Letters to the Editors

Abstract

I FIRST learned of the results of the experiments referred to by Prof. Alichanow and his colleagues in conversations with Dr. A. Rogozinski during a visit to Paris in May 1948. Although I had not, at that time, seen their original papers, I made reference to their work in a lecture which I gave to the French Physical Society during the course of this visit, and in the account of the lecture which appeared afterwards¹. In later publications, my colleagues and I have referred to Prof. Alichanow's work in so far as this seemed to us to be appropriate². I had hoped that Prof. Alichanow would be able to accept an invitation which we had extended to him to attend the Bristol Symposium on Cosmic Rays in September 1948, and thus to have the benefit of personal discussions with him. These anticipations were not realized, however, and I therefore hope that the explanation given above makes it clear that the failure of my colleagues and I to make any earlier comment on these experiments was not due to any ill-will on our part—or of any desire to ignore the results of our Soviet colleagues—but was a consequence of the difficulties of communication and intercourse between us which exist at the present time.