October 20, 192 1] 



NATURE 



:o5 



extracts and of lac, as well as matters relating to the 

 development of the sugar industr\-. Arrangements 

 have been made by which one or two Indian students 

 can receive a training in the scientific manufacture 

 of sugar under the Imperial Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Barbados, West Indies, and it is stated that 

 the course is open to a student of chemistry or any 

 other who is prepared to consider it. 



A NOTE of the meeting at Bergen of the Inter- 

 national Commission for the scientific investigation 

 of the upper air, is given in the Meteorological Maga- 

 zine for September. The meeting commenced on 

 July 26, and was continued on the following days. 

 The preceding (seventh) meeting of this Commis- 

 sion was held in Vienna in igi2, though at that 

 meeting the time was mainly occupied with business 

 questions, little time being given to scientific discus- 

 sion. At the Bergen meeting, this year, the leading 

 place was given to scientific contributions from the 

 members of the Commission and other meteorologists 

 interested in the work. Much attention was directed to 

 further developments in the study of the Polar Front. 

 Broadly speaking, the Scandinavian school finds that 

 depressions occur in families of four, each following a 

 track slightly further south than its predecessor, the 

 first and third of the family being generally more in- 

 tense than the second and fourth. The note mentions 

 that on the average a new family begins every 65 

 days. The Commission decided that an international 

 publication of the results of the investi^gation of the 

 upper air on certain selected days should be continued, 

 and a table is given showing the dates when the 

 ascents are to be made. A report of the proceedings 

 of the meeting has been published, and was presented 

 to the International Meteorological Committee re- 

 cently held in London. 



At the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute recently held in Paris a paper was contributed by 

 M. L. Guillet on "The Position of the Metallurgical 

 Industries of Northern and Eastern France : Their 

 Destruction and Reconstruction." M. Guillet himself 

 writes with first-hand knowledge of this subject, and 

 emphasises that of the total destruction only a very 

 small proportion was due to actual war damage ; the 

 bulk of it was deliberate, and had as its object the 

 putting of French iron and steel works out of action 

 for many years to come. He states that in some 

 regions the work of demolition was carried out so 

 systematically that a whole arsenal of works-breaking 

 machinery was created for the purpose. He himself 

 removed at the Biache Saint-\'aast Copper Works, 

 near Arras, a whole series of high-explosive cartridges 

 from the principal parts of the plant and machinery. 

 The work of reconstruction has been truly remarkable 

 considering the conditions under which it had to be 

 undertaken. After the armistice it was impossible to 

 rely on finding anything which might be needed in 

 the immediate locality. Machinery, raw materials, 

 and labour were lacking, and the workmen were 

 scattered far and wide. A lack of coal and means of 

 transport made it impossible to rely upon regions still 

 intact. Details are given of how this situation was 

 met in a number of the most important metallurgical 

 NO. 2712, VOL. 108] 



districts and of the results accomplished. Despite the 

 above handicaps and financial difficulties arising out 

 of the incomplete Peace Treaty, the works are little 

 by little resuming their activities. Moreover, in the 

 course of their reconstruction they have been com- 

 pletely modernised, and it is probable, therefore, that 

 their efficiency will be considerably increased. M. 

 Guillet regards the outlook as both prosperous and 

 promising. 



Among the forthcoming books included in the an- 

 nouncement of the Cambridge University Press in 

 N.\TURE of September 22, p. 131, was one by Major 

 P. A. MacMahon, 'New Mathematical Problems," 

 the title of which, we are now informed, should 

 have been given as "New Mathematical Pastimes." 

 The book contains a series of puzzles based on the 

 permutations and combinations of elementar}- geo- 

 metrical shapes, and is a contribution to the litera- 

 ture of mathematical recreations. 



"Ocean Research and the Great Fisheries," by 

 G. C. L. Howell, is announced by the Oxford Uni- 

 versitv Press as almost ready. The author writes 

 about the organisation of ocean research, statistics, 

 the apparent effect of the war on fish supplies, fish 

 culture, etc., and discusses the problems connected 

 with a dozen of the most important kinds of fish, 

 dealing with the varieties separately. 



"The Dictionary of Applied Physics," which 

 Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., propose to issue 

 under the editorship of Sir Richard Glazebrook, is 

 now in an advanced stage of preparation. The work 

 will apf)ear in five volumes of 600-700 pages each, the 

 subjects of which are as follows : — (i) Mechanics, 

 Engineering, and Heat ; (2) Electricit\' ; (3) Metrology, 

 Meteorology, and Measuring Appliances; (4) Metal- 

 lurgy and .Aeronautics ; and (5) Optics, Sound, and , 

 Radiologv. It is hoped that vol. i will be ready for 

 publication early in 1922, and it will contain im- 

 portant articles by a number of distinguished con- 

 tributors. Sir Alfred Ewing has written on thermo- 

 dynamics, the liquification of gases, and refrigera- 

 tion. Sir Charles Parsons and Prof. Stoney on the 

 steam turbine. Sir Dugald Clerk and Mr. Burls on 

 the internal-combustion engine. Prof. Dalby on the 

 balancing of engines, and Dr. E. H. Griffiths on the 

 mechanical equivalent ; while Dr. Horace Lamb has 

 provided several articles on related mathematical ques- 

 tions. Other topics dealt with are friction, lubrica- 

 tion, ship resistance, manometers, the determination 

 of the elastic constants of materials, dynamometers, 

 the theory of elasticitv and ifcs application to struc- 

 tures, hydraulics, and the kinematics of machinery. 

 In the heat section Dr. Coblentz has written on the 

 experimental verification of the laws of radiation, Mr. 

 C. G. Darwin on radiation theory and the quantum, 

 Mr. W. C. D. Whetham on the pnase rule, Mr. Ezer 

 Griffiths on calorimetry and pyrometn,-, and Prof. 

 Porter on thermal expansion. The editor has thus 

 secured the services of a recognised authoritA- on each 

 of the subjects dealt with, and this plan has also 

 been adopted in the remaining volumes which the 

 publishers hope to issue at short intervals after the 

 appearance of the first. 



