January 31, 19 18] 



NATURE 



435 



\alue; they may; ptrhaps, be regarded as somewhat | 

 iiinor contributions to a great subject, but that is as 

 much as can be expected at. a time when all our best | 

 energies are devoted to "doing " rather than to writing I 

 or talking about what has been and is being done. I 

 Thus, Sir Herbert Jackson's address, "Some General 

 Observations on Glass," is interesting and suggestive, 

 hut obviously deals only with some of the frmges ot 

 he great work on which its author is known to be 

 . iigaged. 



Two subjects of very great immediate interest and 

 importance are, however, dealt with in these Journals. 

 The first of these relates to refractories. The papers 

 by Fearnsides, Davidson, Rosenhain, and Cosmo 

 Johns form oart of a special discussion on refractories 

 for the glass industry held by the society in Shefifield 

 s a supplement or extension of the discussion on this 

 -abject inaugurated by the Faraday Society. On the 

 basis of these papers the Society of Glass Technology 

 was able to formulate the requirements of the glass 

 industry in regard to refractories and to submit these 

 to a conference on refractories afterwards held in 

 London. This activity is of very considerable import- 

 ance, because it is hoped that as the fesult of these 

 conferences a " Refractories Research Association " 

 may shortly be formed, for the purpose, in the first 

 place, of furnishing fresh support and coordination 

 for the various researches on refractories already in 

 progress at various centres, such as the pottery labora- 

 tories at Stoke-on-Trent and at the National Physical 

 I^aboratory, and also of initiating much-needed addi- 

 tional researches both at those institutions and, pos- 

 sibly, elsewhere. The interests of the glass industry 

 are mos~t intimately concerned with this whole question 

 of refractories — indeed, it is probably not too much to 

 say that progress in glass manufacture depends almost 

 ( ntirely on progress in refractories. It may be hoped, 

 herefore, that the Society of Glass Technology will 

 give its best efforts to support this movement for re- 

 search on refractories. Above all, it is to be hoped that 

 no spirit of local or provincial jealousy will be allowed 

 to interfere with the proper distribution and develop- 

 ment of this work, whether at Sheffield, Stoke, or 

 Teddington. 



The second subject of great and immediate scientific 

 and industrial interest touched upon in this journal is 

 ihe question of the behaviour of glass in contact with 

 chemical reagents and the correlated question of the 

 testing of chemical laboratory glassware. This is a sub- 

 ject which, before 19 14, had received very considerable 

 attention in Germany, and there was a natural tend- 

 encv to look to the work of the " Reichsanstalt " for 

 guidanp in these matters. The necessity for produc- 

 ing satisfactory laboratory glass in this country has 

 led to a new and independent attack on the whole sub- 

 ject, and it has wisely come to be recognised that if 

 the laboratory glass industry is to flourish in England 

 after the war, it must be reinforced by an adequate 

 system of testing by some recognised institution which 

 vvill afford to the buyer and user of the ware an adequate 

 guarantee of its good quality. The institution and 

 organisation for dealing with a system of testing of 

 this kind are, fortunately, already in existence at the 

 National Phvsical Laboratory, and only need the pro- 

 vision of additional accommodation and staff to allow 

 of their immediate application to the whole industry. 



The question of the precise nature of the tests to be 

 applied, however, is more difficult. Here, as in all 

 cases where the power of prolonged endurance of an 

 article or a material is to be tested, it is necessary to 

 devise some accelerated test which shall— in a few 

 hours or, at most, days — furnish an indication of the 

 probable behaviour of the article in ordinary use over 

 a period of months or years. In such cases it is diffi- 

 NO. 2518, VOL. 100] 



cult, if not impossible, to retain similarity or propor- 

 tionality in the tests in such a way that the article 

 giving the best test shall also be that which gives the 

 best actual wear in use. In the case of glassware, in 

 which resistance to hot water and to acids and alkalis 

 and to such vigorous reagents as ammonium chloride 

 and ammonium sulphide is demanded, as well as resist- 

 ance to sudden changes of temperature and adequate 

 mechanical strength, the problem is particularly com- 

 plex — thus a variety of glass specially resistant to hot 

 water may not be so resistant to hydrochloric acid, 

 while a glass having a high degree of thermal endur- 

 ance may not be adequately resistant to water. 



The whole question of the tests to be applied has now 

 been systematically studied for a considerable time, 

 both at the National Physical Laboratory and by a 

 special committee of the Institute of Chemistry, wnile 

 two papers, bv Messrs. Westwood, Cauwood, and 

 Turner, and Messrs. Cauwood, English, and Turner 

 respectively, in the present journal, furnish an interest- 

 ing and important contribution to the subject. It may 

 be hoped that agreement on this matter, sufficient to 

 arrive at a working specification for routine testing, 

 may soon be arrived at, and that the National Testing 

 Bureau for Glass mav commence its beneficent work 

 for the British glass industry at no distant date. 



X-RAYS AND THE WAR.^ 



IT was close on two years before the first formal 

 meeting of the Rontgen Society, just twenty years 

 ago, that Rontgen had stumbled, so to speak, across 

 a new type of radiation, the wonderful properties of 

 which excited the whole civilist^d world. 



Since then the art of radiography has gradually 

 extended into fields once never dreamt of. A present- 

 day development, very typical of the times, is the 

 detection of contraband metals, the examination of 

 autogenous welds, and the scrutinising of steel and 

 other metal castings and plates for faults and blow- 

 holes. Such work demands high voltages and the 

 heaviest outputs. Already steel plates more than i in. 

 thick have been successfully examined. 



But the all-important use of the X-rays is their 

 medical application. Every hospital of any size now 

 has its X-ray department, and there are many 

 thousands of radiologists — both medical and laymen — 

 devoting their lives to the work. X-ray technique has 

 improved so vastly as to give the diagnostic methods 

 of physician and surgeon a facility and exactitude 

 never deemed possible at one time. 



In the large military hospitals the gre<'it majority 

 of wounded soldiers are' X-rayed. The examination of 

 wounds and injuries by X-rays has, in fact, become 

 routine practice, whether in the field, by the use of 

 the ingenious and c'everly designed motor-lorry out- 

 fits, or in the base hospitals. The X-ray has become 

 as indispensable as the dressing or the splint, and it 

 is an essential adjunct in prescribing and directing, 

 as well as avoiding, operations. Even sprains are 

 radiographed to find whether there is any slight bone 

 fracture — as there very often is. 



The X-ray detection of embedded bullet and shell 

 fragments is now so certain as to be commonplace. 

 Bullets and shrapnel are found and removed from any 

 part of the body, even from the lung and brain or in 

 the region of the heart. Precise instruments for 

 localisation in the actual operating theatre are now in 

 use, and even during the operation itself the surgeon's 

 instrument may be guided to the foreign body. Stereo- 

 scopic fluoroscopy is possible, and if a practical appa- 

 ratus could be produced it would be of incalculable 



J Abridged from the Presidential .\ddrcsi! delivered to the ROnlgen Society 

 on November 6, 1917, by Capt. G. W. C. Ka>e. 



