place a paper on " preventive censorship," under which all
proofs had to be submitted, and any matter could be struck out,
without, however, removing responsibility for what remained.
The Norddeutsche Allgeineine Zcitung was a purely official organ,
and several other papers, notably the Kolnische Zeitung and
the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, were semi-official.
With regard to the Press generally, there were several agencies
of direction and inspiration. The Press Department of the
Foreign Office issued a regular news-sheet containing the state-
ments and views the propagation of which was desired; it also
acted directly on newspaper correspondents. The Admiralty
had a very active publicity department, for some time under
the direction of Mathias Erzberger and Paul Rohrbach. The
Ministry of the Interior had a separate organization and also
circulated " tendencious " sheets. The War Press Bureau,
controlled by the Higher Command, was the most important
propagandist organ. It issued commands to the censorship,
laying down the prohibitions and the special attitudes which were
circulated through the local authorities, and it had a special
foreign section. Moreover, daily Press seances were held by
three officials, representing respectively the Foreign Office,
the War Office and the Admiralty, at which instructions and
directions too delicate to be committed to paper* were issued.
German propaganda in neutral countries was officially con-
trolled by a branch of the Foreign Office, the Zenlralstelle fiir
Auslandsdienst. It issued material for propaganda and propa-
ganda for distribution through the official representatives in
foreign countries. Every Germany embassy or legation had
at least one organ under its immediate control, sometimes pub-
lished in German specially for German readers, more often in
the language of the country in which it was issued. The material
consisted of copies of a special newspaper, the Nachrichten der
Auslandspresse, prepared by the War Press Bureau, a daily
paper containing telegrams and notes on current events, and
often selected news cuttings issued by the general staff. Another
official agency, believed to be directed by the Admiralty, issued
an attractive and well-illustrated periodical, the Kriegs Kronik,
as well 'as the Kriegs Nachrichten, the latter consisting of
prepared articles on war subjects and a " Berlin " letter, for the
edification of the foreign Press.
In addition there were several highly important private
organizations for foreign propaganda. The Deutscher Uebersee-
dienst Transocean was a syndicate established before the war by
big German industrials to supplement and correct the service
of the official Wolff Bureau. It issued the daily German wireless,
had a special foreign news-service consisting chiefly of selected
cuttings from German and foreign newspapers, and a very fine
illustrated monthly periodical in five languages Der Grosse
Krieg in Bildern. It had an intelligence division which reported
on the standing and personality of newspaper editors in every
country, and suggested means of influencing them. The Kriegs-
ausschuss der deulschen Industrie, formed originally to repre-
sent industrialists in their controversies with the Government,
became an extensive propagandist chiefly on trade matters. A
bureau at Frankfort-on-Main, partly official, dealt chiefly
PROPELLANTS
185
with Latin countries. The Deutsch-Stidamerikanisches Institut,
and the Hamburgischer Ibero-Amerikanischer Verein were oc-
cupied chiefly with Latin and Latin-American countries, and
had agents and usually press organs in every country where
Spanish or Portuguese is spoken. The Far East was served
through the Ostasiatische-Lloyd, which supplied a distributing
centre in Shanghai.
Until the United States of America came into the war, there
was a very active German campaign to influence American
opinion in favour of Germany. A great part of it was con-
ducted from the German embassy in Washington, and through
the German consuls throughout the United States. Much work
was done by special missions such as that of Dr. Dernburg, a
former Colonial Secretary, and every German bank or trading
corporation was a centre of organized effort. A very large
number of serious books by well-known German authors were
translated into English for American readers. These followed
certain main lines. They drew contrasts between the peaceful
progress of Germany since her unification, as compared with
the violence of other Powers. They represented Germany as
being engaged purely in self-defence. They offered veiled threats
or bribes to the United States with reference to Japan. They
insisted on the moral basis of German culture and civilization.
Closely similar lines were followed by many leading Americans
of German descent. Perhaps the most effective of these American-
Germans was Hugo Miinsterberg, professor of psychology at
Harvard, who advocated the cause of his natal country with
eloquence and apparent moderation. His main point was that
the war was really a struggle between Russian barbarism and
the western culture of Germany, France taking sides because
of Alsace-Lorraine, England because of her commercial rivalry
and desire for German colonies. If Germany were beaten, it
would be a triumph of Asiatic Russia and of Japan over the cul-
ture of Europe and America. It was suggested that the task of
America was to give Europe an honourable peace, which she
could do only by the strictest neutrality, with a leaning to
Germany. Some true Americans also engaged in propaganda
in favour of Germany. Some of these, doubtless, were mere
hirelings; the better were chiefly persons of standing in the
literary, scientific and musical world, who had been much in
Germany. Some of the exchange professors were leaders in this
work, and very naturally advocated with zeal and knowledge
the best side of the German character and the great part Ger-
many had played in the arts and sciences. Still more vocal were
the Irish-Americans, who devoted themselves with a malignant
bitterness to propaganda against England.
As regards direct German propaganda against the enemy,
comparatively little was done, as compared with other com-
batants, in the distribution of propagandist literature from Ger-
many amongst the actual troops opposed to her. The Gazette
des Ardennes was the most successful effort. It was a regular
newspaper, written in French and often with an illustrated
supplement. It was sent into France by balloons, and occa-
sionally by aeroplane, and sometimes gained entrance through
a neutral country. It was eagerly sought, as it was baited with
genuine information as to French prisoners. Otherwise it con-
sisted of well-arranged propagandist matter of the usual type.
The Continental Times, written in English, was founded before
the war as a genuine newspaper for Americans travelling in
Germany and Austria. During the war, probably with the
aid of a German subsidy, it developed into a propagandist
organ, chiefly anti-English, and almost ludicrous in its exag-
gerated malevolence. It was freely circulated among English
prisoners in German camps, where, fortunately, it was the occa-
sion of a good deal of amusement. The Russkiya Iszvestia,
written in Russian, was distributed to Russian prisoners of war,
and to a smaller extent in Russia. It was a competent piece of
work, addressed to the task of persuading the Russian peasant
that his two chief enemies were England and his own Govern-
ment, and that the victory of Germany would mean liberation.
Germany's greatest propagafidist effort against her enemies
was carried out by indirect means. Wherever she thought that
there was opportunity, she endeavoured to excite the discon-
tented subjects of her enemies. She sought to get in touch with
Irishmen, Indians, Arabs, Egyptians, Boers, Algerians and
Georgians, and with various black races. A special organization or
committee in Berlin attended to each of these peoples, and to
many others. Where possible, representatives were lured to
Berlin, and, if thought useful, were provided with funds. Mis-
sions, sometimes accompanied by Germans, were sent wherever
they could be sent with safety. On the negative side the effort
had some success, and existing discontent was sedulously
fomented. But on the positive side there was little gain, for the
Germans were seldom able to persuade the actual or tentative
rebels that their future position would be any better under the
domination of Germany. (P. C. M.)
PROPELLANTS (see 10.83). A propellant explosive should
burn comparatively slowly, and thus allow the use of a suitable
charge for the required muzzle velocity without causing a high
chamber pressure, and enable the maximum pressure to be kept
low while better sustained; it should burn regularly which
depends upon the area of surface exposed to burning and the
rate should be easily capable of regulation; it should be smoke-
less, without bright flash; it should not give excessive heat dur-
ing combustion, but be easy of ignition and not leave any solid
residue; it should have both chemical and ballistic stability
while in storage. The method of manufacture and the propor-
tionate mixture of cordite, the British smokeless propellant
(see 7.138), have been very largely controlled by the postulated
requirements, particularly as regards keeping qualities.
With cordite manufactured by the methods in vogue before
the World War the nitrocellulose used was highly nitrated,
necessitating the use of acetone as a solvent. This involved a
serious disadvantage in that the supply of the solvent mate-
rially governed the output of cordite. The enormous amounts of
propellant required and the . demand for rapid supply during
the war made this disadvantage seriously felt, and thoughts
were turned in the direction of discovering some expedients in
which a state of lower nitration would render possible the use
of some other solvent, which could be more easily obtained, as
well as the devising of new methods by which the time expended
in manufacture might be materially reduced. At the same time
it was postulated that disturbance of the ballistic and heat
value of cordite M.D. was not to be incurred.
Experiments resulted in the introduction of a class of cordite
known as R.D.B. (Research Department, mixture B.), with which
ether-alcohol is used as the solvent. It consists in a percentage com-
position of nitroglycerine (42 %), nitro-cotton (52 %), mineral jelly
(6%). A larger percentage of nitroglycerine was included in this
mixture in order to compensate for the lower nature of nitrocellulose,
and a higher proportion of mineral jelly to reduce the higher tem-
perature produced by the extra proportion of nitroglycerine. The
appearance of this class of cordite, as compared with cordite M.D.,
is not so clear, generally warped, with a rougher surface. With this
mixture, not only was there the advantage in employing a solvent,
of which supply was assured, but also the time required for drying
in manufacture was considerably reduced.
Originally, the tubular form was introduced for cordite in order
to maintain an equal area of burning surface, and so permit a more
equally sustained pressure during combustion. In the form of strips,
cordite gives very similar action as in the form of tubes ; this form in
manufacture and otherwise has other advantages which favoured its
use for cartridges. But since, when made up into charges, strip
cordite is apt to become packed tight, and so practically form a solid
bundle, the result on explosion may not be as desired.
The provision of cellulose for conversion into nitrocellulose de-
pended during the war very largely on the obtainable supplies. In
Germany different expedients were tried, amongst them an un-
successful attempt to use an artificial silk made by dissolving wood-
cellulose in suitable solvents. But practically all the nitrocellulose
made in that country, during the war, was made from a certain
kind of paper, probably from some form of wood-cellulose (see
CELLULOSE).
The American service propellant N.C.T. (nitrocellulose tubular)
is a soluble nitro-cotton powder gelatinized by ether-alcohol, and
containing a small percentage of diphenylamine added to act as a
stabilizer. The powder is practically a pure nitrocellulose powder,
and consists of nitrocellulose (97%), stabilizer (0-5%), volatile
matter (2-5%).
The nitration of the cellulose is similar to the process in the case of
cordite, but the drying of the powder is not carried so far, a con-
186
PROTHERO PROTOZOOLOGY
siderable proportion of the solvent being retained. The stabilizer,
being a substance with an affinity for nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), is
intended to prevent the free presence of nitrous acid should any
decomposition occur. It is claimed for the stabilizer that it at the
same time acts as a detector and shows when decomposition is
occurring, by means of the resulting discoloration; but this claim
does not appear to have been clearly established. The shape of the
powder is different from that of cordite. The mixture is extruded
through dies, for charges for smaller guns in a tubular form, and for
larger guns as a stick with several longitudinal holes; as it is ex-
truded, it is cut into short lengths, the lengths having a proportion-
ate relation to the diameter of the hole in the stick. This shape en-
ables greater ease in making up cartridges than with cordite, re-
quiring merely the weighing of the charge on scales as against cutting
lengths of cordite according to size and weight. Nitrocellulose
tubular is not so powerful as cordite, and therefore larger charges are
required; it is hygroscopic, and consequently, if cartridges become
damp, considerable variations in ballistics may result ; it is not so
stable in storage as cordite. On the other hand, it is more uniform
in burning (at a slower rate and with a lower temperature than
cordite), and so causes much less erosion in a gun; and, further, the
loading temperature has less effect on ballistics than with cordite,
and the regularity in worn guns is better. The colour of the grains
varies very much and may be buff, brown, dark blue or even nearly
black, perhaps owing to slight changes in the stabilizer present ; but
practically no difference in stability has been detected, except when
the colour becomes brick-red, or rusty, when it may be concluded
that corrosion has set in.
A nameless powder has been made in America for which it is
claimed that, with field guns firing this kind of powder, it is possible
for the eyes of the gunner to see the muzzle of the gun at the moment
of firing, and that the flash is imperceptible at a distance of a mile.
The composition of the American powder is approximately 60 % of
nitro-cotton, stabilized only with potassium carbonate, 25-28 % of
nitroglycerine treated in the same way, 5-7 % of diphenylphthalic
diethylester of the phthalic acid obtained by estenfying phthalic
anhydride with ethyl-alcohol in the presence of sodium bisulphate
and 35% of neutral potassium tartrate; vaseline or mineral jelly
up to 5 % is used to balance the composition. The dimensions of the
powder-sticks and the exact composition depend upon the form to
be used and have to be calculated.
The German propellant used with the 77-mm. gun was in the form
of tubular sticks, and was a ballistite containing a stabilizer of " cen-
tralite " type, the stabilizer being the thio-urea derivative corre-
sponding to diphenyldimethyl-urea. This last substance has been
found frequently in German powders; it is very resistant to the
action of acids and alkalis and is oxidized by fuming nitric acid
only after prolonged heating at a high temperature.
A ballistite containing 60% of nitrocellulose and 38% of nitro-
glycerine has been used by the Germans; and also a mixture of
nitrocellulose (66-16%), nitroglycerine (25-97%), sym. diethyl-
diphenyl-urea (5-64%), volatile matter (0-91%), mineral matter
(1-32 %). With certain guns the Germans tried a mixture of ammo-
nium nitrate (84-5%), carbon (15-0%), ammonium chloride (0-5%),
in a compressed block, in the shape of an annulus, which was in-
serted in the cartridge-case above a charge of ordinary nitrocellulose
powder. What was the exact result of this combination is not clear.
Among sporting powders which were tried during the war as
propellants might be quoted as an example E.G. 3 a powder made
by a private company which was used rather largely in trench
warfare. This also is a nitrocellulose powder, which after forming
to required shape is treated with acetone so that the outer surface is
hardened. It is claimed for this process that the pressure during
burning is more evenly distributed and more regularly maintained,
since the hardened skin of the powder allows of slow burning to
commence with and the porous interior allows more rapid action,
later on. (F. M. R.)
PROTHERO, SIR GEORGE WALTER (1848- ), English
man of letters, was born in Wilts. Oct. 14 1848. Educated at
Eton, King's College, Cambridge, and the university of Bonn,
he became fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and was history
lecturer there from 1876 to 1894, when he became professor of
history at the university of Edinburgh 1894-9. He was a
member of the Royal Commission for Ecclesiastical Discipline
1904-6. In 1899 he succeeded his brother Rowland (afterwards
Lord Ernie) as editor of the Quarterly Review. He was also editor
of the Cambridge Historical Series and co-editor of the Cambridge
Modern History. During the World War he was head of the
historical section of the British Foreign Office, and in that
capacity attended the Peace Conference in Paris (1919). He
was created K.B.E. in 1920. Amongst his publications are
Life and Times of Simon de Mont} art (1877), Memoir of Henry
Bradshaiv (1889), and various volumes of historical papers,
as well as the British History Reader (1898).
PROTOPOPOV, ALEXANDER DMITRIEVICH (1864-1918),
Russian statesman, was born in 1864 and educated in a military
school. He served for some time in the army, but he soon left
the service and went into business. As a big landowner of the
Simbirsk province he took an active part in the Zemstvo life
and was elected member of the executive board of the Simbirsk
Zemstvo and marshal of the nobility of the Simbirsk province.
In 1907 he was elected member of the third and subsequently
of the fourth State Duma, where he joined the left wing of
the Octobrist (Moderate Liberal) party. Later be became vice-
president of the State Duma. The first unfavourable rumours
with reference to him arose in connexion with an interview with
Herr Max Warburg, the German financier at Stockholm. In
March 1916 he visited the capitals of western Europe as one of
the leaders of the Russian parliamentary delegation. On his
return journey he privately met at Stockholm Herr Warburg,
the head of the Scandinavian section of the German Committee
on Food Supplies. The importance of the conversation was,
however, greatly exaggerated by the press, and also by Protopo-
pov himself. At the beginning of Oct. 1916 Protopopov was
appointed, through the influence of the Emperor, Minister of
the Interior, in succession to Khvostov, and thus entered the
Sturmer Cabinet. A former leader of Liberals, he proved to be
now the strongest upholder of reaction. He enforced the cen-
sorship with unexampled rigour, and his interference with the
food-supply work of the Zemstvos and Towns Union created a
serious danger to the activities of these organizations. At a
stormy meeting held at the Duma he was asked by his political
friends to resign his post, and when he refused to do so they
struck his name off the list of members of the party. Hated by
the Liberal circles and the Duma, Protopopov not only supported
the reactionary policy of Sturmer and Prince Galitzin with the
utmost energy, but he is said also to have been one of the secret
organizers of the disturbances of Feb. 1917, which he proposed
to suppress by military force, and which, unexpectedly for him,
resulted in the overthrow of the Empire and of himself. He
was arrested by the Provisional Government and committed
for trial. He remained for many months in the Peter and
Paul fortress and was executed by order of the Extraordinary
Commission in Sept. 1918.
PROTOZOOLOGY (see 22. 479) is that branch of zoology which is
concerned with the group of animals known as the Protozoa.
It is not, as its name might seem to imply, a primitive form of
zoology. As a science it is comparatively young, but, owing
chiefly to the practical importance of some of the animals with
which it deals, it had in 1921 already become one of the largest
and most cultivated fields in biology. The Protozoa are very
interesting animals, from both the practical and the theoretical
standpoint. Nevertheless, they are all small, and most of them
of microscopic dimensions. To the general public they are
therefore invisible, and consequently unknown, except by the
conspicuous results such as diseases which they occasionally
produce. In common speech they are still nameless, though they
are popularly included among " animalcules " and "microbes."
But these are unscientific and unnatural groups, which comprise
all microscopic creatures, both animals and plants; and con-
sequently the Protozoa are still confused, in the popular mind,
with other " microbes," such as the Bacteria, with which they
have no connexion.
It will be evident that protozoology, as an independent science,
must necessarily have arisen as a comparatively late offshoot
of zoology. Its history is bound up with that of the microscope,
an instrument which bears much the same relation to proto-
zoology that the telescope does to astronomy. Before micro-
scopes were invented no Protozoa could have been clearly visible.
With the first lenses, the largest and most conspicuous of them
were discovered; and as microscopes were improved, more and
more minute creatures gradually became known. Out of the
confusion of forms which the microscope has continued to
reveal, the Protozoa have ultimately emerged as a well-defined
group of animals, and, as a result, those who study these animals
have slowly built up a new section of zoological science.
PROTOZOOLOGY
187
As an individual science protozoology only became self-
conscious at a quite recent period. The name itself, though
already in use between 1870 and 1880, only became current
after the opening of the 2oth century that is to say, within the
memory of many living zoologists. But the science was really
born though not baptized when the first Protozoa were
discovered. This far-reaching discovery was made in the latter
half of the i7th century. It was made by a man who was neither
zoologist nor physician, but who occupied the humble position
of chamberlain to the sheriffs of the little town of Delft, in
Holland Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), an amateur
microscopist, who studied at no university, nor under any of the
great professors of his day, but whose title to fame rests upon
the simple and honest application of his own native genius.
This remarkable man made his own microscopes, lenses and all,
and turned them upon almost every object which suggested
itself to his quick imagination. In the course of his work he
examined the water from the leaden gutters of his house, from
the well in his courtyard, and also fresh rain-water, snow-water
and " the water wherein pepper had lain infused." He found
that all these liquids, and many others, were not clear and empty
when viewed by the microscope, but teeming with living crea-
tures. The discovery was promptly communicated by letter
to the Royal Society in London, who published a part of it in
the year 1677. Some of the animals which Leeuwenhoek here
described can now be identified as Protozoa, and his letter may
therefore be regarded as the first page in the history of proto-
zoology.
Leeuwenhoek, the father of protozoology, himself studied and
described many Protozoa. His observations were soon repeated and
confirmed by others, notably by some of the early Fellows of the
Royal Society and his fellow-countryman Huygens, the great astron-
omer. But for many years protozoology made little progress, and
remained essentially what it was originally, an amusement rather
than a science. Although many good observations were made and
recorded, they were always disjointed, and often distorted by fancy
and speculation. Many good zoologists regarded with doubt and
misgiving everything seen with the microscope, an attitude of