IntroductionEight years ago it was suggested [ I , 21 that apart from the three well known regions of deformation (150 < A < 190), ( A > 225) and ( A = 20 and A % 8) a new region of static nuclear deformation should exist for the highly neutron-deficient lanthanides for which both N and Z lie within the range 50-82.Experimental studies of this region were started by S h e l i n e and col.[2] whoobserved very low first excited states in 12sJasJ30Ba when measuring the radioactivity of even-mass neutron-deficient isotopes of praseodymium and lanthanum.The theoretical work of M~RSHALEK, PERSON and SHELINE [3], who calculated the nuclear deformation in this region and suggested a list of nuclei in the neighbourhood of barium most amenable to experimental observations, had a stimulating effect on the further progress of this research. From this work it followed that in the case of highly neutron-deficient nuclei of barium and cerium the deformation parameter can be as high as 0.30. I n the work quoted solely positive deformations were calculated. On the other hand KUMAR and BARANGER [4], who accounted for pairing correlations and quadrupole forces, showed as it could be expected that the nuclei in the neighbourhood of barium have large intrinsic quadrupole moments, which are, however, negative. It can be concluded therefrom that they are oblate which distinguishes them from all strongly deformed nuclei known which have prolate shapes. The work of professor Soloviev's group (ARSENIEV et al. [5]), supports this result and provides among other things contour maps for the negative deformation parameter in the range 50 < 2, N < 82.