266 



NATURE 



[July 23, 1908 



of forfeiture of the patent, on account of the importa- 

 tion, under which the imported articles were made 

 was prohibited by the fifth article of the International 

 Convention, section 27 was introduced to meet the 

 difficulty. By this section, which will come into 

 operation on August 28, the Comptroller will have 

 to consider the application for revocation, and if after 

 inquiry he is satisfied that the allegations contained 

 in it are correct, and unless the patentee proves that 

 the patented article or process is manufactured or 

 carried on to an adequate extent in the United 

 Kingdom, or gives satisfactory reasons why the article 

 or process is not so manufactured or carried on, the 

 Comptroller may make an order revoking the patent 

 either forthwith or after a reasonable interval. 



Much has been written lately as to the benefits to 

 this country likely to be produced by this section, and 

 in some cases there has been considerable exaggera- 

 tion of the probable effects. But although it is almost 

 impossible to state accurately the effects of the section 

 until it is discussed in actual practice, there is no 

 doubt of the fact that foreign inventors are now 

 showing a greater desire than ever before to have 

 their patents worked in the United Kingdom. In 

 and about London, for instance, sites are being 

 acquired for the erection of factories for the manu- 

 facture of articles patented by foreign inventors, while 

 in Leicester the manufacture of machinery for making 

 boots and shoes is being largel)' extended, and a 

 factory has been leased for the manufacture of safety 

 razors. The advertisement pages of the trade 

 journals and of the illustrated official journal of the 

 Patent Office also indicate the anxiety of many 

 foreign inventors to have their patents worked in the 

 United Kingdom in order to avoid revocation. 



Perhaps the most interesting case under this section 

 may prove to be the case of the German chemical 

 industries. It is well known, of course, that although 

 the inventor of the original artificial dye was Perkin, 

 the aniline dye trade has been transferred almost 

 entirely to Germany, the proportion of patents in dye 

 cases granted to foreigners being in 1906 about 95 per 

 cent. Most of these patents are under the control of 

 a few large syndicates, and at least one of these 

 syndicates is making active preparation for working 

 their patents in this country. The extent to which 

 this working will be insisted on is, at present, quite 

 problematical, as, under the section, the Comptroller 

 need make no order revoking the patent if the 

 patentee gives satisfactory reasons why the article 

 or process is not manufactured or carried on in this 

 country. What is a satisfactory reason? Is it a 

 satisfactory reason that the article or process can be 

 manufactured or carried on more cheaply abroad? 

 Is it a satisfactory reason to have advertised for some- 

 one to work the patent and to have received no offer? 

 These and many other questions at once arise and 

 present difficulties which can, apparently, be settled 

 only in practice. 



The authors deal wiih the many minor changes in 

 the law introduced by the new Act, and, although the 

 comments might with advantage have been more 

 lavish, the book may be recommended as a clear and 

 concise discussion of the new ninctmcnls. 



NO. 2021, vor,. 78J 



.4 IlISrORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION. 



Die Entwicklung dcr Konlinciite iiiid Hirer Lebewdt 

 cin Bcitrag zur verglcichendcn Erdgeschichte. By 

 Dr. T. Arlt. Pp. xviii + 730. (Leipzig : W. Engel- 

 mann, 1907.) Price 20 marks. 



THE explanation of the obvious plan in the distri- 

 bution of oceans and continents has long been 

 one of the ideals of geography. Bacon insisted that 

 one of the main duties of geographers was to solve 

 the riddle of the geographical homologies, and at 

 length a solution has been advanced that has made 

 widespread progress into favour during recent years — 

 the daring and once ridiculed tetrahedral theory of 

 Lowthian Green. That theory, simply stated, is that 

 hard-shelled spheroidal bodies that are contracting 

 owing to internal shrinkage tend to become flattened 

 on four faces ; that the spheroid undergoes a tetrahe- 

 dral deformation as the unshrinkable shell sags down 

 after the contracting interior, and that this shape 

 develops as the body thus most easily gets rid of the 

 excess of surface. The extent of this deformation is 

 limited in a revolving mass, as the effects of rotation 

 oppose the deformation and tend to restore the 

 spheroidal form. Modern developments of the tetra- 

 hedral theory attribute to this struggle betweer* 

 tetrahedral collapse and spheroidal recovery an alter- 

 nate advance and retreat of the sea upon the land, as 

 the ocean basins are alternately deepened and shal- 

 lowed; and the occurrence of epochs of intense volcanic 

 activity, following long intervals of quiescence, is attri- 

 buted to disturbances that restore stability to the earth 

 after a period of slow deformation has rendered the 

 crust unstable. 



The ultimate test of this theory is its agreement 

 with the records of historical geology, and that test 

 Dr. Arlt applies to it in the large volume of some 730 

 pages and an atlas of twenty-three plates. The 

 author marshals a very varied array of evidence col- 

 lected from geography, stratigraphical geology, 

 paleontology, and geodesy. Dr. Arlt shows he has 

 studied an enormous and varied literature, and is 

 capable of handling petrographical, biological, and 

 mathematical evidence. 



The book begins with a brief reference to the theory 

 of the permanence of ocean and continent vi-hich was 

 much in vogue from 1876 to 1890. If that theory be 

 true, the tetrahedral theory is unnecessary; for one 

 of the astronomical theories which attribute the dis- 

 tribution of the continents to agencies that affected 

 the earth in pre-geological times might be adequate. 

 But, as Prof. G. H. Carpenter has recently remarked, 

 " there can be no doubt that the trend of modern 

 speculation is against the doctrine of the permanence 

 through past ages of the great ocean basins of the 

 present day " (" Scottish National Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion, Report on Scientific Results," vol. v., p. 57); and 

 in accordance with most recent work, Dr. Arlt shortly 

 and emphatically dismisses the theory as inconsistent 

 with the facts. He then proceeds to state the methods 

 of palasogeography They are the petrographic — the 

 study of sedimentary rocks and deep-sea deposits — and 

 the biological — the study of the existing and former 

 distributions of animals and plants. 



