DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. II, No. 19. JULY 1921. 



PRICE Is. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by Edward Liveing, B.A., Rothersthorpe 

 N'icarage, Northampton, to whom all Editorial Communica- 

 tions 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 : 16 Regent Street, London, 

 S.W.I. 



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

 IS. net, postage 2d. 



Binding cases for Vol. I, 1920, are now ready. Price 

 2S. 6d. net each ; postage j\d. 



Editorial Notes 



On the recommendation of the Managing Committee, 

 Mr. Murray has appointed to the vacant editorship of 

 Discovery Mr. Edward Liveing, B.A., the author of 

 Attack (a description of his experience as an infantry 

 officer in the Battle of the Somme) and well known for 

 his contributions to fiction and poetry in the current 

 periodicals of the day. The Committee hope with 

 confidence that, with the continued co-operation of 

 Dr. Russell as Scientific Adviser, the new appointment 

 will mark a new stage in the prosperity and popularity 



of DiSCOVERY. 



***** 

 At the present moment in the intellectual world every- 

 body is working very hard, and, if appearances at close 

 range are not deceptive, working to good purpose. 

 People who are feeling depressed after the Great War 

 may possibly be doing so because they arc meditating 

 upon the wrong things, for it is not difficult to suggest 

 topics the consideration of which will imbue the 

 thinker w^ith optimism and hope. The war has had 

 a bracing effect in general upon the intellectual world. 

 The period 1914-1919 has been like the long and 

 somnolent vacation which, precedes the October-to- 

 Christmas term at schools an4 universities — a time 



when work is pleasant, and energy and enthusiasm are 

 displayed to the full. 



***** 

 This fact is reflected not only in the large and im- 

 portant contribution which both science and the 

 humane studies are now making to learning, but in 

 the deepening interest which the general public are 

 taking in knowledge of all kinds. Take the present 

 interest in Einstein as an example. Ninety-nine 

 people out of a hundred do not know what Einstein 

 is getting at, but most of them realise one thing, 

 namely, that Einstein has wakened everybody up. 

 He has amazed the physicists and astonished the 

 philosophers. There is not " any money " to be made 

 out of his scientific work, but he has shown us again 

 what science has always been showing to those who 

 will look — that it is really a wonderful world we are 

 living in, and that it is going to appear to us more and 

 more wonderful as the years roll on. 



***** 

 There is one great difference between to-day and, 

 sa}', thirty years ago : we are more fully conscious that 

 we are on the eve of big discoveries now than men were 

 then. It is said that in the early nineties students 

 of physics thought they had progressed so far with 

 discoveries in that subject that there seemed little 

 or nothing further for the future to do. Of course 

 everything could be developed, constants might be 

 more accurately determined, instruments made more 

 sensitive. But in the main so-and-so's hypotheses 

 were universally applicable, and so-and-so's equations 

 could be adapted to suit all emergencies. It was very 

 nice that things had approached so wonderfully near 

 to finality, that, so to speak, the universe was " taped." 



***** 

 .\nd then a few years later (I am speaking of physics 

 only), Rontgen discovered the X-rays, Becquerel dis- 

 covered radioactivity, and Madame Curie radium. 

 Rutherford showed that nature was continually doing 

 herself what the alchemists for centuries had failed to 

 do— to bring about transmutation of elements. Mar- 

 coni telegraphed without wires. The men who humbly 



165 



