem, since the amounts are small and are likely to decrease 
further as new uses are found for radioactive waste. But we should 
keep in mind the object lesson provided by previous experience in air 
and water pollution—where the threat has so long been ignored that 
it has now become a formidable menace. Short-term measures based 
on inadequate knowledge and taken under pressure from interested 
parties have not usually been satisfactory. 
Although the spread of water from the River Thames across the 
North Sea seems to have a good rather than bad effect on fish popula- 
tions, the general impression everywhere is that fisheries and weed 
beds are declining; and we are not certain that we are not gradually 
poisoning the oceans. More research will at least give a clearer picture 
of local problems and provide a foundation for a campaign to keep the 
sea clean similar to that launched against indiscriminate oil fuel 
disposal. 
RESEARCH IN MARINE SCIENCE 
The part which the sea has played in the cultural, economic, and 
political history of mankind has always been a great stimulus to the 
study of the oceans. But in contrast to the wealth of literature on the 
achievements of the early explorers and geographers, there is no well- 
balanced account of scientific investigations of the ocean; Krummel’s 
“Handbuch der Ozeanographie”? is perhaps the best guide. Early 
scientists like Boyle and Newton took a great interest in the problems 
of the sea, as did later Lavoisier, Bernouilli, Laplace, Young, and 
others. Since the rapid growth of natural history in the 19th century, 
the main interest in the study of the ocean has centered on biological 
aspects, and today this interest is heightened by the fact that some of 
the fundamental problems in zoology can best be studied by using the 
simplest forms of life—which occur in the sea—and also that the 
2? The first volume published in 1907, the second in 1911. 
