DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



<i 



Vol. IV, No. 40. APRIL 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.) 



PubUshed by John Murray, 50A Albemarle Street, 

 London, W.i, to whom all Business Communications 

 should be addressed. 



Advertisement Of&ce : 34 Ludgate Chambers, 32 

 Ludgate Hill, London, E.C.4. 



Annual Subscription, 125. 6d. post free ; Single numbers, 

 15. net ; postage, 2d. 



Binding cases for Vol. Ill, 1922, are now ready. Price 

 25. 6d. net each ; postage, gd^ 



Editorial Notes 



The response to the appeal in our January number for 

 criticisms and suggestions has been most gratifying. 

 A large number of correspondents, from many parts 

 of the English-speaking world, have established our 

 opinion that Discovery fulfils a very definite purpose, 

 and have supplied us with many helpful suggestions. 

 It was not to be anticipated that there should have 

 been complete unanimity of opinion as to the most 

 desirable subjects for treatment in a journal of this 

 nature. It is certain that an individual who could take 

 equal interest in aU the articles of any one number of 

 Discovery would be exceptional. But that is a 

 matter for pride rather than regret ; our correspondence 

 has shown that one section of our readers finds most 

 acceptable what another finds rather outside liis sphere 

 of interest. We aim at putting the individual in the 

 widest possible relationship with the world of to-day 

 and the world of yesterday — and, if possible, with the 

 world of to-morrow. And we believe that the space 

 we aUot to the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece, 

 and Rome is helpful in directing our attention at 

 times away from this age of great scientific progress, 

 to the days when man was less learned, maybe, and 

 less incessantly busied, but none the less human and 

 often more sublime. 



4: * 3(c * * 



A suggestion which occurred to several of our readers 

 was that more space might be allotted to Astronomy. 



Arrangements are being made to comply with this 

 request. Again, several correspondents find philo- 

 sophy a fascinating subject, and would like to solve 

 the problem of personality, of consciousness, and the 

 real existence of things we appreciate by our five 

 senses. One correspondent shyly suggests mathe- 

 matics as a subject for an article. Of course, mathe- 

 matics presents a very special problem. It has been 

 said — rather unfairly — that the scientist is the only 

 man who has anj'thing to say to-day, and the only man 

 who does not know how to say it. It is true that the 

 great difficulty in following the lines along which 

 scientific thought of the moment is travelling arises 

 from the fact that scientists have had to evolve a kind 

 of shorthand of their own in order to refer briefly to 

 ideas which among scientists are familiar. The 

 mathematician has carried this process to extremes, 

 and talks a language which is beautifully concise, but 

 hardly lends itself to the literary method. We should 

 be glad, however, to consider an article which would 

 explain the mysteries of mathematics to those of us 

 who never succeeded in travelling beyond quadratic 

 equations. 



« ;;« He ^ ^ 



Many other useful suggestions are being con 

 sidered, and, if possible, arrangements will be made to 

 provide articles dealing with subjects in Biology, 

 History, and Physics to which readers have referred. 

 We trust that aU — including a vivacious but anony- 

 mous lady correspondent from Arizona, and a friend 

 who writes, as a working blacksmith, to offer a useful 

 criticism — wiU continue to advise and criticise us with 

 the kindness they have manifested in the present 

 correspondence. 



***** 



There are two extreme points of view with regard 

 to the relationship between science and industry. 

 The first was that of the successful steel magnate, 

 who brought his son to a university with directions 

 that he should be taught steel, and steel only. The 

 second inspired an enthusiastic mathematician, at the 

 close of a dinner held by a learned society, to call for 

 the toast " Here's to pure mathematics — may it never 

 be any use to anybody." It is, in fact, impossible to 

 divorce the search for scientific truth from the tireless 



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