OPIUM, TRAFFIC IN

it was first realised in 1906 that if the chinese govt. were to be able to suppress the opium evil, she must be assisted by other nations. in 1909 president roosevelt proposed that an international investiga- tion should be made. as a result an international opium com- mission met that year at shanghai at which 13 powers were represented. the recommendations made at this meeting formed the basis of the first opium convention, which was drawn up at the hague in 1912. the articles of this convention may be summarised as follows:— 1. the distribution of raw opium to be controlled and the use of prepared opium to be gradually suppressed. 2. the export of raw opium to countrics prohibiting its entry to be stopped and its export to countries restricting its import to be controlled. 3. the export and import of prepared opium to be prohibited except to those countries not yet ready to suppress its use. 4. the use of alkaloids of opium and its derivatives to be con- fined to medical and legitimate purposes: a government licence to be obtained by all persons engaged in the manufacture, sale, dis- tribution, import and export of the drugs. 5. the last chapter of the convention consisted of clauses dealing with assistance to china and with certain obligations undertaken by china herself. 6. before the convention came into effect the adherence of the 34 non-signatory powers in europe and america was required. international opium conferences were held at the hague in july 1913 and june ror4, at which a number of powers ratified the convention. during the war all action in this connection was suspended until the paris peace conference in 1919. in the peace treaties of 1919-20 the signatory powers agreed that the rati- fication of these treaties should constitute a ratification of the convention of 1912 and the protocol adopted by the third opium conference of 1914 (according to which the convention should come into effect upon its ratification regardless of the non- signatory powers). opium and the league of nations: appointment of advisory commutiee.— under the covenant (article 23 c), the duty of super- vising the execution of agreements with regard to the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs devolved upon the league of nations. in order to carry out this obligation, the first assembly of the league constituted a committee on opium and other dan- gerous drugs to be advisory to the council. this committee con- sisted of representatives of the countries chiefly concerned in the production of raw opium or manufacture of the drug, assisted by three assessors appointed for their special knowledge of the opium question. to the governments originally invited to nominate members, .e., holland, india, siam, great britain, japan, port- opium, traffic in ugal, france and china, have since been added the united states of america, bolivia, germany, the kingdom of the serbs, croats and slovenes and switzerland. the first assessors to be ap- pointed were sir john jordan, mrs. hamilton wright and m. brenier. the advisory committee, which sits only once a year, except in special circumstances has obtained certain important and definite results, such as additional ratifications to the hague convention (56 states have now ratified, 50 of these states being members of the league) and the adoption by a very large num- ber of countries of an import certificate system. under this system no government may allow the export from its territories of any dangerous drugs covered by the hague convention, except on the production by the exporter of a licence from the importing country, certifying that the drugs in question are required for legitimate purposes. the committee also encourages the use of the secretariat asa centre for the exchange of informa- tion concerning seizures of drugs within the territories of the different states. as a result, it is more possible to know the extent of the illicit traffic which takes place and the main sources and centres of the trafic. the committee receives and examines annually reports from the states as to the exports and imports which have taken place in the current year and of the amounts manufactured. annual requirements of drugs for legitimate purposes.—the council, on the recommendation of the advisory committee, in- vited the governments and the members of the league to pre- pare an estimate of total annual requirements for the inhabitants of their territories for medical, scientific and other uses with a view to proposing at some future date to the states concerned a new distribution of production which would limit the total out- put of raw material to the amount required for legitimate medical and scientific purposes. the representative of the united states of america urged on the advisory committee the recognition of the principles that the use of opium products for other than medical and scientific purposes is illegitimate and they further urged the necessity, in order to prevent the abuse of these products, of exercising the control of the production of raw opium in such a manner that there would be no surplus available for non-medical and non- scientific purposes. the advisory committee expressed its agrce- ment with this view, the representative of india, however, stating that, in the opinion of the indian govt., the use of raw opium according to the established practice in india and its production for such use are not illegitimate under the convention. the council and the assembly also approved the principles laid down by the representative of the united states of america. international opium conferences of 1924 and 1925.—a number of replics had been received from governments giving estimates of their annual requirements of drugs for legitimate purposes when the committee decided to recommend to the council the calling of two international conferences. one, at which the producing and manufacturing states were to be represented, was to deal with the limitation of the production of raw opium and cocoa leaf for export to the amount required for medical and scientific purposes, and with the limitation of the amounts of morphine, heroin and cocaine to be manufactured; the other was to be a special conference to consider the suppression of opium smoking. the council forwarded this proposal to the assembly without comment, and after discussion by that body it was decided to ask the council to take the necessary action to put these resolutions into effect. the assembly suggested, when forwarding the recommendation to the council, that the conference which was to deal with the problem of raw material and manufactured drugs should include all countries who are members of the league and parties to the convention of 1912, and not only representatives of producing and manufacturing states. this proposal was approved. the two conferences met during the latter part of 1924 and the early months of 1925, the conference on the use of prepared opium sitting first. this included representatives of the british empire, china, france, india, japan, netherlands, portugal and siam. oppenheim—optical glass the following 41 states attended the second conference: albania, australia, belgium, bolivia, brazil, bulgaria, canada, chile, china, cuba, czechoslovakia, danzig, denmark, the dominican republic, egypt, finland, france, germany, great britain, greece, hungary, india, the irish free state, italy, japan, luxembourg, the netherlands, nicaragua, persia, po- land, portugal, rumania, the serb-croat-slovene kingdom, siam, spain, sweden, switzerland, turkey, united states of america, uruguay and venezucla. the united states and china withdrew before the close of the conference, as they were unable to obtain the support of the conference on certain prin- ciples which appcared to them to be vital. the agreement of 19024.—the 1924 conference did not find it possible to recommend the immediate complete suppression of the use of prepared opium, but drew up an agreement which embodied the substitution of government monopoly for other systems in force. no gencral agreement could be reached regarding any provisions for registering or rationing addicts, nor was it found possible to embody in the agreement provisions for uniform prices or uniform penalties for the infraction of law or for the limitation of imports. it was held by the majority of members of the conference that no rationing could be enforced or total suppression imposed so long as a large illicit supply of opium remained uncontrolled. to this the representative of china ob- jected, protesting against the refusal of the majority to take immediate steps to suppress opium-smoking until producing countries should find it possible to control smuggling. the con- ference, in a protocol to the agreement, decided to take any necessary measures not already taken for the entire suppression within a period of 15 years of the consumption of prepared opium in the territories under their authority, this period to begin so soon as the effective execution of the measures required to pre- vent illicit exportation of raw opium from their territories had been undertaken by the poppy-growing countries. provision under the agreement is made for a league commission to decide when these measures have been effectively executed. the agreements reached took the form of an agreement, a protocol and a final act. instruments of ratification have been de- posited by great britain, france and india only. the convention of 1925.—theresult of the deliberations and dis- cussions of the conference of 1925 was a convention providing for the more effective restriction of the production and manufacture of narcotics, and establishing stricter control and supervision of the international trade. this convention has been ratified by the following states: australia, great britain, india, new zeca- land, sudan, union of south africa and the govts. of egypt rumania and salvador have adhered to it. among the more valuable suggestions were the creation of a central board, whose task it would be to follow the course of international trade, and the general acceptation of the export and import certificate system. the conference also drew up a protocol by which the signatory states, recognising their obliga- tions to establish such control over the production, distribution and exportation of raw opium as would put a stop to illicit traffic, agreed to take within five ycars of the date of the coming into force of the protocol such measures as might be required to pre- vent the smuggling of opium seriously interfering with the effective suppression of the use of prepared opium in those territories where such use is temporarily authorised. a final act, containing further recommendations, was drawn up. among these special mention may be made of a request to the council to consider the possibility of sending a commission to various opium-producing countries to study the difficulties connected with the limitation of the production of opium in those countries, and to advise as to what measures should be taken to make it possible to limit the production of opium in those countries to the quantities required for medical and scientific purposes. ‘the result of this final act is shown in the league of nations com- mission of enquiry sent to persia to report on the possible sub- stitution of crops for the existing opium crops. half the money for this investigation was contributed by the league of nations, the remainder by the american social hygiene bureau. 1123 brin_1ograpiry.—league of nations, report of advisory com- mittee on traffic in opium (geneva 1923); optum conference. re- ports and other papers (geneva 1924, etc.); w. w. willoughby, opium as an international problem (baltimore 1925); john palmer gavit, opinm (londo1 1925): raymond leslie buell, the inter- national opium conferences, world peace foundation pamphlets (boston 1925). ccr) oppenheim, hermann (1858-1910), german physician and neurologist, was born jan. 1 1858 at warburg in westphalia. fle studied at gettingen, berlin and bonn and graduated in 1881 with a thesis: bettrdge zur phystologie und pathologie der hrarnstoffausschetdungen. from the beginning of his scientific career oppenheim devoted himself especially to investigations concerning illnesses following upon dreams and to the rebuilding of the central nervous system. his monograph die tranmati- schen neurosen (18809, 2nd ed. 1892) attracted wide attention, but also evoked much opposition from charcot, schulze, seelig- muller, mendel and others. in 1894 appeared his lehrbuch der nervenkrankheiten which has been translated into english (1910) and other languages and is a work of international importance. it was followed by two other highly important works: die lincephalitis und der hirnabsecss (1894) and die geschiiilste des hirns (1896). oppenheim was the first to initiate the use of opera- tive methods in the treatment of abscesses. vis investigations in connection with spinal abscesses were very successful. here his mastery of diagnosis stood him in good stead. the world war turned his attention anew to traumatic neuroses, and he pub- lished die neurosen infolge von kriegsverletszungen (1916), beitrdege zur kenntnis der kriegsverleizungen des peripherischen nervens ystems (1917) and stand der lehre von den kriegs und un- fallsnenurosen (1918). oppenheim died in berlin may 26 roto. optical glass (sce 12.87).—although prior to 1914 the manufacture of optical glass in great britain had been steadily, but very slowly, making headway, the research work carried out by abbe and schott at jena, stimulated by the facilities afforded by the german govt., resulting in a lengthy list of glasses both suitable and available for optical purposes, did not encourage any other european maker to take any decisive steps towards exhaustive scientific investigation of the supply of optical glass. war developments —the ready supply thus afforded by ger- many at the beginning of the war found the belligerent nations other than germany unprepared both with information and supply for military needs. in 1914 there was one maker only in germany; in france and in great britain, and although the qual- ity of the british glass even then was beyond question, yet the small list of british glasses available at the outbreak of hostilities with the still smaller list in france, made decisive action on the question of manufacture imperative. at that time only 26 optical glasses were listed by the british maker, a number quite insuff- cient for the needs of the modern optical instrument maker, whereas the list of the same manufacturer now shows over 112 varieties. dense barium crown glasses are now made in eng- land, possessing more extreme properties than any ever before made. progress has also been made in the fluor crown varieties. in addition excellent material is produced in england in suffi- cient quantities and varieties to meet a world demand. un- doubtedly the necessity for the use of good optical glass in mili- tary, naval and aerial operations stimulated its manufacture both in england and trance and it is unlikely that in future contin- gencies either of these countries will be found unprepared. brit- ish manufacture of optical glass owes much to the very strong financial support and encouragement given by the british government. features of manufacture —optical glass differs from other commercial and domestic purpose glass in that it is not produced in large masses and rolled out in sheets as is window glass, but is melted in smaller quantities in crucibles, allowed to cool, the crucible cracked, the resultant mass broken up and certain com- paratively small pieces selected and approved. it differs from commercia! and domestic glass in the need of care in its manufac- ture and the many factors which tend to make the results uncer- tain. variation in results in commercial glass or those required for domestic purposes are of little importance; but with optical 1124 glass, even when every care is used in the batches and the meltings, the occurrence of double-refraction and _ iridescence causes the resultant mass when annealed and examined by a refractometer sometimes to show variations which make final selection of each piece necessary before the results of the batch can be classified. optical glass is much more costly, ranking irom 7s. a lb. in the case of barium crown glasses to about 40s. a lb. for some flint crowns. for some optical instruments jarge pieces or slabs of perfect purity, homogeneity and durability are necessary, as in the case of two 41-in. disks for the large telescope made in great britain since the war. economic difficulttes—its manufacture by small firms, as is possible in the case of glass used for domestic purposes, is not feasible and rarely successful. access to special sands for the sili- cate constituents, the services of a highly specialised chemical laboratory staff and substantial financial resources are requisite. such restrictions obviously confine its production to very large firms with unusual technical resources. in germany the list of useful glasses issued by schott of jena has been extended, and the sendlinger works have also placed certain glasses on the market. conditions in france have prevented any extension by other firms than the paris works ef parra-mantois. in america, although other firms, such as the spencer lens co., entered upon its manufacture, the bulk of optical glass is made by bausch and lomb of rochester. most of the ophthalmic spectacle glass used in the united states is made in england, by the firms of chance bros. of birmingham, the parsons glass co. of derby and barr and stroud of glasgow. during the war the manufacture of optical instruments, es- pecially range-finders, binoculars and telescopes, fulfilled all requirements. since the war, their production has naturally decreased, although there is still a large field of useful work being done in surveying instruments and especially in research against disease. notable improvements have been made in the manu- facture of refractometers, ophthalmic instruments and slit-lamp microscopes (sce microscopy; telescope). anti-aciinic material —but by far a greater field has been explored in germany, america and great britain in the develop- ment of glasses suitable not only for refraction purposes, such as lenses and prisms, but in the important direction of anti-actinic and anti-caloric material. although certain research work has been done on the conti- nent in this direction, it was not until sir william crookes turned his attention in 1909 to the question of adding various metallic oxides to the constituents of glass, in an endeavour to discover a combination which would absorb the invisible rays of the infra- red and ultra-violet regions of the spectrum without obscuring too much light or materially affecting the colours of objects seen through the glass when fashioned into spectacles, that this ques- tion of anti-actinic glass began to receive serious consideration. the result has been that a series of crown glasses of index 1-523 has been made with a very appreciable ultra-violet and heat cut- off, transmitting at the same time about 88% of light, and yet without imparting any appreciable unpleasant tint to the glass. special varieties —until recent years spectacle manufacturers were content to use good quality white ordinary glass, but the demand for such special varieties as bi-focal, tri-focal, aspherical and special ophthalmic lenses has been so enormous as to result in the production of a large variety of glasses with definite in- dices and dispersions. other developments—improvements have also been made in the transparency of certain glasses for the ultra-violet spectrum, perhaps one of the greatest advances made in recent manufac- ture, due to the research work carried out on glass annealing. formerly more or less a lengthy and uncertain process, due to a tendency to fracture and double refraction unless a lengthy time of about 14 days for a period of cooling was given, the an- nealing period has now been reduced to about three days. ‘the quality of the glasses has been improved, so much so that since the war it has been possible for a british manufacturer to intro- duce the first anastigmatic lens, having the hitherto unbeard of aperture of f.2, which makes it possible to photograph a stage optophone—orange free state scene without flashlight and with the help of ordinary stage lighting (see phorography). one of the principal economical strides made in the manufacture of optical glass has been the possibility of moulding small plates of glass to practically any desired size and thickness, or into flat disks or disks with spec- ified curves. see also glass. brnltiocraruy.—h. hovestadt, jena glass and its sctentific and industrial applications, trans. by j. d. everett and alice everett (1902); w. rosenhain, glass manufacture (1g19g); w. h. hampton, ‘' the manufacture of glass with special reference to spectacle glass,’’ brit. jour. of physiologic optics (sept. 1925); ff. r. twyman, “ the vitality of the british optical industry,” jour. of scientific insiruments, vol. 11, no. 12 (sept. 1925). see also journal of the society of glass technology. c).. 11 s.j optophone.—the optophone is an instrument for enabling totally blind people to read ordinary letterpress, such as a printed book or newspaper, without the necessity of printing it in raised type to be read by touch. the instrument was in- vented in 1914 by dr. e. e. fournicr d’albe, then a lecturer in physics in the university of birmingham. it is based upon the properties of sclenium, an element which is a better electrical conductor in light than in darkness. a beam of light is rendered intermittent by the interposition of a revolving siren disc and is then concentrated into a small bright point on the paper to be read. if the point on the paper is white, it will reflect the light; if it is black it will not. a sclenium cell placed close to the paper, on receiving the reflected beam of intermittent light, will respond to each flash by a change in conductivity, and if the frequency of the flashes is of the ‘‘ musical ” order (between 30 and 30,000 per second), a telephone receiver connected with the selentum and a battery will sound a musical note. a blind person could thus tell whether the paper is black or white. that is the principle of the optophone. in practice a small row of luminous points is substituted for a single point, and each point in the row is given a different frequency by suitably perforating the siren disc. the row, usually of five or six points, just fills up the size of the tall letters of the print to be read. when the whole row falls upon the black stem of a letter there is silence in the telephone. as the letters pass their various shapes are indicated by the sounding or silence of the different notes, and after some practice the blind person learns to recognise letters from their sounds, and so to read ordinary type. the first reading test was given by the inventor in march 1917, the matter read being a leading article in the times. in aug. 1918, miss mary jameson, a blind pupil from norwood, gave the first public reading demonstrations, reading an unknown page from a book at a speed of about two words per minute. later, with an improved instrument, she attained a speed of about 20 words per minute. a new type of optophone was brought out in 1920 by barr & stroud, of glasgow. in this instrument two sclenium cells were used, balanced against each other in such a manner that white paper produced silence, and the black letters themselves made the musical sounds. reading demonstrations were also given with this instrument, a maximum of 85 words per minute being attained by a blind reader at the meeting of the british association in liverpool in 1923. the new type is known as the ‘f black-sounder,” and the original type is termed the “ white-sounder.”” the latter type was approved by the inventions and research committee of the national institute for the blind in 1921 after an exhaustive series of tests. the optophone is intended to place the world’s printed literature once more within reach of the blind. it is applicable, without special preparation, to any language, and can also be used for reading typescript, but not handwriting. see a type-reading optophone,” rey. soc. proceedings (1914); “the optephone,” journal of roy, soc. of arts (1g2t); the optophone,” st. dunstan’s review, no, 55 (1921). . (ee. fs dua:) orange free state (see 20.151), since 1910 a province of the union of south africa. the area is 49,647 sq. m.; according to a recomputation made in 1924, the population (1921) was 628,827, of whom 188,758 were whites, an increase in the white orchestration population since 1o1r of 13,381. of the non-whites, only 395 were asiatics. agriculture, including stock raising, is the chief occupation of the people, the orange free state being essentially a pastoral region. there are, however, diamond fields, including the jagersfontein and koffyfontein mines, and coal mines by the vaal river near vereeniging. the only big town is the capital, bloemfontein (¢.v.). the great majority of the inhabitants are of dutch descent. dr. a. e. w. ramsbottom was the first administrator, being succeeded by mr. (later sir) cornelis wessels. both had been members of the ministry during the brief period (july 1907— may 1910), when the province had been a self-governing colony. in 1924, 0n the death of sir. c. wessels, senator e. r. grobler was appointed administrator. education occupied much of the at- tention of the provincial council. in 1912 the provincial council adopted, in the main, the proposal suggested by the union par- liament that up to standard iv. instruction in the schools should be given in the ‘ home language ”’ of the scholar. in 1920 an ordinance was passed recognising “ afrikaans,” i.e., south african dutch, as equivalent to netherlands dutch as a medium of instruction. in most respects the provincial administration was progressive. for the provincial system sce cape province. the province was the stronghold of the dutch nationalists. up to his death in 1916 ex-president steyn, who lived near bloemfontein, though he held no office, exercised very great in- fluence on public affairs. in the crisis caused by the world war steyn opposed operations against german southwest africa. there followed the rebellion of general de wet, the free state being the principal theatre of the campaign. general hertzog, the parliamentary chief of the dutch nationalists and, after steyn’s death, their undisputed leader, was supported by the free state in the general elections of 1915, 1920, 1921 and 1924. (see south africa, union of.) orchestration (sce 20.168 and instrumentation, 14.651). —the orchestration of the roth century is dominated by the names of berlioz, liszt, wagner and strauss, and it is not with- out significance in regard to the continuity of its evolution that the last of these re-edited the treatise written on the subject by the first. berlioz was in fact the true creator of the orchestra employed by strauss, and even the tendency to increase its dimensions was initiated by him. this tendency in the end became its weakness. beyond a certain point it was still possi- ble to increase the richness of an orchestra, but only at the cost of merging its individual hues, so that, however polyphonic the invention of the composer, its orchestral expression tended towards a more highly coloured homophony. to a certain ex- tent this was consistent with the ideals of the romantic move- ment, which were generally best served by the blending of tone- colours, and only in special situations welcomed their sharp impact one upon another. rimsky-korsakov’s orchestral theory—even in the roth century this tendency in orchestration was not allowed to pass unchallenged. the founders of the russian school were not at first differentiated, except in idiom, from the general trend of european music, but their less sophisticated colour sense, and congenital delight in bright and sharply defined colours, were bound to affect their orchestral method. thus arose a new movement, at the head of which stands, so far as orchestration is concerned, the name of rimsky-korsakov. his method is im- perfectly expounded in a treatise, but is clearly discernible in the numerous examples from his own works. so far from aiming at the harmonious fusion of the various timbres of the orchestra, he is often at considerable pains to prevent it, and make them stand out clearly one from another. the first step in this direction was the dispersal of the groups. though there had been considerable freedom in the orchestra- tion of the romantics, they were still almost instinctively dis- posed to regard the principal homogeneous groups, of strings, wood-wind and brass, as the three manuals of an organ, to be used alternately or combined (eze/z} as opportunity arose. the occasional soli were mere incidents in the flow of sound. with rimsky-korsakov and his followers, on the other hand, it is the 1125 occasional use of homogeneous groups that is incidental, the general conception of the orchestra being that of an assemblage of solo instruments. that, at least, appears in the light of recent developments to have been the end towards which rimsky-korsakov was striving, though he only partially at- tained it. his method spread to other countries, mainly through the medium of debussy, who quickly influenced the entire french school. it has been consciously or unconsciously assimilated by the majority of modern composers in england (e.g., holst) and elsewhere, and is now in such general use that for the first dec- ades of the 2zoth century it may be regarded as the new ortho- doxy in succession to that of the rgth. this, of course, does not preclude the existence of many intermediate methods. in or- chestration most composers are, and will always be, eclectics. hence any too rigid classification of methods would be confronted with a multitude of contradictory instances. the most important outcome of the rimsky-korsakov or- chestration is the impetus it gave to the study of individual timbres and the corresponding instrumental idioms. compared with other branches of musical technique this study had pro- ceeded slowly. in the 18th century composers did not discrimi- nate very strictly between instruments. there are numerous examples, by bach and others, of works which exist as piano concertos and also as violin concertos. even more frequent is the indication ‘ flute or violin.”” but though in the roth cen- tury composers were more definite in assigning to particular in- struments everything they wrote, in adapting their ideas to the respective instruments they were more often guided by consider- ations of executive technique than by the implications of timbre. some characteristics, such as those of the oboe and its relatives, were too marked to escape notice and there are passages in wagner which cannot be imagined as conceived for any other instrumental medium. but in general usage a passage was en- trusted in turn to any instrument on which it was practicable. it is in the fullest sense a modern discovery that for each timbre there is a corresponding dialect of the melodic language, into which the musical idea should be translated if it is to be adequately expressed. the procedure of composers being mostly empirical, this matter still awaits the investigation of the theorist but it will most likely be found dependent upon the relative intensity of the overtones, which varies in each timbre. already j. m. hauer has published some interesting speculations bearing on the point. the reaction towards counterpoint—the most prominent composer who has proceeded on these lines is stravinsky. start- ing from the basis of rimsky-korsakov’s teaching, he soon began to explore the idiomatic qualities of individual instruments and the world-wide reputation he enjoys for clever scoring, even among those who do not appreciate his music, largely rests upon this feature of his practice. he is not content that a passage should be effective, for instance, on the clarinet, but he demands that its inflections should be those implicit in the tone-colour of the clarinet and foreign to any instrument not akin to it. this led him at first to advocate an enlargement of the wind sections of the orchestra, to permit of full harmony in any timbre, while the strings were to be reduced on the ground that the dupli- cation of parts, though increasing their tone, weakened their character. the question of balance he regarded as a matter involving the orchestral skill of the composer. soon, however, he found that the assertion of the individual character of an in- strument made much of the background superfluous, and this led him to turn from harmony to counterpoint, and from large orchestras producing the former to small combinations of con- trasted timbres producing the latter. thus originated the newer tendency, still regarded as heterodox in relation to the prevalent allegiance to rimsky-korsakov, but possibly destined to take the place of the latter, just as that has succeeded to the berlioz- wagner-strauss tradition. though the name of stravinsky is most prominent in this con- nection, the same principles are behind many contemporary manifestations, such as schinberg’s pierrot lunaire, and have gained many adherents. the younger french composers, among 1126 whose critics one encounters the term art depoulle (i.e., music stripped of its harmonic envelope), hindemith and many others in germany, bliss in england and, in general, the younger gener- ation everywhere, have come under the spell of this movement, which replaces the multiplication of instrumental means by the intensive exploitation of small numbers. it is a strange coinci- dence that this tendency, which set in two or three years before the world war, should develop in a period of general impover- ishment, whereby an economy of means which was originally dictated by artistic considerations has become financially expe- dient. as, however, the spread of new musical forms is always very slow, the larger and more expensive orchestra is, despite adverse conditions, still the standard. a further result of the contrapuntal character of the new orches- tration is that it has added a kind of neo-classicism, which con- sists in a return to old, pre-romantic conventions. it is, for in- stance, safe to say that never since the 18th century have so many composers been attracted to the older type of instrumen- tal concerto. schdnberg’s chamber-symphony for solo instru- ments came before this revival, but in its instrumental complex- ion it is prophetic of much that has followed. in 1926 there is a growing literature of concerti grosst revealing a somewhat sophisticated affinity to the period of bach and handel. at the same time, a corresponding “ stripping ” of the texture has affected the normal orchestra, especially when used by com- posers of the same school, such as auric in france and rieti in italy. it generally produces an impression of austerity, not to say acidity, a deliberate casting away of all orchestral brilliance as too liable to distract attention from the music. this new so- briety, curiously enough, has jed in some instances to a qualified reinstatement of the old grouping system. the wheel has come full circle, and it looks as if we shall presently be practically where we were rather more than a century ago, but with a vast fund of technical experience garnered in the interval and a medi- um of expression more sensitive to the creative impulse than ‘could ever have been foreseen by the classics. it is no exaggera- tion to assert that, thanks to this expericnce and the teaching based upon it, any student of average talent leaves a good con- servatoire to-day as proficient in this one subject of orchestra- tion as any of the great masters. (e. ev.) orders of knighthood: sce knighthood and chivalry.