740 



NATURE 



[August 12, 1920 



many of these are of questionable value, either on 

 account of the methods having been replaced by- 

 more up-to-date processes or because the materials 

 specified, which were by-products of long-vanished 

 industries, cannot now be obtained. Apart from 

 this defect, which is inherent in all books of this 

 type, there is no doubt that the present volume 

 will be of great service to workers in laboratories 

 as well as to those engaged in industry. The 

 authors state that "the materials have been 

 principally derived from German technical litera- 

 ture, which is especially rich in receipts and pro- 

 cesses which are to be relied on." From the 

 impossible nature of several of the processes, one 

 might have guessed this : British workers are 

 familiar with the "reliable" character of some 

 German specifications. 



Photography and its Applications. By William 

 Gamble. (Pitman's Common Commodities and 

 Industries.) Pp. xii+132. (London: Sir Isaac 

 Pitman and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 25. 6d. net. 

 Mr. GA\fBLE, having had a lifelong experience in 

 connection with technical photographic processes 

 and their applications, speaks with authority on 

 these matters. But the very limited scope afforded 

 by so small a volume as this, and the innumerable 

 applications that have to be dealt with, give him 

 only a poor opportunity of presenting the subject 

 to his readers. The short summary often passes 

 into a mere catalogue of operations, and this into 

 a mere dictionary-like mention. A little more care 

 might well have been bestowed on the revision of 

 the text. Working instructions are not given. 

 We can recommend the book to those who wish 

 to get in a small compass a general, but super- 

 ficial, knowledge of the character of photography 

 and its applications. 



The Chemists' Year Book, 1920. Edited by 



F. W. Atack, assisted by L. Whinyates. 



Vol. i., pp. vi + 422; vol. ii., pp. vii-viii -1-423- 



II 36. (London and Manchester: Sherratt and 



Hughes, 1920.) 



Succeeding editions of this handy laboratory 



manual are increasingly useful. The present 



volumes supply the need formerly satisfied by the 



"Chemiker Kalender " ; English chemists have 



now no necessity to gd outside their own country 



for such books. A valuable feature of "The 



Chemists' Year Book" is the series of articles 



written by specialists, such as that on "Alkaloids" 



by Dr. E. Hope. The tables and numerical data 



are very complete. 



lonSj Electrons, and Ionising Radiations. By 

 Dr. J. A. Crowther. Pp. xii + 276. (London : 

 Edward Arnold, 1919.) Price 125. 6d. net. 

 The subjects dealt with include gaseous conduc- 

 tion, thermionic emission, photo-electricity, X- 

 rays, radium rays, and the electron theory. The 

 treatment involves a knowledge of elementary 

 mathematics, and the work .forms a useful appen- 

 dix to the ordinary text-book of physics. A clear 

 and very readable account is given of the " quan- 

 tum " theory of radiation. 



1^0. 2650, VOL. 105] 



Letters to the Editor. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



University Grants. 



The articb on university gcants in Nature of 

 August 5 is opportune, and does not overstate the 

 gravity of the situation. The proposed recurrent half- 

 million is welcome, but quite inadequate. The annual 

 grant to the universities of the United Kingdom 

 should be at least three millions. 



We have been rigidly economical in our expenditure. 

 There is no question of the value of the work which 

 has been done. Everyone agrees that vigorous and 

 well-found universities are indispensable to the 

 national welfare, but they are hampered at nearly 

 every point by insufficiency of income. Large 

 numbers of their teachers are very seriously under- 

 paid. Many departments are undermanned. Ad- 

 vanced studies and research are lamentably curtailed. 

 Libraries are stinted of necessary books. 



Before prices rose the universities had not the 

 financial resources which their work required. Since 

 the change in the value of money their position has 

 become critical ; some of them are threatened with 

 disaster. In Leeds we have done everything in our 

 power to raise salaries in order to meet the increased 

 cost of living. The emergency was so grave that we 

 decided to run a great risk. We have incurred 

 obligations which will entail an annual deficit of 

 25,oooL Even this expenditure falls far short of 

 what should be incurred if the high standard of uni- 

 versity teaching is to be maintained permanently. It 

 will be impossible for us to continue the present rate 

 of expenditure unless large new grants are forth- 

 coming. In the absence of further aid from the 

 Government I see nothing for it but the abandon- 

 ment of work which is now well done, indispensable, 

 and nationally advantageous. We need an additional 

 income of about 60,000/. a year in order to maintain 

 the supply of teachers of the right type. The annual 

 grant from the Government to the universities of the 

 United Kingdom should be three times as large as 

 what is given this year. M. E. Sadler. 



The University, Leeds, August 9. 



The Carrying Power of Spores and Plant-Life in 

 Deep Caves. 



My sister and I observed a similar growth of vegeta- 

 tion to that which Mr. Lough. Pendred describes in 

 the Cheddar Caves in Nature of August 5, p. 709. 

 We were on a knapsack-walking tour together in the 

 Hartz Mountains in 1900, and saw this effect in the 

 beautiful, great, deep Riibeland Caves. These were 

 then lit up by both oil and electric lamps placed, as in 

 the Cheddar Caves, in recesses or on the floor so 

 as to illuminate the stalactites and bone remains. We 

 were told that the ex-Kaiser had ordered the electric 

 illumination, not being content with the* previous 

 oil lamps, but both kinds of lighting were still there. 



It was very noticeable that the vegetation spread 

 out fan-like in front of the electric lamps to a much 

 greater extent than behind them, or than near the 

 oil lamps, and vet the electricity must have been, at 

 that date, of fairly recent supply. It is true that the 



