DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. IV, No. 45. SEPTEMBER 1923. 



PRICE Is. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by Edward Liveing, B.A., 23 Westminster 

 Mansions, Great Smith Street, London, S.W.i, 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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Editorial Notes 



The ninet\'-first annual meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science takes place this 

 month at Liverpool during the week September 12th 

 to 19th. In our last issue we published a short account 

 of the addresses and discussions which will mark this 

 year's meeting. A full accoimt of the meeting wiU 

 appear in our October number. There are obvious 

 signs that these gatherings of distinguished scientists 

 are beginning to gain a strong grip on the popular 

 imagination. An increasing characteristic of the meet- 

 ings is the effort on the part of those who deliver 

 addresses to make their subjects intelligible to their 

 audiences. Even to-day, however, despite these efforts, 

 the highly intelligent audiences, composed largely of 

 scientists and workers in other fields of knowledge, find 

 difficulties in following the papers that are read from 

 end to end — a commentary which may appear rather 

 venturesome, but which is an admitted fact. 

 ***** 



Science has become a very " specialised " concern ; 

 physics and chemistry subjects have never been easy 

 to explain to the uninitiated ; much of the language in 

 which they are conducted to-day will not be found in 

 any ordinary dictionaries ; physiology is full of alien 

 words ; even the newer sciences of psychology and 

 anthropology have coined their own nomenclature. 

 All this is as it should be, so far as research is con- 

 cerned. Scientific language is, in fact, a necessary 



medium for specialists to convey the fruits of research 

 to other workers in the same sphere in a concise and 

 accurate manner. But when this language, or even 

 the slightest smattering of it, is introduced by a 

 scientist into a supposedly poptilar article or paper — 

 well, to be Irish, the article becomes thoroughly 

 unpopular. 



:ifi :^ Up ■if. -^ 



Is there any way of getting over this difficulty ? As 

 we have said, the British Association has made gaUant 

 attempts to do so. Certain scientists have through a 

 life of research retained sufficient imaginative sym- 

 pathy to write of their work in their plain native tongue ; 

 even a few journalists, through a life trained to regard 

 all events as " copj^" have retained sufficient perspec- 

 tive and desire for accuracy to describe new scientific 

 discoveries without undue exaggeration or inaccuracy. 

 Both types, however, are rare, though they may well 

 be encouraged, for they perform a work of exceptional 

 value. A possible solution to the problem lies in the 

 co-operation of scientists and trained writers (who can 

 still preserve the attitude of the average man) in 

 giving the public eminently readable books and articles 

 on scientific subjects. At any rate, the British Asso- 

 ciation is doing admirable work in its endeavours to 

 bring the latest results of experiment and study before' 

 that somewhat nebulous individual. " the man in the 



street." 



***** 



The announcement of a new airship service to India, 

 which the Government has decided to support, comes 

 soon after the arrangements for a trans-Atlantic airship 

 line between Spain and South America. Details of 

 this Spanish scheme are given bj' Major W. T. Blake, 

 the well-known airman, in this number of Discovery. 

 We are far from believing that the days of airships 

 are over and that they have yielded place to the aero- 

 plane in their own particular capacity for long-distance 

 cruising. Much research has been successfully carried 

 out during the last eighteen months with regard to 

 the safety factors governing this form of air flight. 

 These new services will provide safe, comfortable, and 

 speedy travel over long distances, and the\^ have a 

 great future in front of them. 



***** 



An outbreak of small-pox — the most severe for 



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