SCIENCE AND THE PRESS 57 



impossible to add anything to them.' Fancy calling in the 

 expert for such an opinion on such a question ! I give one 

 more example from a weekly journal of high repute and terrible 

 seriousness. This journal gravely discussed a rumour that an 

 American inventor had discovered a compound which possessed 

 the peculiarity of exploding ' forward only.' It was pointed 

 out that if the report were correct the defence of the Northern 

 Frontier of India would be facilitated as it would be possible 

 to substitute parchment for metal in the construction of guns. 

 The subject was referred to again in another article on the 

 ' Air-Cannon '. Nor could the remonstrances of a distinguished 

 friend of mine gain admission to the pages of the journal. 



This is rather an old example, but it is so striking that I 

 cannot help recalling it, as an illustration of the kind of thing 

 that is still to be found in high-class journalism. 



In case you may think I have been hoarding these examples 

 in a revengeful spirit, I will take events of the present week. 

 Here is a paragraph that appears in Wednesday's paper : 



The Discovery of Polonium 

 Five Thousand Times more Rare than Radium. 



Paris, Tuesday. 



Madame Curie and M. Debierne, according to a report made 

 to the Academic des Sciences, state that the substance named 

 Polonium has much greater radio active power than radium. 



It is five thousand times more rare than the latter, but dis- 

 integrated much more rapidly. Thus a particle of polonium, 

 obtained with enormous difficulty, lost half its weight in 140 

 days, while it takes a thousand years for a similar particle of 

 radium to disappear altogether. 



If the transformations which these scientists hope to trace 

 within a year or so are confirmed it will constitute a revolution 

 in chemical science. 



What exception is to be taken to this ? Well, in the first 

 place Polonium was discovered twelve years ago, and that 

 discounts the headline. The first paragraph announces nothing 

 that was not published in 1906. The same is true of the second 



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