DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. IV, No. 38. FEBRUARY 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. 



Advertisement Office : 34 Ludgate Chambers, 32 

 Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4. 



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Editorial Notes 



Nothing in the \\a.y of archfeological discoverit-s has 

 so stirred the world as Lord Carnarvon's and Mr. 

 Howard Carter's successful excavations, resulting in 

 the finding of Tutankhamon's funerary relics, in Upper 

 Egypt. In this issue we publish an article by Professor 

 T. E. Peet on the life of this monarch and a description 

 by Dr. A. M. Blackman of the plundering of the Tombs 

 of the Kings in the XXth and XXIst Dynasties, which 

 accounts for the rarit\' of such a " find." To him 

 who is interested in the history of mankind the 

 chief value of the discovery wUl doubtless lie in the 

 new light which the papyri wUl throw upon this stage of 

 the world's civilisation, and, even more especially, in the 

 beauty of the furniture and other articles in the tomb. 



.\lmost every day brings news of some remarkable 

 invention which will increase the comfort of, and the 

 means of communication between, the inhabitants of 

 our earth. The fact is that, ever since the introduc- 

 tion of steam power in the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury, mankind has improved its methods of living and 

 accelerated his knowledge of the universe to a greater 

 extent than in the whole ten or twelve thousand years 

 of civilisation preceding this event. During the last 

 few years we have so developed the wireless system that 

 we can reproduce a concert in New York in a flat in 

 London, and transmit photographs and the human 

 voice over thousands of miles of space ; we have been 



able to produce machines which will fly through the 

 air at the rate of 200 miles an hour or which wUl carry 

 upwards of twenty to thirty passengers ; we have cut 

 the American continent in two with a canal connecting 

 up one hemisphere with another ; we have built 

 enormous liners which can carry us across the Atlantic 

 in four days under conditions not merely of comfort, 

 but of luxury : we have, in fact, reduced most places of 

 habitation on this globe to an accessibility from any 

 (Jther place of habitation which was little more than 

 I beamed of twenty years ago. 



Ihese are merely a few examples of recent improve- 

 ments in intercommunication, and we could quote other 

 improvements such as the supply of fruit to Europe 

 from the tropics. Bananas, for instance, can nowa- 

 days be bought at a shop in England little over a 

 fortnight after they have been plucked from a tree on 

 a Central American plantation. They are brought to 

 this country in fast and specially constructed ships, 

 in which the main body containing the holds forms 

 merely the kernel, so to speak. In the space between 

 this and the outer walls electric fans blow air 

 over refrigerating pipes, thus keeping the fruit down 

 to the required temperature. Much of the fish to be 

 found in our modern markets has reached this country 

 from as far away as the coasts of Iceland and Morocco, 

 having been carefully maintained in condition by 

 means of elaborate refrigerating apparatus. As to 

 railways, telephones, electric lighting, and motor- 

 cars, we take these as a matter of course in our daily 



life. 



***** 



But for aU these so-called improvements in our lot 

 we have had to pay a price. The South Sea Is- 

 landers (or, rather, those of them who have not been 

 brought under our influence) can wait for food to fall 

 off the trees, do not have to be continually dressing 

 and undressing, and, so far as we can gather, appear 

 to lead lives of almost complete contentment and 

 idleness. On the other hand, the average citizen of 

 our country has to work for eight hours a day nearly 

 all the year round in order that he may be provided 

 with the comforts and entertainments which he so 

 much prizes. From morning to evening he lives in a 

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