August 4, 1923] 



NA TURE 



T7. 



Current Topics and Events. 



I 



The problems of physics are manifold, and tend to 

 increase in number and in difficulty. Fifty years ago 

 there was a general feeling that we had only to 

 proceed steadily in the application of familiar 

 dynamical principles to explain all the phenomena of 

 inanimate nature. Some men of science would have 

 included in such an explanation the facts of animate 

 nature as well. How different is the position to-day ! 

 Sir Oliver Lodge, in the illuminating address which 

 appears as a supplement to this issue, expounds the 

 difficulties and perplexities which now face the 

 natural philosopher, summing them up in the two 

 words, " ether " and " electrons." The relativist 

 may, for his own special purposes, ignore the ether, 

 but Sir Oliver claims that as we find ourselves im- 

 bedded in ether and matter, it is necessary to take 

 stock of our position and consider how much it is 

 possible to ascertain as to etherial properties. The 

 outstanding problems of our time, that of radiation on 

 one hand and of atomic structure on the other, have 

 been at least partially solved by the electro-magnetic 

 theory of Clerk Maxwell and the electron theory which 

 owes so much to his successors at the Cavendish 

 Laboratory. But the still greater problem of relating 

 these theories satisfactorily to one another and to 

 the disquieting results embodied in the modern 

 theories of quanta and relativity still awaits the 

 revealing power of the master mind. The acceleration 

 of an electron generates waves. In photo-electricity 

 ■we find that radiation can fling out an electron with 

 a surprising amount of energy. There is thus a 

 remarkable reciprocal relation between light and 

 electrons. With characteristic boldness Sir Oliver 

 Lodge tackles the relations between radiation and 

 matter and suggests — in the form of a question, it is 

 true — that the actual generation of an electron by 

 means of light is not an altogether impossible idea. 

 The suggestion is perhaps not entirely new, but it has 

 never been stated with such clearness and force, and 

 deserves the serious consideration of scientific thinkers. 



It is a remarkable fact that, despite the immense 

 advances in our knowledge of bacteria as the causative 

 factors of infective disease, the viruses of the eminently 

 contagious exantheraatic diseases have not been 

 unmasked. The causes of measles, scarlet fever, 

 small-pox, chicken-pox, and typhus have not been 

 found with certainty. Naturally, a great many 

 researches have been carried out to discover these 

 imknown causes, and in the earlier days of bacterio- 

 logy many micro-organisms were incriminated which 

 are now known to be accidental contaminations or 

 are accessory to the main cause. The history of 

 investigation on scarlet fever illustrates this admir- 

 ably. Cocci of diverse kinds, bacilli, and even 

 protozoa, have been alleged to cause the disease. 

 The most recent report comes from Italy, where it is 

 alleged that di Cristina of Palermo and Carolia of 

 Rome have discovered the germ of scarlet fever in 

 the form of an ovoid diplococcus. From what we 

 know of bacteria in disease, it is improbable that 

 the exanthemata are due to microbes of this class. 



NO. 2805, VOL. I 12] 



The contagiosity, the eruption, and the high degree 

 of immunity point to a special class of diseases differ- 

 ing altogether from the bacterial infective processes. 

 Hektoen (1923) has recently published an interesting 

 historical research detailing the various attempts 

 which have been made to transfer scarlet fever 

 intentionally to man, and he considers it very doubtful 

 whether this has ever taken place. This is remark- 

 able when one considers the ease with which the 

 disease is transmitted under natural conditions. 



The Rothamsted Experimental Station is one of 

 the Institutions to which the Empire Cotton Growing 

 Corporation has made a grant of 1000/. for five years, 

 for the development of research work likely to be of 

 importance in relation to problems connected with 

 cotton-growing. It is evidence of the enlightened 

 outlook of the Corporation to research that the grant 

 is free from any restrictions likely to hamper the 

 progress of the work. The money will be employed 

 in increasing the staff and equipment of the Soil 

 Physics Department, in order that more rapid progress 

 may be made in the study of the fundamental 

 physical properties of soil. Special attention will be 

 devoted to the water relationships, in view of their 

 importance in districts where cotton is grown. The 

 elucidation of these principles is necessary before 

 trustworthy advice can be given to the growers, 

 and, conversely, the practical problems that the local 

 experts are expected to solve often present points 

 that can only be answered after investigations in a 

 research laboratory under controlled conditions. 

 The function of the Soil Physics Department at 

 Rothamsted will be to undertake these investigations 

 as part of its study of the fundamental properties 

 of soil. The Department will act as the headquarters 

 of those men on study-leave who wish to discuss 

 soil problems arising in the course of their work, and 

 they will be provided with facilities for experimental 

 investigations. 



The Polish Physical Society was founded in April 

 1920, with five branch sections in Warsaw, Cracow, 

 Lw6w, Wilno, and PoznaA respectively. Prof. 

 Ladislas Natanson, of the Jagellonian University of 

 Cracow, was the first president of the Society for 

 the period 1920-23, and in the general assembly held 

 in Warsaw in April last Prof. St. Pieiikowski was 

 elected president and Prof. Natanson vice-president- 

 The first part of the Society's Transactions, referring 

 to the period 1920-21, has been recently issued. It 

 is an interesting volume containing a number of 

 important contributions. There is an obituary 

 notice of Prof. Tad. Godlewski ; Prof. Natanson's 

 presidential address ; and a number of papers : on 

 the diffusion and scattering of light, especially in 

 water, by Prof. Cz. Bialobrzeski ; on discharge in 

 electrodeless tubes, by Prof. J. Wierusz-Kow^lski ; 

 on the spectra of iodine vapour, by Mr. Landau- 

 Ziemecki ; on the magnetic anomalies in Poland, by 

 Prof. St. Kalinowski ; on the electrometric study of 

 radioactive fluctuations, by Messrs. Wertenstein and 



