NATURE 



SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1922. 

 CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

 The Preservation of Food by Freezing . . . 101 



The Victorian Age 104 



Natural History of Pheasants. By W. E. C. . . 105 



A New Book on the Andamans. (Illustrated.) By 

 R. C. T 106 



Hydro-Electric Engineering. By F. C. L. . . 108 



Progress in Fat and Oil Chemistry. By E. F. A. . 109 



Our Bookshelf no 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Cosmical Theory and Radioactivity. — Prof. J. Joly, 



F.R.S 112 



Gas Pressures and the Second Law of Thermo- 

 dynamics. — R. d'E. Atkinson; Arthur Fair- 

 bourne . • 112 



Polarisation of Diffused Light under the Sea. — E. E. 



Brooks 114 



Discoveries in Tropical Medicine. — Lieut. -Col. A. 



Alcock, F.R.S 114 



Ouramceba. — G. Lapage . . . . 114 



Histological Stains. — Prof. A. E. Boycott, F.R.S. 114 

 The Structure of Organic Crystals. ( With diagrams. ) 



By Sir William Bragg, K.B.E., F.R.S. . .115 



The Action of Cutting Tools. (Illustrated.) By Prof. 



E. G. Coker, F.R.S 118 



The New Building of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, U.S.A. (Illustrated.) By Dr. C. D. 



Walcott 120 



The Internal Combustion Engine. By Prof. W. E. 



Dalby, F.R.S. 122 



The Hull Meeting of the British Association. By 



T. S. 124 



Current Topics and Events 125 



Our Astronomical Column 127 



Research Items 12S 



Glasgow Meeting of the Society of Chemical In- 

 dustry. By R. M. C 130 



The Development of Research in Universities. By 

 Principal Irvine, F.R.S 131 



English Place-Names 133 



University and Educational Intelligence . . .133 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 134 



Societies and Academies 134 



Official Publications Received 135 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACM1LLAN 6- CO.. LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUS1S, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



NO. 2/51, VOL. I IO] 



The Preservation of Food by Freezing. 



CONSERVATION of our sources of energy is 

 essential to national welfare, and the food- 

 stuffs whence human energy is derived are not the least 

 important of our " fuels." Quite casual enquiry is 

 sufficient to show that serious wastage of food con- 

 stantly occurs. Markets are at times unable to absorb 

 gluts of fish or fruit for which no cold-storage accom- 

 modation is available, and large quantities of these 

 foods are consequently lost, while in the successive 

 stages of transit from the abattoir abroad to the retailer 

 at home, infection by putrefactive bacteria accounts 

 for the loss of an appreciable proportion of our meat 

 supplies. Such losses can be minimised by the develop- 

 ment of the methods of cold storage and by a thorough 

 scientific understanding of all that is involved in the 

 refrigeration industry. This industry is now an essen- 

 tial characteristic of life in crowded communities ; its 

 expansion during the past forty years, enabling the 

 supply of food to keep pace with the needs of a growing 

 population, has been a remarkable achievement. The 

 importance of the industry is magnified in the case of 

 an island community, such as our own, whose supplies 

 of home-grown food are strictly limited. In an industry 

 of this importance a scientific stocktaking cannot fail 

 to give valuable results. 



The refrigeration industry makes wide demands upon 

 the sciences. It calls for the co-operation of physicist, 

 engineer, physiologist, chemist, botanist, zoologist, and 

 mathematician for the solution of its problems. In 

 arranging, through the Food Investigation Board, a 

 joint attack upon the problems of food preservation 

 from these different points of view, the Department 

 of Scientific and Industrial Research is undertaking 

 a most important function. To meet the needs a 

 comprehensive organisation is necessary — if only to 

 visualise the field for research — and since those needs 

 are of vital national importance, it is fitting that the 

 organisation should be initiated and supported by 

 Government. 



There has long been lacking a summary of our know- 

 ledge concerning the scientific aspects of cold storage, 

 but it has now been supplied by Prof. Walter Stiles, 

 who, at the request of the Food Investigation Board, 

 has prepared a report upon the preservation of food bv 

 freezing. 1 We believe that this is the first general 

 systematic study in this country of the scientific prin- 

 ciples underlying the preservation of food in the frozen 

 condition. For much of the information .which follows 

 we are indebted to Prof. Stiles's report. 



1 " The Preservation of Food by Freezing with Special Reference to Fish 

 and Meat," by Walter Stiles, Special Report No. 7 of the Food Investigation 

 Board. Published by H.M. Stationery Office, 1922, price roj. net. 



