WHAT PUBLIC SHOULD READ.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 10 July 1926, Page 21

WHAT PUBLIC SHOULD READ.

IMPROVING THE MIND.

WITH LIGHTER LITERATURE.

(By PERITUS.)

A good friend of mine has lent mc a copy (the eightieth number) of a popular magazine. A little light reading is beneficial for ali of us at times, and I have been enjoying myseli immensely. Immersed in the articles I have been able to put aside personal cares_ and find relief from the wonies of business, forget my enemies, and even my debts. When by a happy chance I have a magazine like- this I plunge metaphorically, headlong into it, .id revel mentally in the rolling sonorous pnrases of the stimulating, thodghtful authors who have laboured to produce the literary tonic material wnich can be absorbed without observaDle elfort, like sunshine by the skin. That you may share my pleasure, 1 purpose to quote such passages as seem best to illustrate the nature of the various articles, and comment thereon when comment seems neceisar/ to enhance their value. 'The equations were transformed, new unknowns beinj the errors of the elements ol the orbit, of the coefficient, of the principal term in the parallactic inequality and of the tubular semi-diameter. Tha final result is S".SOS _^0.00o." It is optn to you to question the result, but Dr. Joues beinj an authority 1 udvise you to accept it as correct. So that's that. Moving on a page or two 1 am attracted by the opinion of a geatlemau uauiyd Dasastjerna, who deduces the relriiciivities ot a number ot atoms and ioi.s from the retmctivr indices ot crystals aud salts. "The relative sizes obtained are piesumeci to rerei to the average distances of the -tuter eLectron orbits from the nucleus, and it is further assumed that they give the variations of the kinetic thtory dia;neleis, so that if one diameter is knuwo tliei* the others maj be calculated." In trying this it is well to hold the hand of an acquaintance and ask liiin to thiiik of notiiirg until, by thought transtereuce, you cuiuitiuuuiUe the result to him. "Adherents of -ne doctrine oi have aliuvvti a disposition to hold mat the laustatic anomaly is due to irregularities near the surface of tluearth'' las whan, after 0 p.m., you trip over an irregularity that earlier in the day you would havt seen and avoided), "but M puts forward oousidei-ations lead ing to the view that it may represent much greater irregularities," which, ot course, may be mere exaggeration. Anyhow I became an adherent immediately and felt much better. Further on 1 read, "Batholiths play but a secondary role in the wedge theory of orogeny When in }ar,je volume they became an important auxiliary agent in helping to drive the ovsrthrust slices towards the margins of the wedge blocks. In the orogenic zone the crust bends downwards, and sometimes Kunders, with the generation of secondary magmas of baciiolitbic type." 1 have seen the cruet bending and foundering in iaiiy home-mad pies, but the generation of magmas has been presented by the ingestion of the materials Another contributor says: "The haustorium grovs through the preliaustorium, and develops absorbtive processes which are interpreted ac root i hairs. Theee dilierentiate as tracheids. but no coanectio - ' with the phloem was found, nor were any phloem elements recogniser , in the hiustorium. The tracheids app°ar to perform a dual function." Aly root hairs are interpreted a≤ a sign of advanced -age; they may differentiate as tracheids, *"Ut 1 cannot imagine what I elaall look like if they do, probably like a phloem. You will be as delighted as I am to learn that the "spermatogenesis of the peripatus has been reinvestigateJ, the modern technique of cytology being employed. The spermatozoon is unique in being devoid of cytoplasmic substances, it has a true aerosome which is formed from a Golgi body, and most of the mi -ichcndria oi the spermatids go to form a nebenkern ophere. The middle piece contains, in addition to a ce.itrosome. a lipin part," which sounds like wasteful extravagance. In a paragraph headed "TicKs," we learn th* t "af te. larvae, presumably infected, had the resultant nymphae containing rickettsiae in their alimentary tracts, when fed upon susceptible animate, produced in them typical attacks of heart water, whict the ontrol nymphs fa : lpd to do." In my experiences most jymphs, controlled or uncontrolled, oduce heart disturbances. It may be "heart water," bu* it feels more like a heart stimulant of some kind. "Turbellaria" is not a new name for the advanced flapper, although the description rather misled mc. Here it is. "We find traces of parasitism in the active free-swimming turbellaria ; eyes of a fair complexity, a nervous system adequate to the needs of the animal, searching for food, enjoying the sun, many of them highly coloured. "Alteration ir the qual : ty of light-dark (luminosity) decreases saturation by a decrease of luminosity or an increase, that is towarde light or dark respectively Alteration in hue or chroma, changes the hue towards the nest hue on either side, and loses in saturation or intensity if luminosity does not alter also to the optimum of the hue which is being approached." The writer compares lightdark "to liquid-solid," to which he says it is analogous. When we read of the "poor rich," without flinching, T suppose we should not object to other contradictory terms. Most men (and women) being good-bad, and these bright articles being, like science, elevating-depressing, the light-heavy nature of many clear-confusing paragraphs may be accepted ac retrogres-6Lve-progress in knowledge. In the record of an animal of most humorous behaviour, it is said, "The bifurcated legs are cast off and replaced by sis pairs of biramous cirri The cypris fixes iteelf by means of first antennae, at the baee of which is a cement gland. Two lateral folds grow out, leaving a slit along one side. In these calcareous plates are formed, the folds can be bent and the cirri protruded By the movement food is brought to the mouth. In fact the animal is standing on its head and kicking ite food into its mouth with its legs. This gentleman has something to say in simple understandable language, but for the rest, "it really doesn't matter if it's only idle chatter of a transcendental kind." . • .i