account of the career of Dr. Neufeld, who has just been delivered from
captivity in Omdurman by the English forces: "Karl Neufeld studied
medicine at Leipsic University, and went early in life to Egypt,
following first his profession as a medical man and subsequently as
a merchant. At the beginning of the eighties he had a practice at
Keneh, Upper Egypt, where several Germans and also natives of his own
home saw him. Subsequently he set up as a merchant at Assouan. After
the fall of Khartoum and the firm establishment of the Mahdi's power
at Omdurman, Neufeld seems to have formed a scheme for opening up
commercial intercourse with the closed Soudan, for he equipped a caravan
with which he proceeded to Berber, which was then in the hands of Osman
Digna. The latter sent the German, whom he looked upon as a dangerous
spy, to the Khalifa Abdullahi. This was in 1886. Neufeld was condemned
to death, and was taken to the place of execution. He behaved there
so courageously, asking to be executed like a Mohammedan, instead of
suffering death by hanging, that the Khalifa was struck and respited him
under the gallows. He was taken to the general prison, with heavy chains
on his hands and feet, and treated altogether in a most abominable
manner. He was kept alive by the women, who took pity on him and fed
him, as they had done before him to Slatin. Then an endeavor was made
to utilize his knowledge. He knew nothing about founding cannon, but
he managed to manufacture powder, and he was also ordered to invent
a machine for coining money. Owing to the escape of Father Ohrwalder
and, later, of Slatin Pasha, his position became worse. He was again
manacled and threatened with having his arms and feet hacked off if
he should attempt to escape. There were many efforts to liberate him.
The Austrian Catholic mission, induced by Father Ohrwalder, Slatin
Pasha, the British Government, the German, and more especially the
Austrian, representatives at Cairo, all endeavored to further the escape
of Neufeld. He frequently received money, but he refused to escape,
as he would not accept liberty without his wife--an Abyssinian slave
presented to him by the Khalifa--and the two children whom she had borne
him. The latter would have been exposed to fearful tortures, and thus
Neufeld chose to remain a prisoner. He was active subsequently also as
an artist, and as he could draw well he was ordered to decorate the
mausoleum of the Mahdi, and this pleased the women of the Khalifa so
much that they petitioned the latter for his liberation. It is also said
that he has written Arabic books and illustrated them. The latter part
of his twelve years' detention appears to have been less onerous, as
after the escape of Slatin he had to be interpreter to the Khalifa and
translator of European newspapers which the ruler of the Soudan received
regularly. It is to the credit of the Khalifa Abdullahi that not one
of the Christian prisoners received a hurt on the approach of the
Anglo-Egyptian forces. It is expected that a narrative of his experience
in the Soudan will be shortly published by Dr. Neufeld."
=Natural Selection and Fortuitous Variation.=--The three principal
objections urged against Darwin's theory of natural selection were
stated by Prof. W. F. R. Weldon, in his presidential address to the
Section of Zoology and Physiology of the British Association, as being
that the species of animals we know fall into orderly series for the
selection of which purely fortuitous variations can not be supposed
to afford opportunity; that minute structural variations can not be
supposed to affect the death-rate so much as the theory requires they
should, while many of the characters by which species are distinguished
appear to us so small and useless that they can not be supposed to
affect the chance of survival at all; and that the process of evolution
by natural selection is so extremely slow that the time required for its
operation is longer than the extreme limit of time given by estimates of
the age of the earth. The first of these objections the speaker alleged
to be due to a misunderstanding of words; we regard as fortuitous what
we do not understand; and he proceeded to explain how what we call
chance may be shown, especially by a method developed by Professor
Pearson, to be a real and important factor. To the other two objections
Professor Weldon opposed the results of observations of his own and of
Mr. Herbert Thompson on the small shore crabs (_Carcinus mœnas_) at
Plymouth Beach. "In these crabs small changes in the size of the frontal
breadth do, under certain circumstances, affect the death-rate; and the
mean frontal breadth among this race of crabs is, in fact, changing
at a rate sufficiently rapid for all the requirements of a theory of
evolution." In conclusion, he said: "I hope I have convinced you that
the law of chance enables one to express easily and simply the frequency
of variations among animals, and I hope I have convinced you that the
action of natural selection upon such fortuitous variations can be
experimentally measured, at least in the only case in which any one has
attempted to measure it. I hope I have convinced you that the process
of evolution is sometimes so rapid that it can be observed in the space
of a very few years." The whole difficulty of natural selection, he
added, is a quantitative difficulty; and he insisted upon the need of
observations and measurements of the rates of variation.
=The Interior of Canada.=--The country between Lake St. John and James
Bay is under survey by the Department of Colonization and Mines of
Quebec, in furtherance of a scheme for a transcontinental railroad to
tap the Hudson Bay country and Lake Winnipeg. As to the commercial
advantages of a railway center established at the head of James Bay or
at the limit of tide water on the Nottaway River, Mr. O'Sullivan, the
surveyor, shows that the shore line of Hudson and James Bay, following
the east coast from the mouth of the Nottaway to the southern entrance
to Hudson Strait, measures, in a line running due north, eight hundred
miles, or about the same distance as the former point is north of the
city of Washington; and the western shore line, measured in the same
way to Rowe's Welcome, is about sixteen hundred miles, while the area
inclosed amounts to more than three hundred and fifty thousand square
miles. While Hudson Strait is blocked with ice during nine months of
the year, the bay itself is navigable from June till November, and
James Bay is generally open early in May. All the large rivers--the
Albany, Moose, Hannah, Nottaway, Rupert, Main, and Big Rivers--converge
along these shores, and the forest wealth of the thousands of miles
drained by these and lesser rivers can be concentrated at the mouth of
the Nottaway or Rupert. The land along the line from Lake St. John is
good dry land fit for settlement. The Nottaway at the crossing point is
fourteen hundred and fifty feet wide, and admits bridge spans of five
hundred feet. Thence, a direct line to Norway House, at the foot of Lake
Winnipeg, would pass through the gypsum beds on Moose River, and give
access to a vast area of rich agricultural land in the north part of the
province of Quebec. The straight line continued would strike about the
forks of the Peace and Smoky Rivers, near the center of the northwest
wheat-growing region, and thence follow the valleys of the Peace and
Skeene Rivers to the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Rocky Mountains at
a point where the summit is two thousand feet lower than that of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. As to the resources of this northwestern
country, there are, according to a Dominion official report, an area
of six hundred and fifty-six thousand square miles along the Mackenzie
River suitable for the growth of potatoes, four hundred and seven
thousand suitable for barley, and three hundred and sixteen thousand
for wheat, with a pastoral area of eight hundred and sixty thousand
square miles, two hundred and seventy-four thousand miles of which
may be regarded as arable land. "The difference in latitude makes no
corresponding difference in the climate. Flowers bloom as early in the
spring and as late in autumn at Great Slave Lake as at Winnipeg or St.
Paul and Minneapolis. The prevailing southwest or Chinook winds render
the climate along the Peace and Liard Rivers as mild and salubrious as
that of western Ontario. Wheat ripens along the Mackenzie River under
the Arctic Circle, a thousand miles farther north than Rupert House."
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
MR. W. H. HUDDLESTON, in his presidential address to the Geological
Section of the British Association, spoke of the geology of the
southwest of England, and began with supporting the claim of Bristol,
where the association was meeting, to be regarded as the cradle of
British geology, and even more; for, he said, Devonshire, Cornwall, and
West Somerset first attracted the attention of the Ordnance Geological
Survey. "Thus it comes to pass that the region which lies between the
Bristol Channel and the English Channel claims the respect of geologists
in all parts of the world, not only as the birthplace of stratigraphical
paleontology, but also as the original home of systematic geological
survey. The city of Bristol lies on the confines of this region,
where it shades off northwestward into the Palæozoics of Wales and
northeastward into the Mesozoics of the midland counties."
A COMMITTEE of the English Society of Arts, appointed to inquire
into the matter, attribute the doubtful quality of modern paper to
"revolutionary" changes which the industry has undergone, including
the introduction of new substances of varying qualities and chemical
properties, in the working up of which there is still room for much
improvement. The committee have examined many books, as evidence,
on the question of the deterioration of paper. They distinguish
two tendencies--to disintegration and to discoloration--which are
independent but may be concurrent effects, and are notably concurrent in
papers containing mechanical wood pulp. Disintegration, which has been
brought to light in papers of all grades, is generally the result of
chemical changes in the fibers, produced by acids in the rag papers, and
by oxidation in the papers made of mechanical wood pulp. Discoloration
of ordinary cellulose papers, as distinguished from papers containing
mechanical wood pulp, is dependent upon the quality of the sizing, and
particularly the proportion of rosin in it. The committee define as the
normal standard of quality for book papers, required for publications of
permanent value, fibers not less than seventy per cent of the cotton,
flax, and hemp class, sizing not more than two per cent rosin, the paper
to be finished with the normal acidity of pure alum, and the loading to
be not more than ten per cent mineral matter.
COLONEL G. E. CHURCH, president of the Geographical Section of the
British Association, pointed out in his opening address, which was on
Argentine geography and the ancient Pampean Sea, that the drainage
area of the Plata basin was, according to Dr. Bludan, 1,198,000 square
miles, or more than two and a half times that of the Pacific slope of
the Andes. The minimum water discharge into the Plata estuary would,
every twenty-four hours, make a lake one mile square and 1,650 feet
deep. About seventy-four per cent of it would represent the flow of
the Paraná, and twenty-six per cent that of the Uruguay River. These
interlaced with the affluents of the Amazon along a line of fourteen
degrees of longitude. The author sought to show that the Plata drainage
area was, in a recent geological period, much more extensive than it is
to-day; that its extreme northern limit was in 10° 44' south latitude,
and that nearly all the waters that now unite to form the Madeira River,
the main affluent of the Amazon, once flowed southward into a Pampean
sea that penetrated north over the plains of the present Argentine
Republic to about 19° south latitude.
DR. LE NEVE FOSTER, who nearly met his death in 1897 from carbonic-oxide
poisoning while investigating a mine accident in the Isle of Man,
discussing, in his report on the disaster, the origin of the gas, points
out that although it occurs occluded in certain rocks and minerals, it
has never been found as a natural constituent of the atmosphere of the
mines. He had, therefore, to seek an artificial source, and found it in
the burning of the timber in the mine. It appeared that the combustion
of a cubic foot of larch, the wood used in the timber construction of
the Snaefell mine, gives rise to enough carbonic oxide to occupy four
hundred and seventeen feet of space at a temperature of 60° F. and a
pressure of thirty inches. Twenty-five cubic feet of timber will yield
sufficient to infect the atmosphere with one per cent of the gas all
through the mine--enough to cause almost immediate loss of consciousness
and speedy death. It is important, therefore, to avoid as much as
possible the use of combustible material in the shafts and roadways of
mines, unless they are constantly wet or damp. It is also well to have
compressed oxygen at hand for the restoration of asphyxiated persons,
and also apparatus for penetrating noxious gases.
RAFTING, similar to that which formerly distinguished the navigation of
the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and to that which is still employed by
the wood dealers on the great rivers of northern Russia and Siberia,
is in use among the farmers of the middle and upper courses of the
Yang-tse-Kiang as a means of getting their produce to market. They join
rafts till they have a surface of two or three acres, care being taken
not to have them too large for the river at its narrowest passages,
and on these they build veritable farmsteads, with dwelling houses,
barns, stables, and pigpens, for horses, cattle, and swine; and provide
supplies of hay, fodder, and provisions for beast and man, to last the
human and animal population of the craft during their journey of six
hundred or nine hundred miles. The men on board are not idle through
this journey, but have their stock of osier twigs and spend their time
making baskets and other articles. Arrived at one of the great river
marts, the people dispose of their animals and products, sell the
articles they have made, and find markets for the material of their
rafts with the dealers in lumber and firewood--just as the Ohio and
Mississippi boatmen used to do. Then they return home.
NOTES.
The New York School of Applied Design for Women, 200 West Twenty-third
Street, was organized for the purpose of affording to women instruction
which will enable them to earn their livelihood by the employment of
their taste and manual dexterity in the application of ornamental design
to manufacture and the arts. Besides eight elementary courses, it has
a course in historic ornament, advanced courses in the applications
of design to the manufacture of wall paper and silk, and of the
elementary instruction to the work of an architect's draughtsman, and
to illustrating and lithography; and special courses in book-cover
designing, advanced design, animal drawing for illustration, stained
glass designing, watercolor painting, and interior decoration. The
instructors are practical men from manufactories and architects'
offices. Pupils are allowed to proceed as rapidly as they master the
successive steps in the course of instruction, without having to conform
to a fixed period.
COMMUNICATING to the American Association the results of experiments in
fig-raising in California, Dr. L. O. Howard said that the trees produced
from imported Smyrna cuttings dropped most of their fruit, whence it
seemed that something was wanting. This was found to be the fertilizing
insect, _Blastophora psenes_, which inhabits the wild fig trees or
caprifigs of the Mediterranean countries, and which the fig-growers
procure by bringing down twigs of these trees from the mountains at the
fertilizing season. Artificial fertilization of figs has been tried in
California with considerable success; but it is thought that if the
caprifig and its insect can be naturalized in California, there will be
no difficulty in raising figs the equal to those of Smyrna.
DISCUSSING at the meeting of the American Association the position of
the trilobites in classification, Prof. A. S. Packard referred to the
discovery of Beecher that certain genera of them have antennæ together
with biramose legs, essentially the same for the head and trunk, and
double, so that one portion is available for swimming and the other for
crawling. He then showed that this uniformity of appendages does not
occur in the _Crustaceæ_, to which the trilobites have been referred
heretofore. For this reason, and because the young have a different form
from crustacean young, zoölogists are inclined to refer the trilobites
to a separate class and to regard them as an older, more primitive
group. From certain obvious affinities, the _Limulus_, or king crab, may
be regarded as a descendant from the trilobites.
ON Thursday, September 15th, Mr. Stanley Spencer and Dr. Berson ascended
from the Crystal Palace, near London, in a balloon inflated with pure
hydrogen to the remarkable height of twenty-seven thousand five hundred
feet, only fifteen hundred feet below the highest ascent of Coxwell
and Glaisher. Numerous scientific instruments were carried, and also
a cylinder of compressed oxygen for inhaling at great heights. It was
found necessary to use the oxygen at twenty-five thousand feet.
IN the discussion in the British Association of a communication by
Professors E. B. Roser and W. O. Atwater recording their experiments
(American) on the amount of energy supplied to and obtainable from the
human body--which are found to be equal--Prof. W. E. Ayrton, presiding,
pointed out that the energy of muscular action is probably capillary
or electrical, the human machine being more analogous to an electric
battery or motor than to a steam engine.
IN the list of officers of the American Association for 1899, published
in our last number, the name of L. O. Howard, of the Department of
Agriculture, Washington, should have appeared as permanent secretary.
THE hundredth anniversary of the invention of the voltaic or electric
pile is to be celebrated in 1899 at Como, the birthplace of Alexander
Volta, by an international electrical exhibition. A national exhibition
of the manufacture of silk--machinery, preparation, and processes--will
be held in connection with it. An international congress will also be
held for the discussion of the progress and applications of electricity.
A PRIZE of five hundred guineas is offered by the Sulphate of Ammonia
Committee, 4 Fenchurch Avenue, London, for the best essay on The Utility
of Sulphate of Ammonia in Agriculture; the committee to have entire
disposal of the selected essay, and the refusal of any of the others for
not more than fifty guineas each. The essays--in English--should be in
the hands of the committee not later than November 15, 1898.
RECENT death lists include the names, among men known to science, of
Prof. Park Merrill, chief of the Forecast Division of the Weather
Bureau, at Washington, August 8th; Dr. E. V. Aveling, late assistant
in physiology at Cambridge and professor of chemistry and physiology
at New College, a writer upon scientific topics, in London, August
4th, aged forty-seven years; M. Paul Sevret, mathematician and member
of the French Academy of Sciences, in Paris, June 24th, aged seventy
years; W. F. R. Surringer, professor of botany in the University of
Leyden, and director of the Botanical Garden and Herbarium; J. A. R.
Newlands, the discoverer of the periodic law of the chemical elements,
in Lower Clapton, London, July 29th, aged sixty-nine years; the
astronomer Romberg, who succeeded Encke at Berlin in 1864, and was
called to Pulkova in 1873, author of numerous papers in Monthly Notices
on double stars and planetary and cometary observations, at Pulkova,
July 6th, aged sixty-four years; John Hopkinson, an eminent British
electrician, president of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in
1890 and 1896, killed with his three children in an attempt to ascend
the Dent de Visivi, Alps, August 24th; Dr. H. Trimble, professor of
practical chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and editor
of the American Journal of Pharmacy; M. de Windt, geologist of the
Belgian Exploring Expedition to the Congo, drowned in Lake Tanganyika,
Africa, August 9th; Dr. Paul Glan, assistant professor of physics in
the University of Berlin, aged fifty-eight years; Dr. E. J. Bonsdorf,
formerly professor of anatomy and physiology at Helsingfors, Finland,
aged eighty-eight years; Dr. Robert Zimmerman, formerly professor of
philosophy in the University of Vienna, at Salzburg, Austria, aged
seventy-seven years; M. J. M. Moniz, known by his investigations of the
natural history of Madeira, at Madeira, July 11th, aged sixty-six years;
and M. Pomel, a distinguished French mining engineer, professor of
geology and past director at the Algiers Scientific School, and author
of a number of special works, at Oran, Algeria.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious typographical and punctuation errors were repaired.