We have much pleasure in recording the establishment of the ‘County
Scientific Society for Middlesex.’ There are many such Societies, most
of them in a very flourishing condition, dotted about the kingdom,
where, for a small subscription, the members can meet at lectures,
concerts, and various entertainments. In addition to this, many of
these institutions have attached to them educational and art classes,
which students can attend for a small fee. It is certainly time that
the metropolitan county should be similarly provided for, although
for some years past many local institutions of the kind have sprung
up round about the great city. Among the vice-presidents of the new
Society we note such honoured names as Lubbock, Huxley, Flower, Abel,
and Geikie. These alone should insure that success which we hope
the enterprise will achieve. Application for membership and other
particulars may be obtained from Mr Sydney T. Klein, Clarence Lodge,
Willesden, N.W.
The newspapers constantly remind us that there are many persons in the
kingdom who object to vaccination, and, as a matter of course, there
are not wanting agitators who are constantly calling aloud for the
repeal of the law which makes the operation compulsory. Three years ago
an outcry of the same kind arose at Zurich in Switzerland, with the
effect that the cantonal law of compulsory vaccination was repealed.
By reference to the official returns set forth in a paper by Professor
Dunant, we are able to judge of the effect of the popular vote. In the
canton named, the deaths from smallpox were in the year 1881, seven;
in the two following years there were no deaths from that disease; in
1884, they rose to eleven; in 1885, they were seventy-three; and in the
first three months of this present year, the deaths from smallpox were
no fewer than eighty-five. These terrible figures need no comment, save
the remark, that they do not take into account the sightless eyes and
dreadful disfigurements of those who were attacked but did not die.
More conclusive evidence as to the efficacy of Jenner’s discovery may
be gathered from Dr Jassen’s book, recently published at Brussels. Let
us quote one instance given. Last year, in twenty-one German towns
having an aggregate population of four millions, where vaccination was
compulsory, the deaths from smallpox numbered twenty-seven; while in
fifteen French towns owning the same aggregate number of inhabitants,
but where the law was not in force, there were no fewer than eight
hundred and sixty-six deaths from smallpox in the same period.
According to a Report published by Lieutenant von Nimptsch of a journey
made by him with a traveller attached to the Congo Free State, a
navigable river has been discovered by them which is likely to be of
great importance to the future trade of the Congo. The river Congo,
as will be seen by the map, flows in a north-westerly direction, and
afterwards takes a southward course to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean.
Within the large tract of country comprised in this bend of the river,
has been found the new waterway. It is described by the travellers
as flowing through wide plains well adapted for cultivation, with
pasturage, and forests of palms, and gutta-percha trees. Plenty of
ivory was obtainable, in exchange for empty boxes and tins, from the
inhabitants of the many villages which lined the banks of the river.
There are many affluents to this waterway, one of which was navigable
for two hundred and fifty miles. Altogether, we have presented to us
in the Report a network of navigable rivers extending over a length of
more than three thousand miles.
An interesting note in the _Times_ tells of a place in Russia, in the
region of the Transbaïkal, where there exists a multitude of mineral
springs. These have been held in high repute by the natives for many
years, and it has long been the custom to bring patients to the springs
for curative treatment. Not only human beings, but cattle, sheep,
and horses suffering from cutaneous affections have, it is alleged,
benefited by such treatment. The temperature of the springs varies
from thirty-five to over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit; and some are
ferruginous, some alkaline, and others sulphurous in composition. At
present, the alleged virtues of these waters are only known locally,
and there is little accommodation for strangers. But it is believed
that, in the future, patients will be attracted to the place from great
distances.
At Sonnblick, one of the heights of the Tyrolese Alps, the summit of
which is ten thousand feet above the sea-level, an observatory is in
course of construction, which will represent the highest establishment
of the kind in Europe. The summit of this mountain is more easily
accessible than some of the neighbouring peaks; and there is already
a wire-rope way which affords communication with some mines half-way
up the mountain. It was the owner of these mines who was the first
to point out the desirability of establishing an observatory here.
The building will consist of a blockhouse and a massive stone turret
forty feet high, which will form the observatory proper. The house is
being built of timber in preference to stone, as experience teaches
that the former material is more effectual in keeping out the intense
cold prevalent at such an altitude. The observer will be in telephonic
communication with the miner’s house two thousand feet below him; and
from the latter place a record of his observations will be telegraphed
to the nearest city, and thence all the world over.
Another portion of the old wall of London has recently been laid bare
by some excavations now in progress near Ludgate Hill, at the Broadway,
Blackfriars. This portion of the ancient defence of the capital is
clearly a continuation of the fragment removed a few years ago, and
is built mainly of limestone and rough mortar intermingled with tiles,
bricks, and, strange to say, lumps of soft white chalk.
We have lately had the opportunity of examining a little piece of
apparatus which represents the most recent advance in photographic
contrivances. In outward appearance it is a book, somewhat less in
size than the ordinary two-shilling railway novel. Upon opening it,
it is seen to have flexible folds like the web of a duck’s foot, and
when open, it remains so fixed by invisible springs. It is in reality
a wedge-shaped camera furnished with a lens, which is sunk into the
middle of the back of the imitation book. It is also furnished with a
hidden shutter, which closes and uncloses the lens aperture at the will
of the owner.
The recent inclement and unseasonable weather in the south of England
has been characterised by two very unusual occurrences. First, at
Deal in Kent, a small whirlwind lifted some boats from the beach,
displaced a heavy crane on the railway, and did other damage. A few
days afterwards, a similar phenomenon occurred at Sparham, Norfolk,
which presented some extraordinary features. Its course could be traced
for half a mile; and its path of destruction was well marked by a patch
which, commencing with a width of two yards only, finished at the end
of the half mile with a width of one hundred yards. During the two
minutes which the storm lasted, it uprooted trees, unroofed houses,
pulverised some hencoops, and wrought much destruction. The weather was
perfectly calm except over the space covered by the whirlwind.
The total eclipse of the sun which will take place on the 29th of
August is to be observed by an expedition sent out by the Royal Society
and by funds from the Treasury. The party will at first proceed to
Barbadoes, and will be conveyed thence to Grenada by a war-vessel. The
island will be covered with stations for observing the eclipse, and all
modern instruments will be used in the operations. The eclipse will not
be visible at Greenwich.
There has been established for many years a school of practical
engineering at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, and this school has
already educated many who have excelled in their profession. As an
example of the practical method of instruction pursued, we note that
recently a steamer of thirteen hundred tons was worked from London to
Dundee and back by a division of the students who are turning their
attention to marine engineering. They were divided into gangs of four,
and each gang had to work for ten hours in the engine-room under the
strictest discipline. While in the north, they had an opportunity of
making a professional inspection of the new Tay Bridge.
Experiments have recently been made at Berlin with a new description
of military shell which is charged with rolls of gun-cotton. The
projectile is said to be so destructive that no defensive works however
solid can withstand it. The German government are so satisfied with the
experiments that they have ordered a large number of the shells to be
manufactured forthwith.
According to the _Revue Scientifique_, the discovery or suggestion of
the Germ theory of disease cannot be placed to the credit of modern
physicists, but is due to a Dr Goiffon, who died at Lyons more than one
hundred and fifty years ago. He published a work on the Origin of the
Plague in 1721, from which the following is quoted: ‘Minute insects
or worms can alone explain these diseases. It is true they are not
visible, but it does not therefore follow that they are non-existent.
It is only that our microscopes are not at present powerful enough to
show them. We can easily imagine the existence of creatures which bear
the same proportion to mites that mites bear to elephants. No other
hypothesis can explain the facts; neither the malign influence of the
stars, nor terrestrial exhalations, nor miasmata, nor atoms, whether
biting or burning, acid or bitter, could regain their vitality once
they had lost it. If, on the other hand, we admit the existence of
minute living creatures, we understand how infection can be conveyed in
a latent condition from one place, to break out afresh in another.’
Among the multifarious objects on view at that palace of wonders,
the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, are naturally many products of
the animal and vegetable kingdoms which are comparatively strange to
British experience. Among these may be named certain drugs, gums and
resins, oils, dyes, different kinds of timber fibres, leathers, &c.
Now, it is evident that many of these things may be useful to our
manufacturers if only their properties can be made known. With this
view, arrangements have been made for the systematic examination of
these foreign products, to see whether they can be applied to present
manufactures, or whether they are suitable for new purposes. Visitors
to the Exhibition can attend these examinations, which, if necessary,
will be followed by conferences.
A thoughtful man, in strolling through the vast network of galleries
at the Colonial Exhibition, cannot help feeling that there is some
excuse for the national boast that ‘Britannia rules the waves,’ for
all the treasures of the earth seem to be gathered together here.
The next thought that must occur to every one is the regret that the
Exhibition is only a temporary one, and that the riches which have been
gathered with such care and trouble from such a wide area must soon
be again dispersed. There are indications that this regret, felt as
it is by the executive as well as by the casual visitor, may lead to
a practical result. For years it has been urged by a few that London
ought to possess a Colonial Museum. We have now an unusual opportunity
for forming the nucleus of such an establishment, and that opportunity
should not be lost.
It seems difficult to believe that in these hard-working and
matter-of-fact times, persons should be found who revert to the gross
superstitions common to the people in far-off centuries. A so-called
astrologer has been for a year at least making a good living by casting
nativities in the neighbourhood of Brunswick Square, London; but his
operations have been cut short by a fine in the police court.
The controversy which has been going on for some months between Mr
J. C. Robinson and Sir James D. Linton as to the alleged fading of
water-colour paintings through exposure to light and other influences
is now to be brought to public arbitration. Sir James Linton, the
President of the Royal Institute of Painters, has arranged to open an
exhibition of the works of the most celebrated artists of the last
fifty years, so that all may judge whether they have deteriorated. He
is a champion for the permanence of this delightful phase of art; while
Mr Robinson thinks differently.
The manufacture of whitelead, while representing one of our most
important industries, has always had the bad character of being most
destructive to the health and lives of the workmen employed in it. The
substitution of other materials in the making of white paint has been
constantly tried, but all give the palm to whitelead because of its
‘covering’ power. A new process has just been devised by Messrs Lewis
and Bartlett for producing whitelead of the finest quality direct from
the ore. The process is too long to describe here, but we may briefly
state its advantages over the old method. It combines two manufactures,
for whitelead and piglead are produced simultaneously. No deleterious
fumes escape into the atmosphere, for the smelting furnace employed
has no chimney. The operations are conducted with a greatly reduced
expenditure of time and labour; while, best of all, the industry is not
in any way hurtful to the workers. The process is an American one, and
is introduced into this country by Messrs John Hall & Sons of Bristol.
It would seem from the letter of a correspondent to the _Standard_
that frogs and mice are deadly enemies. This gentleman observed a
battle-royal going on between these creatures in a shed. The mice
pursued the frogs all over the place, for some little time without
result, for the frogs managed to elude them. But gradually the mice
gained an advantage, capturing and recapturing the frogs, and biting
them until they were incapable of further resistance. The mice then
finished the business by devouring a portion of the dead frogs.
The last new agricultural implement is a hay-loader, which has been
recently patented by Mr Spilman of Dakota. This machine collects the
scattered hay from the field, raises it to a suitable height, and
finally discharges it upon the hayrack of the wagon. Lovers of the
beauties of the country will regret that the pleasant sight afforded
by a number of bronzed haymakers loading a wagon, a scene which has
so often tempted the artist’s pencil, should be threatened by the
introduction of this mechanical thing. But time is money, and there is
now little room for sentiment.
From the Report of a Cattle Show recently held at Buenos Ayres we learn
that the South Americans are by no means behind Europeans in their
use of machinery and implements for agricultural use. Also, that the
live-stock there has much benefited by the importation of short-horns
from Britain, and from Charolais in France, so far as the cattle are
concerned, and that the sheep have equally benefited by acquaintance
with our southdowns and with the French merinos. Some few years ago, a
loud outcry arose among our agriculturists that buyers from the other
side of the Atlantic were purchasing all our best stock at prices far
beyond what the British farmer could afford to pay. There is now the
hope that we shall be recouped by the importation of mutton and beef of
first-rate quality. The freezing process has now been brought to such
perfection that, with meat from the English stock, it should afford us
the opportunity of getting the best flesh food far cheaper than we can
attempt to raise it for ourselves.
Surely Mr Flinders Petrie is the most successful and energetic digger
that the archæological world has ever seen. His past discoveries have
already resulted in much increased knowledge of dead nations; but now
he has lighted upon a most curious find in the north-eastern delta of
the Nile: this is a royal palace, which is identified with the greatest
certainty with that building which the Bible calls ‘Pharaoh’s house
in Tahpanhes.’ The building carries us back in imagination to the
Egypt of two thousand five hundred years ago. Next to its scriptural
connection, interest centres in the description of the domestic offices
of the building; and as we read of the kitchen with its dresser, the
butler’s pantry full of empty wine vessels and their stoppers, the
sanctum of the scullery-maid with its sink, we feel that the place has
been tenanted by ordinary human beings. Mr Petrie’s account of the sink
is worth quoting: ‘It is formed of a large jar with the bottom knocked
out, and filled with broken potsherds placed on edge. The water ran
through this, and thence into more broken pots below, placed one in
another, all bottomless, going down to the clean sand some four or five
feet below.’
Mr Francis Greene publishes in an American journal the results of some
careful observations which he has made on street traffic. According to
him, asphalt is a far better covering for roads than either granite or
wood. He puts the matter in this way: a horse will travel five hundred
and eighty-three miles on asphalt before meeting with an accident,
four hundred and thirteen on granite, and two hundred and seventy-two
miles on wood. This agrees with experience in London with regard to the
first two materials, but not with regard to wood, which experts say is
the safest material of all. Londoners have certainly the best means of
judging of this, for there is very little wood-paving in America. At
the same time, it is quite certain that altogether accidents are far
more frequent in London. This may be accounted for by the dampness of
the air, which gives rise to the peculiar greasiness of the streets, so
fatal to horses; and also by the increased traffic, which leads to the
accumulation of manure, another element in the slippery state of the
roads.
The snail harvest has recently begun in France. The ‘poor man’s oyster’
is so appreciated by our neighbours that Paris alone consumes some
forty-nine tons daily, the best kind coming from Grenoble or Burgundy.
The finest specimens are carefully reared in an _escargotière_, or
snail-park, such as the poor Capuchin monks planned in bygone days
at Colmar and Weinbach, when they had no money to buy food, and so
cultivated snails. But the majority are collected by the vine-dressers
in the evening from the stone heaps where the snails have assembled
to enjoy the dew. The creatures are then starved in a dark cellar for
two months, and when they have closed up the aperture of their shell,
are ready for cooking. According to the true Burgundy method, they
are boiled in five or six waters, extracted from the shell, dressed
with fresh butter and garlic, then replaced in the shell, covered with
parsley and bread crumbs, and finally simmered in white wine.