NA TURE 



889 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



By Sir Richard Redmayne, 

 By William Burton 

 By Prof. E.N. da 



Science in Civilisation 

 The Valuation of Mines. 



K.C.B. 

 Dutch Potters and their Work. 

 A Lover of Mountains 

 Expositions of Atomic Physics. 

 C. Andrade ........ 



Our Bookshelf ....... 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Hydrone and Water: Thunderstorms and Globe 



Lightning. — Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. . 

 Industrial Research Associations. — Dr. Kenneth Lee 

 Experiments on Alytes and Ciena. — Dr. W. 



Bateson, F. R. S 



Colour N'ision and Colour Vision Theories. — Prof. 

 Frank Allen ; Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, 



C.B.E. 



The Optica! Spectrum of Hafnium. — Prof. H. M. 



Hansen and Dr. S. Werner .... 



Scientific Names of Greek Derivation. — Dr. F. A. 



Bather, F.R.S. ; Dr. John W. Evans, F R.S. 



An Uncommon Type of Cloud. — J. Evershed, 



F.R.S. 



Consumption of Fish by Porpoises. — Dr. Johs. 

 Schmidt ....... 



Crystallisation of Cementite in Steel. UUustrated.) 



—Dr. F. Rogers 



Minute "Organisms" isolated from the Virus of 



Mosaic Disease of Tomato. — Dr. W. F. Bewley 



Globular Lightning. — Dr. William C. Reynolds . 



Rduvenescence and the Testicular Graft. By Dr. 



F. HA. Marshall, F.R.S 



Some Aspects of the Physical Chemistry of Inter- 

 faces. By Prof. F. G. Donnan, C.B.E., F.R.S. . 

 Obituary : — 



Mr. J. M. Wilkie 



Current Topics and Events ..... 



Our Astronomical Column ..... 



Research Items ...... 



The British Empire Exhibition, 1924 



Variations in the Level of Lake George, Australia. 



[IVith Diagram.) Hy C. E. P. B. 

 Geological Progress in India ..... 



Palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural 

 History ........ 



University and Educational Intelligence . 

 Societies and Academies ... 

 Official Publications Received 



Editorial and Publishim; Oflices : 



MACMILLAN 6- CO , LTD., 



ST. MARTIN S STREET. LONDON. W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



891 



893 

 894 



895 

 896 



899 



899 



900 



901 



901 



902 



902 



903 

 903 



904 



905 



908 

 909 

 912 



913 

 916 



918 

 918 



919 

 920 

 921 

 924 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS. LONDON 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD8830. 



NO. 2825, VOL. I 12] 



Science in Civilisation. 



A STIRRING appeal on behalf of "International 

 Thought" is put forward by Mr. John Galsworthy 

 in a pamphlet just published with that title (Cambridge : 

 W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd. Price 6i. net) ; and in it 

 representatives of science, finance, and the Press are 

 urged to combine to save the civilised world from self- 

 destruction. The most potefit director of this tri- 

 umvirate is held to be science, which has placed in the 

 hands of mankind powers with which it is not fit to 

 be entrusted, as the ethical or moral sense has not kept 

 pace with this development of knowledge. " We have 

 made by our science," says Mr. Galsworthy, " a monster 

 that will devour us yet, unless by exchanging inter- 

 national thought we can create a general opinion 

 against the new powers of destruction so strong and so 

 unanimous that no nation will care to face the force 

 which underlies it." 



Mr. Galsworthy is not alone in associating science 

 chiefly with agencies of death and destruction, and in 

 pleading for a curb to be placed upon its powers. It 

 is, indeed, common to regard science as a disturbing 

 influence in human affairs, and to sigh for the simple 

 life away from the restless spirit of inquiry- into all 

 things visible and invisible in the universe. It is, how- 

 ever', as futile to rail against the progress of science, or 

 to attempt to prevent it, as to use Mrs. Partington's 

 mop to keep back the rising flood of the Atlantic. 

 Knowledge will grow from more to more whatever the 

 attitude of the public may be towards it. During the 

 last fifty years there have been more scientific dis- 

 coveries and applications than in the whole previous 

 history of the human race ; and we may be on the 

 threshold of developments by which forces will be un- 

 loosed, and powers acquired, beyond what have 

 hitherto been known to man. Whether these shall be 

 used to promote social well-being and international 

 amity is not a question for science, but for the public 

 and its leaders. While nations look to war as the ulti- 

 mate means of deciding disputes, they will seek to 

 possess themselves of the most powerful means of im- 

 posing their wills upon others. As Prof. Soddy recently 

 remarked, should it be possible ever to release the great 

 store of energy in the atom, the first use that would be 

 made of it would be to construct a new bomb. 



It is only by such an international understanding as 

 is suggested by Mr. Galsworthy that this misuse of 

 scientific discovery can be avoided, yet, in spite of the 

 existence of the League of Nations, the signs of the 

 times are not very favourable towards the unity of 

 mankind. Science itself is international, and the results 

 of research are free to all for any purpose. In the 

 hundreds of scientific papers published weekly in the 



