AucustT 6, 1914] 
Empire; the output in 1911, the latest year for which 
final figures are obtainable, was: British Empire 
60,497 tons, foreign countries 54,051 tons. 
No. 3 of vol. viii. of the Biochemical Journal con- 
tains two papers, emanating from the Lister Institute, 
of great general interest. The first, by Mr. Evelyn 
Ashley Cooper, deals with the curative action of auto- 
lysed yeast on avian polyneuritis ; the solution obtained 
retains its curative power for at least eight weeks, 
and is apparently quite non-toxic. The autolysis of 
brewers’ yeast should therefore afford a simple, in- 
expensive method of preparing a solution suitable for 
the oral treatment of human beri-beri. The second 
paper deals with the bases of gas-works tar, which 
are believed to be the predisposing cause of pitch- 
cancer, with special reference to their action on 
lymphocytes, and a method for their inactivation. The 
bases which are capable of exciting cell-division are 
found to occur in the anthracene fraction of the tar, 
and two bases of this kind have been isolated in the 
form of picrates, but have not yet been identified satis- 
factorily. A simple method of rendering these bases 
inactive consists in heating the tar to a temperature 
of about 160°, and blowing ordinary or ozonised air 
through it; in this way the auxetics are rendered 
harmless by oxidation. 
For many years considerable inconvenience has been 
experienced in the sheet-metal trade in consequence 
of misunderstanding as to the recognised gauge for 
iron and steel sheets and hoops. A series of sizes 
known as the ‘‘B.G.’’ gauge, or Birmingham gauge, 
was adopted by the South Staffordshire Ironmasters’ 
Association in 1884, and were very generally accepted 
in the trade concerned; but many buyers have per- 
sisted in ordering sizes belonging to other systems, 
such as the ‘‘B.W.G.,’”’ or Birmingham wire gauge, 
which has no legal status, and is often confused with 
the imperial standard wire gauge legalised in 1883. 
Neither of these gauges is, however, recognised in 
the iron trade for sheets and hoops, and, in con- 
sequence, mistakes have often been made, leading 
in some cases to litigation. At the instance of the 
metal trades section of the London Chamber of Com- 
merce, the Board of Trade was approached in 1912 
with a view to the legalisation of the ‘‘B.G.”’ gauge, 
and, after consideration, they decided in August last to 
prepare the necessary order in council. This’ order 
in council has now been issued, and comes irto 
operation on November 1 next, on which date all 
the’ ““B.G? sizes from 15/0' BsG:, or’ z)in.; to’ 52 
B.G., or 0-00095 in. will become legal denominations 
of imperial measure, and will accordingly be admis- 
sible for verification and stamping by inspectors of 
weights and measures. In the interest of the metal 
trade generally, it is to be hoped that the illegal and 
arbitrary “*B.W.G.”’ will then cease to be specified by 
purchasers. 
Aw admirable ‘‘ Report on Radiation and the Quan- 
tum Theory,’ by Mr. J. H. Jeans, has been pub- 
lished by the Physical Society of London. It con- 
tains an introductory portion showing in simple 
NG 2330. VOL. 93 | 
NATURE 
' development 
' specific heat. 
a 
language the need for a quantum theory, followed 
by a general discussion of the radiation problem on 
the lines of the classical mechanics, an account of the 
of the quantum theory, and_ special 
chapters on line spectra, photo-electric effects, and 
The need for some theory not based 
upon Newtonian mechanics is shown by the fact that 
in all known media there is a tendency for the energy 
of any systems moving in the medium to be trans- 
ferred to the medium, and ultimately to be found in 
the shortest vibrations of which the medium is capable. 
Thus, a system of corks connected by springs, and 
floating in a tank of water, will transfer any vibra- 
tional energy they have to water-waves, and ultimately 
to molecular heat. This tendency, which results from 
Newtonian mechanics, is not observed in the phe- 
nomena of radiation. Otherwise a hot body in a 
perfectly reflecting enclosure would transfer all its 
heat to the zther within the enclosure. Max Planck 
got over this difficulty by supposing that radiant 
energy is not emitted until it has reached a certain 
minimum quantity or ‘‘quantum.’? However difficult 
it may be to imagine such a process, Mr. Jeans agrees 
with the late Henri Poincaré that some such discon- 
tinuity in the structure of energy is imperatively 
required by experimental evidence. 
* Tue June issue of the Memoirs of the Manchester 
Literary and Philosophical Society contains seven 
memoirs, and extends to 140 pages. The whole of the 
memoirs have been issued separately by the society 
during April and May at intervals subsequent to their 
reception which vary from one to four months, the 
average being about two and a half months. This 
average does not differ much from that which obtains 
in the Royal Society of London and other societies. 
The various memoirs cover a wide range of subjects. 
One by Mr. R. F. Gwyther introduces a new specifica- 
tion of stress from which a great simplification of 
treatment results. Another by Mr. W. Cramp de- 
scribes measurements of the flow of air through pipes, | 
but ignores the work published by the National 
Physical Laboratory on the subject during the last four 
years. Mr. A. D. Hall, in a third memoir, shows how 
the old view that the plant derives nutrition direct 
from fertilisers in the soil represents the facts better 
than the newer one of Messrs. Whitney and Cameron, 
according to which all soils give a soil solution of the 
same composition from which the plant derives its 
nutrition and into which it excretes substances toxic 
to its kind. Two memoirs by Messrs. T. A. Coward 
and W. M. Tattersall are devoted to a valuable survey 
of the fauna of Rostherne Mere, a secluded fresh-water 
lake in the north of Cheshire. These remarks suffice 
to show that the society maintains a high standard in 
its memoirs. 
In a paper read before the Tokyo Physico-Mathe- 
matical Society in April, which appears in the June 
number of the Science Reports of the Tohoku Uni- 
versity, Prof. K. Honda puts forward a new theory of 
magnetism which appears to follow the experimental 
facts more closely than any previous theory. It is 
based on the following assumptions. The molecules, 
