15 JANUARY 1943, Page 12

SIR J. J. THOMSON sm,—As one who has long treasured

the saying (quoted from memory) of Sir J. J. Thomson, "Though science is for ever drawing back the curtain, so that half-wonders disappear, the wonder still remains," confess to disappointment that your reviewer of his biography gives no suggestion of the mystic sense that must have been his—but perhaps the omission is to be charged against the author rather than the reviewerl-

Yours truly, EDWARD S. G. WICKHAM. Waterlooville Vicarage, near Portsmouth.