Referee's report by Paul Dirac, on a paper 'Excitation and ionization of atoms by electron impact. I. The Born and Oppenheimer approximations - General theory' by David Robert Bates, A Fundaminsky and Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey Sectional committee: Mathematics Paper reference code: A3 Recommended for publication in Philosophical Transactions. Dirac recommends that the paper is combined with another paper by the same authors [see RR/73/12] 'because they are closely connected and anyone who reads one will want to read the other.' He writes that 'this work is of a kind that will not quickly get out of date and will be referred to for a long time to come.' [Published in Philosophical Transactions A, 1950]. Date received not given. 1950