DISCOVERY 



27 



estate conditions. Statistics of yields from old rubber 

 would bo an immense advantage. Generally sjx\ik- 

 ing, however, it may be stated that the oldest planted 

 trees, if they have been properly treated, show little 

 sign of any failure, but continue yielding latex. 



An American magazine has recently published a 

 note on dn,-rot which may be new to many readers. 

 The term is loosely applied to any kind of decay in 

 wood, for wood which is kept sufficiently wet cannot 

 decay. In the more limited sense, however, the term 

 applies only to the work of a certain house finigus, 

 Meriilius Uchrypnans, which is frequently found grow- 

 ing in wood without any apparent supply of moisture. 

 It cannot infect thoroughly dry wood, however, but, 

 if it obtains sufficient moisture to germinate, it can 

 make its way a very long distance into dry timber 

 because it draws the water necessary for existence 

 from the supply through a conduit system of slender, 

 minutely-porous strands. Wood in the advanced 

 stage of dry-rot is shrunken, yellow, or brown in 

 colour, and filled with radial and longitudinal shrinkage 

 cracks roughly forming cubes. Not only furniture but 

 also logs in storage may become infected. Hard 

 woods are more commonly immune than soft. 



English books seem very scarce at various places on 

 the Continent. A correspondent writing from Louvain 

 sajs, " I have been to-day to the librar\- here to sec 

 what books there are on the electrical theory of 

 matter, and I was astonished to find there was none. 

 Surely it is unfortunate that in all the books which 

 England has collected and sent over here there should 

 be none whatever representing English scientific 

 thought and achievement. Thomson, Rutherford, 

 Soddy, Ramsay, and Kelvin ought surely to be repre- 

 sented." We agree. A letter recently appeared in 

 \ature on the same topic from a correspondent in 

 Eastern Galicia. The writer declared that in the 

 libraries of Warsaw, Lw6w, and Kfakow the English 

 books could be counted on the fingers of the hands, 

 and English periodicals simply were not there at all. 

 It is well to know that the Anglo-.American University 

 Library of Central Eurojie is engaging itself in supply- 

 ing this unfortunate deficiency. A little goes a very 

 long way when jjeriodicals and books arc sent from 

 this country to the stricken cities of the Continent. 



I have received from Messrs. Bowes & Bowes, of 

 Cambridge, a little book called The Post-Prandial 

 Proceedings of the Cavendish Society. This book is 

 a collection of topical verse on modern physics and 

 other matters written by members of the Physics 



Research Society of the Cavendish Laboratory. It 

 has been privately printed for sixteen years, but this, 

 the fifth edition, is now published in the ordinary 

 way for the first time. It will interest all those who 

 are, or have been, connected either directly or in spirit 

 with the splendid work on modern ph\-sical problems 

 which has been one of the glories of Cambridge since 

 the days of Clerk Maxwell. 



* • » » * 



Clerk Maxwell, who w;is quite a genuine poet in 

 his day, wTOte the first poem in the book, but 

 undoubtedly the verses of A. A. R. read with the best 

 swing. A part of one of his efforts may be quoted. 

 Instead of saying in cold and technical prose that an 

 n-ray is a material particle shot out by certain radio- 

 active bodies at a speed of about one-twentieth of 

 that of light, and carrjang an electric charge of two, 

 the poet sa\-s : 



.Air : ■' .\ Jovial Monk " 



" .\n alph.^ r.iy was I, coiitentixl with my lot ; 

 From Radium C 

 I was set free. 

 And outwards I was shot. 

 My speed I quickly reckoned. 

 As I flew ofl through space. 

 Ten thousand miles per second 

 Is not a trifling pace ! 



For an alpha ray 



Goes a good long way 



In a short time /. 



.\s you easily sec ; 



Though I don't know why 



My speed's so high 



Or why I bear a charge le." 



Two further verses describe subsequent episodes in 

 the short but exciting life of the a-ray. As is well 

 known, an a-ray when it has slowed down behaves 

 like an atom of helium ; it is also well known that 

 several workei-s in radio-activity have had the un- 

 commonly happy experience of winning the Nobel 

 Prize (about £8,000), but that is prose ; here are the 

 facts in verse, the o-ray is still speaking : 



•■ But now I'm settled down, and move about 

 quite slow ; 

 For I. alas, 

 ,\m helium gas 



Since I got that dreadful blow. 

 But though I'm feeling sickly, 

 Still no one now denies. 

 That I ran that race so quickly, 

 I've won a Nobel Prize, 



For an alpha ray 



Is a thing to pay. 



And a Nobel Prize 



One cannot despise, 



,\nd Rutherford 



Has greatly scored. 



As all the world now recognise." 



