May 6, 1920] 



NATURE 



305 



1 that were called into play by the artist were in many 

 ■' respects identical with those used by the man of 

 ience. Imagination and observation were vital to 

 ientific discovery. The artist and the man of science 

 wt-re concerned with the same subject — the study of 

 Nature under various aspects. While it was vital for 

 the progress of this country that the application of 

 science to industry should receive every encourage- 

 ment and assistance, yet they ought not to neglect 

 those who, forsaking the trade routes of the great 

 liners, steered their little ships to uncharted seas 

 to bring back to us the golden fleece. 



Sir Jagadis Bose gave a very interesting lecture 

 at the University of London Club on Thursday even- 

 ing, April 29, on his well-known experiments on 

 movements in plants. He has applied the methods 

 of instrumental physics to the study of tropic plant 

 movements, and, beginning with methods which 

 maf^nified the growth one hundred times, has finally, 

 with his high magnification crescograph, reached 

 magnifications of more than ten million. This in- 

 strument uses the principle of a fine magnetised lever 

 affecting a magnetic needle and so demonstrating 

 growth by the movement of an attached mirror. By 

 this method very delicate growth responses of the 

 plant could be shown, and its relative sensitivity 

 under different conditions compared. One of the 

 lecturer's most general conclusions was that indirect 

 stimulus causes an increase of growth, while direct 

 stimulus of a plant organ causes a decrease of growth 

 or contraction. In this way positive, negative, and 

 neutral responses to gravitation or light on the part 

 of any organ were explained as the result of various 

 combinations of response to direct and indirect 

 stimulus. Sir Jagadis Bose's crescograph is so re- 

 markably sensitive that doubt was recently expressed 

 as to the reality of its indications as regards plant 

 i^rowth ; and the suggestion was made that the effects 

 shown by it were due to physical changes. A demon- 

 stration at University College, London, on April 23, 

 has, however, led Lord Rayleigh and Profs. Bayliss, 

 V. H. Blackman, A. J. Clark, W. C. Clinton, and 

 F. G. Donnan to state, in the Times of May 4: "We 

 are satisfied that the growth of plant tissues is 

 correctly recorded by this instrument and at a mag- 

 nification of from one to ten million times." Sir 

 \ H. Bragg and Prof. F. W. Oliver, who have 

 n similar demonstrations elsewhere, give like testi- 

 mony that the crescograph shows actual response of 

 living plant tissues to stimulus. 



Further news from Capt. Roald Amundsen con- 

 firms the belief expressed in Nature of April 22 and 

 29 that he had not abandoned his North Polar 

 journey. His object in calling at Nome, Alaska, in 

 July is evidently to secure more supplies, add to his 

 crew, and to receive mails. A long despatch pub- 

 lished in the Times of May i gives some details of 

 the fortunes of the expedition and explains the change 

 in plans. The Maud left her winter quarters in the 

 Nordenskjold archipelago west of Caf>e Chelyuskin 

 as late as September 12, 1919. It was necessary to 

 blast a channel through about one and a half miles 

 NO. 2636, VOL. 105] 



of solid floe six to nine feet thick. Until the Taimir 

 peninsula was cleared pack offered some obstruction, 

 but to the eastward the sea proved to be fairly open. 

 The lateness of the season was in Amundsen's favour 

 in this part of his journey, and he was no doubt 

 trusting to former accounts of open water in Sep- 

 tember. The Maud sailed east through Laptev Strait 

 between the New Siberia Islands and the mainland 

 and then turned north-east for Jeannette Island, but 

 was stopped by tight pack in lat. 73° N. Amundsen 

 made fast to the floes, intencRng to begin his drift, 

 but on finding that the pack was nearing south he had 

 to abandon his attempt. He decided to winter on the 

 coast of Siberia, and after a passage rendered dan- 

 gerous by ice and darkness reached Aion Island, 

 Chaun Bay. One member of the expedition spent 

 the winter with the Chukchee, who inhabit the in- 

 terior of this part of north-eastern Siberia, in order 

 to study their customs. Two men sent overland to 

 the small trading village of Nizhne-Kolimsk with 

 despatches for home turned back at Sukharnoe, a 

 village at the mouth of the Kolima, with news that 

 all communications with Europe were cut off. 

 Amundsen hopes to reach Nome in July or August, 

 and, if not too late in the season, to return north and 

 enter the ice about Wrangel Island for his five years' 

 drift. 



With reference to the note in Nature of April 15, 

 p. 210, upon the laboratory of applied psychology 

 connected with a well-known institute of mind-train- 

 ing, the director informs us that the fees charged 

 are very considerably less than the cost of the tests 

 performed or the scientific advice g^iven, and that the 

 laboratory is projecting the publication of research 

 papers giving details of the work done, so that the 

 world of science in general v/ill be able to examine 

 the methods adopted and the results obtained. 



With the return to peace the increased cost of 

 production has made it necessary to devise a new 

 scheme for the publication of the "Victoria History 

 of the Counties of England." Hitherto no order for 

 fewer than ten volumes relating to a single county has 

 been accepted, but it has been found by experience 

 that there is a considerable demand for separate 

 articles on special subjects. It has therefore been 

 decided to issue the History, both that portion 

 which has already been published and the remainder 

 which is in preparation, in separate parts. Each part 

 will include a single hundred, wapentake, or borough, 

 and persons interested in the history, archaeology, or 

 economics of a Sjjecial area will be able to procure 

 what they require within a single cover. The new 

 arrangements seem well adapted to popularise a work 

 which has already taken the rank of a standard 

 authority on the subjects with which it deals. 



Sir Thomas Muir, the well-known mathematician, 

 and until lately Superintendent-General of Education 

 in Cape Colony, has recently made a splendid gift to 

 the South African Public Library, Cape Town. It con- 

 sists of about 2500 books and pamphlets, collected by 

 the donor in the course of many years, and it includes 

 a number of serials, sets of which are now almost un- 



