Bulletin of Roentgenology and Radiology. Physical-Technical Section. Published by the State Roentgenological and Radiological Institute. Vol. I, Issues 1, II and III, Petrograd, 1919.

Until now, scientific and technical works in the field of roentgenology have been scattered through literature of a partly physical, partly technical, and even medical character. The task of the publication under review ...

journal—to unite the publication of all these studies in one place. But besides this it also has another significance. As the subtitle indicates, it is the organ of one of the new research institutes—the State Roentgenological and Radiological Institute in Petrograd. It is therefore quite natural that the first issue of the journal is predominantly programmatic in character. In a brief preface Prof. A. F. Ioffe outlines the range of questions to whose study the institute’s activity is devoted. The basic aim of all the investigations of its physical division comes down to the study of the structure of atoms and of their various compounds (molecules and crystals) by means of X-rays, as well as to the systematic study of X-radiation itself. In this field Prof. A. F. Ioffe indicates the following three groups of questions:

1) The arrangement of electrons in the atom and of atoms in the molecule of an amorphous body, the principal method here being the method of Debye and Scherrer.

2) The study of the dynamics of the atom, for which the Bohr model is adopted as the working hypothesis. This includes questions concerning the potential energy of the individual electrons that enter into the composition of the atom, the participation of the positive nucleus in the rotation of the atom, etc.

3) Finally, an attempt is planned to induce, by the action of X-rays on the atomic nucleus, artificial radioactive disintegration. Theoretical calculations show that at 600,000 volts rays of such hardness can be obtained as is sufficient to knock an electron out of the nucleus.

This introduction is followed by a series of abstracts of a physico-technical character, which as a whole give a critical picture of the means and methods available to the investigator for solving the proposed problems (V. Bursian. Methods of obtaining X-ray spectra; A. Chernyshev, obtaining a high direct-voltage current of considerable power, etc.).

Issue II is occupied by the work of P. I. Lukirsky. Does the ionizer measure the number of ions or the energy? In issue III there is a paper by V. Bursian. The passage of a thermionic current between plane electrodes in a vacuum.

— E. Shpolsky.