DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. IV, No. 37. JANUARY 1923. 



PRICE Is. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by Edward Liveing, B.A., Rothersthorpe. 

 Northampton, to whom all Editorial Communications 

 should be addressed. (Dr. A. S. Russell continues to 

 act as Scientific Adviser.) 



Published by John Murray, 50A Albemarle Street, 

 London, W.i, to whom all Business Communications 

 should be addressed. 



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 Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4. 



Annual Subscription, 125. (>d. post free ; single numbers, 

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Editorial Notes 



With this number Discovery enters the fourth year 

 of its existence. During the last year many advances 

 were made in all branches of the Arts and Sciences. 

 With those advances it has endeavoured to deal in 

 articles that have avoided, as far as was possible, 

 the technical language in use in each branch without 

 at the same time losing sight of the necessity for an 

 accurate and truthful interpretation of the results 

 obtained by the careful research worker. To mention 

 only a few articles, our journal has kept abreast of the 

 steadily increasing use of wireless telegraphy, the new 

 researches into the nature of radio-active elements, 

 recent developments in aeronautics, the economic 

 difficulties which have harassed Europe and our own 

 country during 1922, the brave second attempt to climb 

 Mount Everest, some intensely interesting archaeological 

 discoveries in Egypt and Greece, the attempts to solve 

 a variety of physiological problems, and some striking 

 new theories put forward by the psychologist. 

 ***** 



In our columns Professor Flinders Petrie has 

 described the method he has been employing in Upper 

 Egypt to reduce to historic order " what is usually 

 called the Prehistoric Age " ; Professor Alfred Wegener 

 has given the first description in EngHsh of his new 

 theory of the origin of continents and oceans ; Mr. 

 Julian Huxley has outlined his researches into the 



problem of sex and its determination ; and Professor 

 Z unmit has written about his excavations at Malta of 

 some remarkable monuments belonging to the later 

 Stone Age. Again, the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion at Hull this year brought many new problems and 

 attempted solutions thereto before the public, including 

 M. Cone's theory of auto-suggestion, and a problem 

 which is at present receiving a great deal of attention 

 from anthropologists, namely the study of the mental 

 characteristics peculiar to different races. Here again 

 we have endeavoured to supply our readers with careful 

 accounts of what our famous scientists and intellectuals 

 are thinking and doing to-day. 



***** 



A question which is receiving steadily growing atten- 

 tion at the hands of both the psychologist and the 

 physiologist is the relationship between body and 

 mind. At present the results obtained cannot be 

 considered as anything but indefinite. In this direc- 

 tion a fuller co-operation between these two hues of 

 study is necessary. It must b^ quite obvious to all 

 educated men and women that in this field of knowledge 

 science is destined to play a very important part in 

 the life of the community, for in touching upon the 

 basis of human personality it cannot fail to be reflected 

 in what is still one of the most important backgrounds 

 of all human life and action, namely religion. How 

 deeply this problem is being discussed by everyone 

 who ever gives a thought to the question of why he is 

 existing upon this planet was illustrated in a most 

 interesting way by the large quantity of correspondence 

 which reached this journal as the result of a discussion 

 in the Editorial Notes last AprU concerning an American 

 book published a few months previously on the subject 

 of the influence of the ductless glands on personahty. 

 ***** 



This correspondence showed us very clearly how^ 

 apart from the object of placing new or attempted 

 discoveries before our readers, we need to find out 

 from them what influences such discoveries are creating 

 in the individual's life and thought, and his attitude to 

 these new conceptions. In many trials the expert, 

 be he a doctor or a specialist in finger marks, is con- 

 sulted, but the laymen in the shape of the jurymen 



