310 



DISCOVERY 



are the most malignant of all. The theory is only a 

 theory as yet ; but it is a deduction from a great many 

 years of clinical experience — without which laboratory 

 work alone can never hope to discover much. 

 ***** 



The question to be solved is: "Why do some 

 cells of the body suddenly begin unrestricted multi- 

 plication ? " But there is another equally great 

 mystery associated with cell-growth : " Wliat factors 

 ordinarily limit it, and why does the normal, well- 

 intentioned cell divide and subdivide only to a certain 

 definite degree ? " There are, moreover, new growths 

 of the body which, though beginning, as does cancer, 

 in an untoward burst of proliferative energy, never 

 invade other tissues, and never scatter their seeds 

 broadcast through the body. In what relationship 

 do such growths stand to cancer, and, most vexed 

 question of all, can they ever become transmuted 

 into cancers ? The questions are easily asked — but 

 the answers are not so readily found. 



***** 



Marcel, arch-interferer with the ways of nature, has 

 been amongst us, and has gone his way again. Why 

 is it that humanity should crave for curls of oval 

 shape, like a negro's, rather than for the fair, round 

 symmetrical locks of the Western world ? There is 

 room for a scientific sequel to Darwin's Expression 

 of the Emotions in Man and Animals, and we might 

 entitle it The Suppression of the Expressions in Man. 

 Beauty-spots — those curious bits of black plaster that 

 may be seen on the portraits of great ladies of the 

 eighteenth century — are as worthy of analysis as the 

 snarl ; the Marcel-wave as the elevation of the eye- 

 brow in surprise. Deep in the soul of the community 

 there seems to be cherished a conception of ideal 

 beauty which includes such things as black spots, 

 eccentric and undulating hair, carmine lips, and eye- 

 brows too dainty to be seen. WTience comes this 

 desire to fly from realities ? Had Aphrodite lips 

 significant of a cardiac lesion, and did Helen's hair 

 wave ? Was there a Greek Marcel, and did Achilles 

 ever learn such lore when he sojourned among the 

 maidens ? 



***** 



After all, hair is a strange survival from antiquity. 

 There is a muscle to each hair, and a nerve too, yet 

 we never use one of them save when Pickwick's fat 

 boy and his sort are displaying their peculiar capacities. 

 If our beauty seekers are chasing the phantoms of 

 age-old aesthetic principles, perhaps it is not inappro- 

 priate that they should choose for their care such a 

 poor scant relic of antiquity as the human hair, and 

 bestow on it their meed of such undulation as may 

 once have pleased our long-haired ancestors of the 

 caves and the forests. 



The Economic Develop- 

 ment of Central 

 Australia 



By O. H. T. Rishbeth, M.A. 



R:adcr in Geo(,raphy at the Universily College of Southampton 



In the true geographical and economic sense. Central 

 Australia consists of an area of over 300,000 square 

 miles, shaped somewhat like a bean, with its convex 

 curve northwards. It stretches, from the Western 

 Australian border at about latitude 25° S., east by 

 a little south to include the south-west corner of 

 Queensland and the north-east corner of South 

 Australia. The northern boundary is roughly marked 

 by the line Treuer Range-Barrows Creek Station- 

 Boulia, while near the centre of the southern concave 

 boundary is the rail-head, Oodnadatta, and Lake 

 Eyre. 



The development of Australia has proceeded centri- 

 petally, though so far mainly from the south and east 

 parts. The early squatter and miner of the oceanic 

 fringes have given place to the agriculturalist ; the 

 sheep-rearer has advanced through the ranks of the 

 farmers and occupied the next inner concentric ring : 

 the cattle industry has gravitated towards the centre 

 and the inner north ; the miner is eclectic. 



These are, of course, generalisations, for few land 

 industries are mutually exclusive, especially in Aus- 

 tralia, where a rather erratic climate encourages 

 multiple pursuits. Indeed, one of the economic tests 

 of Central Australia will lie in its capacity to produce 

 either a constant sum of varied products or a relatively 

 fixed quantity of one or two. 



The response to this test is already fairly clear : 

 Central Australia will be mainly a pastoral region — 

 with probably a good range within those limits — and 

 in the second line a producer of minerals. The " dead 

 heart " of Australia has become a legend, and even in 

 Australia " distance is often synonymous with aridity." 

 But the heart of Australia needs no apologies. Beauty 

 it has and riches, but its beauty is fickle and its riches 

 are to be won sternly. 



The days of the pioneer explorers and nameless 

 prospectors are gone. The debt Australia owes to 

 those heroic men, the mighty obstacles they overcame, 

 their sufferings and our reward, should not blind us 

 to the essential untrustworthiness of many of their 

 conclusions. The British settler has much to unlearn 

 in Australia. Judged by northern standards, a large 

 portion of the continent is truly desert, but the young 

 Australian has seen thousands of square miles of 

 " desert " blossoming into wheat and cattle and 



