Chapter LXXXIV: Section 29 (4)

"An electric impulse, almost too attenuated for computation,
is here able to effect such a change in a pinch of dust that
it becomes a free avenue instead of a barricade. Through that
avenue a powerful blow from a local store of energy makes
itself heard and felt. No device of the trigger class is
comparable with this in delicacy. An instant after a signal
has taken its way through the coherer a small hammer strikes
the tiny tube, jarring Hs particles asunder, so that they
resume their normal state of high resistance. We may well be
astonished at the sensitiveness of the metallic filings to an
electric wave originating many miles away, but let us remember
how clearly the eye can see a bright lamp at the same distance
as it sheds a sister beam. Thus far no substance has been
discovered with a mechanical responsiveness to so feeble a ray
of light; in the world of nature and art the coherer stands
alone. …

"An essential feature of this method of etheric telegraphy,
due to Marconi himself, is the suspension of a perpendicular
wire at each terminus, its length twenty feet for stations a
mile apart, forty feet for four miles, and so on, the
telegraphic distance increasing as the square of the length of
suspended wire. In the Kingstown regatta, July, 1898, Marconi
sent from a yacht under full steam a report to the shore
without the loss of a moment from start to finish. This feat
was repeated during the protracted contest between the
'Columbia' and the 'Shamrock' yachts in New York Bay, October,
1899. On March 28, 1899, Marconi signals put Wimereux, two
miles north of Boulogne, in communication with the South
Foreland Lighthouse, thirty-two miles off. In August, 1899,
during the manœuvres of the British navy, similar messages
were sent as far as eighty miles. …

"A weak point in the first Marconi apparatus was that anybody
within the working radius of the sending instrument could read
its message. To modify this objection secret codes were at
times employed, as in commerce and diplomacy. A complete
deliverance from this difficulty is promised in attuning a
transmitter and a receiver to the same note, so that one
receiver, and no other, shall respond to a particular
frequency of impulses. The experiments which indicate success
in this vital particular have been conducted by Professor
Lodge."

_G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 16 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.)._

"Shall we not," said Professor John Trowbridge, in an article
published in the "New York Tribune," January 6, 1901, "in the
next hundred years dispense with the limitations of wires and
speak boldly through space, reaching some expectant human ear
hundreds of miles away with the same ease that we now converse
in a room? It is already possible to send messages by dots and
dashes sixty to seventy miles without the use of wires. In the
early days of the telephone this was the practical limit of
that instrument, and we are all familiar with the immense
extension which has taken place. Shall we not see a similar
extension in the field of wireless telegraphy? Some late
experiments which I have made lead me to be optimistic in
regard to a possible great extension of the methods of
wireless telegraphy.

"In the first place, I believe that these experiments prove
that wireless telegraphy is not necessarily or merely
accomplished through the air, but, on the contrary, that the
earth plays the controlling part, and that the message flows,
so to speak, through the earth or over its surface rather than
through the air. The most striking experiment was as follows:
The poles of a storage battery of twenty thousand cells were
connected with the ground at the Jefferson Laboratory, and I
was enabled to receive the message in a room three quarters of
a mile from the laboratory without the use of masts or wires
of any sort. The earth was the medium of communication, and it
seems possible, by arranging the sending and receiving apparatus
suitably in connection with the electrical capacity of the
earth, that we may dispense with lofty masts and overcome in
this way the curvature of the earth."

{443}

Extensive experiments in wireless telegraphy are being
conducted by the United States Weather Bureau, of which the
following is a recent report: "Recognizing the advantage that
would result to commerce and navigation by the establishment
of wireless electrical communication between vessels at sea
and exposed points on our lake and sea coasts, and also
between islands along said coasts and the mainland, the
Weather Bureau was directed to systematically investigate the
various methods of electrical communication without wires. The
progress made is eminently satisfactory. New appliances have
been devised for the transmission of signals, and receivers
have been constructed that probably are more delicate than any
heretofore made. Messages already have been successfully
transmitted and received over 50 miles of land, which
presented a rough and irregular surface, conditions most
unfavorable for the transmission of electro-magnetic waves. It
is believed that the efficiency indicated by such transmission
overland is sufficient to operate successfully over several
hundred miles of water. The apparatus used is capable of
further improvement. I hope the time is near at hand when the
great number of craft employed in the coastwise commerce of
the United States and over its great inland seas will be
placed in instantaneous communication with the numerous
stations of our Weather Bureau, which are located at all
important ports. The matter is one of such great importance to
our commerce that I have authorized extensive experimentation,
which, from the success so far attending our efforts, will be
vigorously prosecuted."

_United States, Annual Report of the
Secretary of Agriculture,
November 24, 1900, page 12._

On the 12th of March, 1901, the chief of the Weather Bureau,
Professor Moore, gave to the Press the following statement as
to experiments in progress along the Virginia and North
Carolina coast: "The most efficient method of long distance
transmission has been found to be from wire cylinders. The new
coast stations are being equipped with cylinders of sixteen
wires each and 140 feet in length. From these cylinders it is
expected to cover a magnetic field of not less than five
hundred miles. The stations now in operation are at Hatteras
and at Roanoke Island, in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.
Workmen are beginning the construction of a station at Cape
Henry, which will be the third station. When this is finished
the two remote stations will be 127 miles apart."

MECHANICS:
Steam turbines.

"The latest form of steam-engine recalls the first. The
steam-turbines of De Laval and of Parsons turn on the same
principle as the æolipile of Hero. That simple contrivance was
a metallic globe mounted on axes, and furnished through one of
its trunnions with steam from a boiler near by. As steam rushed
out from two nozzles diametrically opposite to each other, and
at tangents to the globe, there resulted from the relieved
pressure a swift rotation which might have done useful work. …
Before the steam-turbine could be invented, metallurgists and
mechanics had to become skilful enough to provide machinery
which may with safety rotate 10,000 times in a minute; Watt
had to invent the separate condenser; means had to be devised
for the thorough expansion of high-pressure steam; and the
crude device of Hero had to be supplanted by wheels suggested
by the water-turbine.

"The feature which gives the Parsons steam-turbine its
distinction is the ingenious method by which its steam is used
expansively. In a piston-engine the cylinder is filled to
one-twelfth or one-fifteenth of its capacity with
high-pressure steam, when communication with the boiler is cut
off; during the remainder of its stroke the piston is urged
solely by the steam's elasticity. In the Parsons turbine, by
arranging what is practically a series of wheels on the same
shaft, the steam passes from one wheel to the next, and at
each wheel parts with only a fraction of its pressure and
velocity. …

"The 'Turbinia,' a torpedo-boat of 44½ tons displacement, 100
feet in length, and 9 feet in beam, driven by this turbine,
has consumed but 14½ pounds of steam an hour per indicated
horse-power. The 'Viper,' a torpedo-boat destroyer of 325
tons, and provided with a turbine capable of developing as
much as 12,000 horse-power, ran at the rate of 37 knots in a
rough sea during her trial trip in November, 1899."

_G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 5
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.)._

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
The determination of germ diseases.

"Since 1880 it has been proved that anthrax, Asiatic cholera,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, diphtheria, one form of dysentery,
erysipelas, glanders, gonorrhœa, influenza, certain epidemics
of meat poisoning, pyæmia and suppuration in general,
pneumonia, tetanus, relapsing fever, tuberculosis, bubonic
plague, and typhoid fever are due to minute vegetable
organisms known as bacteria; that malarial fevers, Texas
cattle fever, and certain forms of dysentery are due to forms
of microscopic animal organisms known as microzoa; and for
most of these diseases the mode of development and means of
introduction of the micro-organism into the body are fairly
well understood. To the information thus obtained we owe the
triumphs of antiseptic and aseptic surgery, a great increase
of precision in diagnosis, the use of specific anti-toxins as
remedies and as preventives, and some of the best practical
work in public hygiene."

_Dr. John S. Billings,
Progress of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901)._

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Antitoxine.
Treatment of diphtheria.

"In the early study of germs and their relation to disease it
was supposed that the symptoms of the disease depended
directly upon the germs themselves. This, however, has been
proven to be false with reference to most of the infectious
diseases studied. Thus, in diphtheria, the bacilli were found,
as a rule, only in the throat or upper air passages, while the
effects of the disease were far-reaching, involving the heart,
the nerves, and other distant parts of the body. This, and
other like observations, led to the careful study of the
products produced by the growth of bacteria. As the result of
the work of Roux in Paris, and Brieger in Berlin, the exact
nature of the toxic products of the diphtheria bacillus was
discovered. It was found that this bacillus produces in its
growth a poison which is known as the diphtheria 'toxine.'
This was isolated and injected into animals with the
reproduction of all the symptoms of diphtheria excepting the
membrane in the throat. …

{444}

"In his early work upon splenic fever and chicken-cholera
Pasteur, having established the causes of these diseases, set
himself the task of discovering means of preventing them.
After very many experiments he found that animals inoculated
with the germs of splenic fever, when these germs had been
cultivated at a relatively high temperature, were protected
against the disease itself, while these inoculations
themselves were harmless. … These methods of producing
immunity have been extensively used in Europe for the past
twenty years and have been of immense practical value.

"With the discovery that it was not the bacteria themselves
which produced most of the symptoms, but their poisonous
products or toxines, new experiments in immunity were made by
injecting these toxines into animals. It was found that if the
quantity of the diphtheria toxine introduced was at first so
small as not to kill the animal, the dose could gradually be
increased until finally such a tolerance was established that
the animal could resist enormous doses of it. Many theories
were advanced as to the manner in which this tolerance was
established. The conclusion was finally reached that it was
due to the gradual production in the blood of larger and
larger quantities of some substance which neutralized the
toxine, i. e., an 'antitoxine.' … Later experiments showed
that if some of the blood of an animal, which in this way had
been made insusceptible to diphtheria, was injected into
another animal, the latter likewise became to a certain degree
and for a certain time insusceptible; that is to say, became
'immunized. …

"The present plan of producing antitoxine is somewhat as
follows. Large animals, such as the horse or cow, are usually
employed for purposes of injection. In the beginning as large
a quantity of the toxine of diphtheria is injected as the
animal will bear without danger to life. … It is found that
the dose of the toxine can gradually be increased with each
injection until enormous quantities can be tolerated. When
this point is reached at which the injection of large amounts
of the toxine produces no reaction, the animal is said to
possess a high degree of immunity. At this time the
blood-serum contains a very large amount of the antitoxine. A
long time is required for the production of this condition,
the period being from three to twelve months, according to the
size of the animal, its susceptibility, and many other
conditions. … The antitoxine is obtained from the blood of the
animal, generally by bleeding from the jugular vein. … After
standing for a few hours this blood separates into a clot and
a clear portion above which is known as the serum. The
anti-toxine is contained in the blood-serum."

_L. E. Holt,
The Antitoxine Treatment of Diphtheria
(Forum, March, 1895)._

See, also (in this volume),
PLAGUE.

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Discovery of the secret of malaria.
Detection of the mosquito as a carrier of disease.

"Twenty-five years ago the best-informed physicians
entertained erroneous ideas with reference to the nature of
malaria and the etiology of the malarial fevers. Observation
had taught them that there was something in the air in the
vicinity of marshes in tropical regions, and during the summer
and autumn in semi-tropical and temperate regions, which gave
rise to periodic fevers in those exposed in such localities,
and the usual inference was that this something was of gaseous
form—that it was a special kind of bad air generated in
swampy localities under favorable meteorological conditions.
It was recognized at the same time that there are other kinds
of bad air, such as the offensive emanations from sewers and
the products of respiration of man and animals, but the term
malaria was reserved especially for the kind of bad air which
was supposed to give rise to the so-called malarial fevers. In
the light of our present knowledge it is evident that this
term is a misnomer. There is no good reason for believing that
the air of swamps is any more deleterious to those who breathe
it than the air of the sea coast or that in the vicinity of
inland lakes and ponds. Moreover, the stagnant pools, which
are covered with a 'green scum' and from which bubbles of gas
are given off, have lost all terrors for the well-informed
man, except in so far as they serve as breeding places for
mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The green scum is made up
of harmless algæ such as Spirogyra, Zygnema Protococcus,
Euglena, etc.; and the gas which is given off from the mud at
the bottom of such stagnant pools is for the most part a
well-known and comparatively harmless compound of hydrogen and
carbon-methane or 'marsh-gas.'

"In short, we now know that the air in the vicinity of marshes
is not deleterious because of any special kind of bad air
present in such localities, but because it contains mosquitoes
infected with a parasite known to be the specific cause of the
so-called malarial fevers. This parasite was discovered in the
blood of patients suffering from intermittent fevers by
Laveran, a surgeon in the French army, whose investigations
were conducted in Algiers. This famous discovery was made
toward the end of the year 1880; but it was several years
later before the profession generally began to attach much
importance to the alleged discovery."

_G. M. Sternberg,
Malaria
(Popular Science Monthly, February, 1901)._

"It was the French doctor Laveran who, after a stay in a
deadly malarial region of Algeria, discovered the malaria
parasite in 1880. True, that pigment-cells, which we should
now describe as malaria-parasites, were observed in human
blood as early as 1835, among others by Virchow; but their
relation to the disease was not known. In 1881, Laveran
embodied his researches in a book, but its importance was
overlooked. Bacteria attracted then general attention, and
Laveran's parasite, not being a bacterium, was little thought
of. He stuck, nevertheless, to his discovery, and was soon
joined in his researches by Golgi (the Italian professor to
whom we owe the method that led to the discovery of the
neurons), as also by Marchiafava, Celli, Councilman,
Sternberg, and the Viennese doctor Mannaberg who published in
1893 a full compendium of these researches. Dr. Mannaberg
proved in this book that the real cause of malaria is
Laveran's parasite, and he told its most interesting
life-history so far as it was then known.

"The parasite of malaria is not a bacterium. It is one of the
protozoa—namely, as it appeared later on, a coccidium, which,
like all other members of that family, undergoes in its
development a series of transformations. … Laveran saw that
some parasites ('corps à flagelles') would send out thin and
long flagella which soon parted company with the mother body,
and, owing to a proper helicoidal movement, disappeared in the
plasm of the blood. This never happened, however, in the body of
man, but only when a drop of his infected blood was drawn and
placed on the glass plate under the microscope.
{445}
Laveran noticed, moreover, minute 'crescent-shaped bodies'
which adhered to the red corpuscles and looked very much like
cysts, protected by a harder envelope. From fifteen to twenty
minutes after these bodies had been placed under the
microscope, they also gave origin to a great number of
'flagella'; and this evolution, too, he remarked, seemed to be
accomplished only when the cysts were taken out of the human
body.

"It was only natural to conclude from these observations that
the further development of the flagella may take place in the
body of some other animal than man, and this consideration
brought Laveran, in a book which he published in 1884, to the
idea that, taking into consideration the quantities of
mosquitoes in malarial countries, they may be the agents of
transition of malaria. This remark passed, however,
unperceived. Many had the suspicion that gnats may play some
part in the inoculation of malaria: the Italian peasants
always thought so, and in the medical literature an American
doctor, Mr. King, had advocated the same idea. But the
complete life-history of the malaria parasite being not yet
known fifteen years ago, the necessity of the mosquito or of
some other living being serving as a host for the completion
of the reproduction-cycle was not understood."

_P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1900)._

Dr. Patrick Manson, of London, is credited with the final
formulation of the mosquito-malarial theory; but the proofs by
which it has been established have come from a number of
investigators, who have patiently traced the singular
life-history of the parasite, throughout its passage from man
to the mosquito and from the mosquito back to man, as a
vehicle of disease. Among the latter, prominence is given to
Major Ronald Ross, who lectured on the subject in London in
September, 1900, and was reported in "The Times" as follows:

"They first carried on their life in man—the intermediary
host—and later in the mosquito, the definitive host. These
Hæmamœbidæ began as spores which entered a blood corpuscle,
grew and became amœbæ. The nuclear matter divided, the
corpuscle containing it burst, the spores scattered, and each
spore then attached itself to a fresh corpuscle. The access of
the typical fever began with this scattering of the spores,
and thus the periodicity of the fever was accounted for.
Besides this neutral proliferation there was proliferation by
gametes. The blood of a fever patient exhibited the first
forms of the gametocytes. The spore grew inside the blood
corpuscle, and in that species which caused malignant fever it
grew until it had almost eaten the whole of the host. It was
then technically called a crescent. If this crescent were
examined under the microscope a wonderful development might be
observed to take place in a few moments. The crescent swelled
and became first oval, then spherical, and in about 15 minutes
after the drawing of the blood the microgametes made their escape
and were to be seen wriggling about in the 'liquor sanguinis.'
Ultimately they entered the macrogametocytes and produced
zygotes, which was nothing but a perfect example of the sperm
and the ovum process. "The whole process could be watched
under the microscope. The mosquito, having bitten a person in
whose blood these gametocytes were present, would take perhaps
100 of them into its own system, where the zygotes acquired a
power of movement, edging towards the wall of the mosquito's
stomach. About 12 hours afterwards they would be found
adhering to the walls of the stomach, through which they
passed and to which they finally attached themselves on the
outside. This process was accomplished in about 36 hours. The
zygotes then grew until they had increased to about eight
times their original diameter and were almost visible to the
naked eye. As the zygote increased it divided into meres
containing nuclear matter, which went to the surface. The
process here seemed to be closely similar to spermato-genesis,
and Professor Ray Lankester declared that the process was the
first known example of audrocratic parthenogenesis. When the
final development was reached the cells burst and the blasts
escaped and were immediately carried into all parts of the
insect. They made their way to the salivary gland, with the
evident purpose of seeking the blood of a fresh human host;
and the injection of the secretion of the mosquito's salivary
gland caused the bump which marked the mosquito's bite. A very
large series of experiments had shown conclusively that
malarial infection was caused by the bite of the mosquito.

"The parasites which infested human blood were carried only by
one genus of mosquito—'Anopheles'; the genus 'Culex' was
harmless. The two genera could be readily distinguished. For
example, 'Anopheles' rested on walls with their tails stuck
out perpendicular to the wall; 'Culex' attached themselves
with tails hanging downwards. 'Culex' bred in the water in
pots and tubs; 'Anopheles' in pools. The larvæ of 'Culex,' if
disturbed, sank to the bottom; the larvæ of 'Anopheles'
skimmed along the surface. It was doubtful whether the eggs of
'Anopheles' would live for more than a few days after
desiccation. The eggs were laid in an equilateral triangular
pattern; they were soon hatched, and the larvæ then began to
feed on the green scum in the water. A still evening, just
before or after rain, was the time most favourable for the
hatching out from the pupæ. As to the adults, he believed that
they could live for a year; at any rate, they had been kept
alive in tubes for more than a month; and it was certain that
in England and Italy they hibernated. The female of
'Anopheles' alone was the biter, and though the favourite
feeding time was at night, in West Africa the insects had been
found to bite all day. While 'Culex' could be detected by its
humming, 'Anopheles' was silent, and it was possible to be
bitten without knowing of it at the moment. He had found that
a blood diet was always necessary to the maturing of the eggs.
He had kept many thousands of mosquitoes under observation and
had never known one to lay eggs except after a meal of blood.
Malarial infection was derived chiefly from the native
children, who swarmed everywhere, and whose blood was full of
the infecting parasites."

An expedition sent out to West Africa by the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine, to pursue investigations there, reported
in December, 1900, that its observations confirm the
conclusion "that the blood parasite which gives rise to
malarial fever in man is carried by the mosquito from the
native to the European—and more especially from the native
children.
{446}
The examination of the blood of hundreds of native children
revealed the interesting fact that between 50 and 80 per cent.
of those under five years, between 20 and 30 per cent. of ages
between five and ten years, and a small percentage over ten
years contained malarial parasites, often in very large
numbers. The breeding places of the 'Anopheles' were found to
be chiefly the dug-out native canoes in the regions of the
mangrove swamps, claypits and puddles in the forested
district, and at Lokoja puddles and ditches on and alongside
the roads and footpaths. It was particularly noticed
everywhere how carelessness in the construction of roads and
footpaths, and more especially in the laying out of the areas
surrounding the factories of the European traders, was
accountable for the production of a large number of breeding
places for mosquitoes, which could easily have been avoided.
In fact, it is certain that in West Africa such conditions are
far more dangerous and more common than the proximity of a
marsh or swamp, which is often noted as a cause of fever. …
The two methods upon which alone any reliance can be placed as
measures for prevention are—(l) segregation of Europeans from
natives of all sorts, at a distance of about half a mile; and
(2) complete and efficient surface drainage of the whole
district in the immediate neighbourhood of European quarters."

The detection of the mosquito as a carrier of one disease drew
suspicion on the pestilent insect of other kindred crimes, and
strong evidence of its agency in propagating yellow fever has
been gathered already. A board of medical officers, which went
from the United States to Cuba in the summer of 1900 to study
the matter, reported in October that their investigations
tended quite positively to that conclusion. The board was
composed of Dr. Walter Reed, surgeon, United States Army, and
Dr. James Carroll, Dr. A. Agramonte, and Dr. Jesse W. Lazear,
all acting assistant surgeons of the United States Army. Two
months later, so much confirmation had been obtained that
Major-General Wood, Military-Governor of Cuba (himself a
medical man) was reported, on the 29th of December, to have
issued a general order directed to his post commanders,
"reciting that the chief surgeon of the Department of Cuba has
reported that it is now well-established that malaria, yellow
fever and filarial infection are transmitted by the bites of
mosquitoes. Therefore the troops are enjoined to observe
carefully two precautions: First—they are to use mosquito bars
in all barracks, hospitals and field service whenever
practicable. Second—They are to destroy the 'wigglers,' or
young mosquitoes, by the use of petroleum on the water where
they breed. Permanent pools or puddles are to be filled up. To
the others is to be applied one ounce of kerosene to each
fifteen square feet of water twice a month, which will destroy
not only the young but the old mosquitoes. This does not
injure drinking water if drawn from below and not dipped out.
Protection is thus secured, according to the order, because
the mosquito does not fly far, but seeks shelter when the wind
blows, and thus each community breeds its own mosquitoes."

This was followed in April, 1901, by an order from the chief
surgeon at Havana, approved by Surgeon-General Sternberg, U.
S. A., which says: "The recent experiments made in Havana by
the Medical Department of the Army having proved that yellow
fever, like malarial fever, is conveyed chiefly, and probably
exclusively, by the bite of infected mosquitoes, important
changes in the measures used for the prevention and treatment
of this disease have become necessary. So far as yellow fever
is concerned, infection of a room or building simply means
that it contains infected mosquitoes, that is mosquitoes which
have fed on yellow fever patients. Disinfection, therefore,
means the employment of measures aimed at the destruction of
these mosquitoes. The most effective of these measures is
fumigation, either with sulphur, formaldehydes or insect
powder. The fumes of sulphur are the quickest and the most
effective insecticide, but are otherwise objectionable.
Formaldehyde gas is quite effective if the infected rooms are
kept closed and sealed for two or three hours. The smoke of
insect powder has also been proved useful; it readily
stupefies mosquitoes, which drop to the floor and can then be
easily destroyed. The washing of walls, floors, ceilings and
furniture with disinfectants is unnecessary."

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Recent advances in surgery.

"In no department of surgery has greater progress been made
than in the treatment of diseases of the abdominal organs. …
At the present time no abdominal organ is sacred from the
surgeon's knife. Bowels riddled with bullet-holes are
stitched up successfully; large pieces of gangrenous or
cancerous intestine are cut out, the ends of the severed tube
being brought into continuity by means of ingenious
appliances; the stomach is opened for the removal of a foreign
body, for the excision of a cancer, or for the administration
of nourishment to a patient unable to swallow; stones are
extracted from the substance of the kidneys, and these organs
when hopelessly diseased are extirpated; the spleen, when
enlarged or otherwise diseased, is removed bodily; gall-stones
are cutout, and even tumours of the liver are excised. The
kidney, the spleen, and the liver, when they cause trouble by
unnatural mobility, are anchored by stitches to the abdominal
wall; and the stomach has been dealt with successfully in the
same way for the cure of indigestion. Besides all this, many
cases of obstruction of the bowels, which in days not very
long gone by would have been doomed to inevitable death, are
now cured by a touch of the surgeon's knife. The perforation
of the intestine, which is one of the most formidable
complications of typhoid fever, has in a few cases been
successfully closed by operation; and inflammation of the
peritoneum, caused by the growth of tuberculous masses upon
it, has been apparently cured by opening the abdominal cavity.
Among the most useful advances of this department of surgery
must be accounted the treatment of the condition known as
'appendicitis,' which has been to a large extent rescued from
the physician, with his policy of 'laissez faire,' and placed
under the more resolute and more efficient government of the
surgeon. A New York surgeon not long ago reported a series of
100 cases of operation for appendicitis, with only two deaths.
…

{447}

"That surgery could ever deal with the abdominal organs in the
manner just described would have seemed to our predecessors in
the earlier part of the Queen's reign the baseless fabric of a
vision. But the modern surgeon, clad in antisepsis, as the Lady
in 'Comus' was 'clothed round with chastity,' defies the
'rabble rout' of microbes and dares things which only a short
time ago were looked upon as beyond the wildest dreams of
scientific enthusiasm. It is scarcely twenty years since the
late Sir John Erichsen declared in a public address that
operative surgery had nearly reached its furthest possible
limits of development. He pointed out that there were certain
regions of the body into which the surgeon's knife could never
penetrate, naming the brain, the heart, and the lung as the
most obvious examples of such inviolable sanctuaries of life.
Within the last fifteen years the surgeon has brought each of
these organs, which constitute what Bichat called the 'tripod
of life,' within his sphere of conquest. … It must, however,
be admitted that the results of brain surgery, though
brilliant from the operative point of view, have so far been
somewhat disappointing as regards the ultimate cure of the
disease. In certain forms of epilepsy, in particular, which at
first seemed to be curable by removal of the 'cortical
discharging centre' in the brain which is the source of the
mischief, the tendency to fits has been found to return after
a time, and the last state of the patient has been worse than
the first. Still, the mere fact that the brain has been proved
to be capable of being dealt with surgically with perfect safety
is in itself a very distinct progress. …

"Other parts of the nervous system have been brought within
the range of surgical art. The vertebral column has been
successfully trephined, and fragments of bone pressing on the
cord have been taken away in cases of fractured spine; tumours
have also been removed from the spinal cord by Mr. Horsley and
others. There is a steadily increasing record of cures of
intractable neuralgia, especially of the face, by division or
removal of the affected nerve trunks. … The ends of cut nerves
have also been re-united, and solutions of their continuity
have been filled up with portions of nerve taken from animals.
… The heart naturally cannot be made so free with, even by the
most enterprising surgeon, as the brain or the lung. Yet
within the past twelve months a Norwegian practitioner has
reported a case which encourages a hope that even wounds of
the heart may not be beyond surgical treatment. … Tuberculous
and inflammatory diseases of bones and joints, formerly
intractable except by the 'ultima ratio' of the amputating
knife, are now cured without mutilation. Deformities are
corrected by division of tendons, the excision of portions of
bone, and the physiological exercise of muscles, without
complicated apparatus. The healing of large wounds is assisted
by the grafting of healthy skin on the raw surface; wide gaps in
bones and tendons are filled up with portions of similar
structures obtained from animals." …

_Malcolm Morris,
The Progress of Medicine during the Queen's Reign
(Nineteenth Century, May, 1897)._

See, also, X RAYS, below.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
International cataloguing.

On the 22d of March, 1894, the Secretaries of the Royal
Society of London addressed the following communication to
various institutions and societies: "The Royal Society of
London, as you are probably aware, has published nine quarto
volumes of 'The catalogue of scientific papers,' the first
volume of the decade 1874-1883 having been issued last year.
This catalogue is limited to periodical scientific literature,
i. e., to papers published in the transactions, etc., of
societies, and in journals; it takes no account whatever of
monographs and independent books, however important. The
titles, moreover, are arranged solely according to authors'
names; and though the Society has long had under consideration
the preparation of, and it is hoped may eventually issue, as a
key to the volumes already published, a list in which the
titles are arranged according to subject-matter, the catalogue
is still being prepared according to authors' names. Further,
though the Society has endeavored to include the titles of all
the scientific papers published in periodicals of acknowledged
standing, the catalogue is, even as regards periodical
literature, confessedly incomplete, owing to the omission of
the titles of papers published in periodicals of little
importance, or not easy of access.

"Owing to the great development of scientific literature, the
task of the Society in continuing the catalogue, even in its
present form, is rapidly increasing in difficulty. At the same
time it is clear that the progress of science would be greatly
helped by, indeed, almost demands, the compilation of a
catalogue which should aim at completeness, and should contain
the titles of scientific publications, whether appearing in
periodicals or independently. In such a catalogue the titles
should be arranged not only according to authors' names, but
also according to subject-matter, the text of each paper and
not the title only being consulted for the latter purpose. And
the value of the catalogue would be greatly enhanced by a
rapid periodical issue, and by publication in such a form that
the portion which pertains to any particular branch of science
might be obtained separately. It is needless to say that the
preparation and publication of such a complete catalogue is
far beyond the power and means of any single society.

"Led by the above considerations, the president and council of
the Royal Society have appointed a committee to inquire into
and report upon the feasibility of such a catalogue being
compiled through international co-operation."

_Library Journal,
March, 1895._

The movement thus initiated received cordial support and led
to the convening of an International Conference in London, in
1896. The Conference was opened on Tuesday, July 14, at
Burlington House. "The 42 delegates, representing nearly all
the governments of civilized countries and most of the leading
scientific societies of the world, were welcomed by Sir John
Gorst, as provisional president. … It was decided that
English, German and French should be the official languages of
the conference. … The conference closed on Friday, July 17,
the need of an international catalogue having been fully
recognized, and a plan for its preparation mapped out. It was
decided 'That it is desirable to compile and publish by means
of some international organization a complete catalogue of
scientific literature, arranged according both to
subject-matter and to authors' names. That in preparing such a
catalogue regard shall, in the first instance, be had to the
requirements of scientific investigators, to the end that
these may, by means of the catalogue, find out most easily
what has been published concerning any particular subject of
inquiry.'

{448}

"The preparation of the catalogue is to be in charge of an
international council, to be appointed, and the final editing
and publication shall be conducted by a central international
bureau, under the direction of the international council. Any
country that is willing to do so shall be entrusted with the
task of collecting, provisionally classifying, and
transmitting to the central bureau, in accordance with rules
laid down by the international council, all the entries
belonging to the scientific literature of that country. 'In
indexing according to subject-matter regard shall be had, not
only to the title (of a paper or book), but also to the nature
of the contents.' The catalogue shall comprise all published
original contributions—periodical articles, pamphlets,
memoirs, etc.—to the mathematical, physical, or natural
sciences, … 'to the exclusion of what are sometimes called the
applied sciences—the limits of the several sciences to be
determined hereafter.' …

"The central bureau shall issue the catalogue in the form of
'slips' or 'cards,' the details of the cards to be hereafter
determined, and the issue to take place as promptly as
possible. … It was also decided that the central bureau shall
be located in London, and that the Royal Society appoint a
committee to study all undecided questions relating to the
catalogue and to report later. … No system of classification
was adopted and the subject was turned over for consideration
to the committee of organization, which should also suggest
'such details as will render the catalogue of the greatest
possible use to those unfamiliar with English.' January 1,
1900, is fixed as the date for the beginning of the
catalogue."

_Library Journal,
August, 1896._

A second international conference, to consider further the
plans previously outlined, was held October 11-13, 1898, at
Burlington House, London. "The attendance was a representative
one, including delegates from Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States
(represented by Dr. Cyrus Adler), Cape Colony, India, Natal,
New Zealand, and Queensland. Russia, Spain and Italy were the
only large continental countries unrepresented. …

"Professor Forster having formally presented the report of the
Committee of the Royal Society, copies of which were forwarded
in April last to the several governments represented at the
conference, the discussion of the recommendations was opened,
and it was resolved: 'That the conference confirms the
principle that the catalog be published in the double form of
cards and books. That schedules of classification shall be
authorized for the several branches of science which it is
decided to include in the catalog. That geography be defined
as limited to mathematical and physical geography, and that
political and general geography be excluded. That anatomy be
entered on the list as a separate subject. That a separate
schedule be provided for each of the following branches of
science: Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology, Physics,
Crystallography, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology (including
Petrology), Geography, mathematical and physical,
Paleontology, Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Physiology (including
Pharmacology and Experimental Pathology), Bacteriology,
Psychology, Anthropology. That each of the sciences for which
a separate schedule is provided shall be indicated by a
symbol.'" Resolutions were then adopted providing for the
regulations to be observed in the preparation of cards or
slips, and for the organization of the work through Regional
Bureaus.

"The following recommendations of the Royal Society providing
for international conventions in connection with the catalog
were adopted: 'Each region in which a Regional Bureau is
established, charged with the duty of preparing and
transmitting slips to the Central Bureau for the compilation
of the catalog, shall be called a constituent region. In 1905,
in 1910, and every tenth year afterwards, an international
convention shall be held in London (in July) to reconsider,
and, if necessary, revise the regulations for carrying out the
work of the catalog authorized by the international convention
of 1898. Such an international convention shall consist of
delegates appointed by the respective governments to represent
the constituent regions, but no region shall be represented by
more than three delegates. The rules of procedure of each
international convention shall be the same as those of the
international convention of 1898. The decisions of an
international convention shall remain in force until the next
convention meets.'

"The following recommendations of the Royal Society relating
to the constitution of an International Council, which shall
be the governing body of the catalog, were adopted: 'Each
Regional Bureau shall appoint one person to serve as a member
of a body to be called The International Council. The
International Council shall, within the regulations laid down
by the international convention, be the governing body of the
catalog. The International Council shall appoint its own
chairman and secretary. It shall meet in London once in three
years at least, and at such other times as the chairman, with
the concurrence of five other members, may specially appoint.
It shall, subject to the regulations laid down by the
convention, be the supreme authority for the consideration of
and decision concerning all matters belonging to the Central
Bureau. It shall make a report of its doings, and submit a
balance sheet, copies of which shall be distributed to the
several Regional Bureaus, and published in some recognized
periodical or periodicals in each of the constituent
regions.'"

_Library Journal,
December, 1898._

The third international conference on a catalog of scientific
literature was held in London, June 12, 1900, under the
auspices of the Royal Society. "Unfortunately the United
States finds no place in the list [of delegates]. This was
owing to the failure to secure from Congress the necessary
appropriation enabling the United States to join in the
enterprise; and as the call to the conference required that
delegates be charged with full powers, it was impossible for
any representative of the United States to be in attendance. …

"The general results of the conference are reviewed by
Professor Henry E. Armstrong, in 'Nature,' as follows: 'There
can be little doubt that the ultimate execution of this
important enterprise is now assured. … Everyone was of opinion
that if a fair beginning can once be made, the importance of the
work is so great; it will be of such use to scientific workers
at large; that it will rapidly grow in favor and soon secure
that wide support which is not yet given to it simply because
its character and value are but imperfectly understood.
Therefore, all were anxious that a beginning should be made.

{449}

"'It has been estimated that if 300 sets or the equivalent are
sold the expenses of publication will be fully met. As the
purchase of more than half this number was guaranteed by
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom, the conference came to the conclusion that the number
likely to be taken by other countries would be such that the
subscriptions necessary to cover the cost of the catalog would
be obtained. The resolution arrived at after this opinion had
been formed, That the catalog include both an author's and a
subject index, according to the schemes of the Provisional
International Committee, must, in fact, be read as a
resolution to establish the catalog.

"'Of the countries represented at the various conferences,
excepting Belgium, not one has expressed any unwillingness
eventually to co-operate in the work. Unfortunately, neither
the United States nor Russia was officially represented on the
present occasion. The attempts that have been made to induce
the government in the United States to directly subsidise the
catalog have not been successful: but that the United States
will contribute its fair share, both of material and pecuniary
support, cannot be doubted. There as here private or corporate
enterprise must undertake much that is done under government
auspices in Europe. As to Russia, the organization of
scientific workers there has been so little developed that it
is very difficult to secure their attention, and probably our
Russian colleagues are as yet but very imperfectly aware of
what is proposed. … A Provisional International Committee has
been appointed, which will take the steps now necessary to
secure the adhesion and co-operation of countries not yet
pledged to support the scheme.

"'Originally it was proposed to issue a card as well as a book
catalog, but on account of the great additional expense this
would involve, and as the Americans in particular have not
expressed themselves in favor of a card issue, it is resolved
to publish the catalog, for the present, only in the form of
annual volumes.

"'From the outset great stress has been laid on the
preparation of subject indexes which go behind the titles of
papers and give fairly full information as to the nature of
their contents. Both at the first and the second International
Conference this view met with the fullest approval. Meanwhile,
the action of the German government has made it necessary to
somewhat modify the original plan. In Germany, a regional
bureau will be established, supported by a government
subvention, and it is intended that the whole German
scientific literature shall be cataloged in this office; no
assistance will be asked from authors or editors or corporate
bodies. In such an office it will for the present be
impossible to go behind titles; consequently, only the titles
of German papers will be quoted in the catalog. In the first
instance, some other countries may prefer to adopt this course
on the ground of economy. But in this country, at least, the
attempt will be made to deal fully with the literature, and
the co-operation of authors and editors will be specially
invited. …

"'The catalog is to be published annually in seventeen
distinct volumes. The collection of material is to commence
from January 1, 1901. As it will be impossible to print and
issue so many volumes at once, it is proposed to publish them
in sets of four or five at quarterly intervals.'"

_Library Journal,
September, 1900._

The fourth Conference was held at London, December 12-13,
1900, when "all arrangements were completed for the definitive
commencement of the work on January 1. … The responsibility
for publication and for the initial expenditure is undertaken
by the Royal Society. … A comprehensive and elaborate system
of classification has been devised with the assent of all the
countries interested. This uniformity in a region where
diversity of a perplexing kind has hitherto ruled is in itself
a great boon to scientific workers everywhere. It may be
anticipated that the scheme will by degrees be adopted in all
collections of scientific works. As to the nothing aspects of
this important undertaking, larger more need be said at
present than that the scientific cataloguing of all scientific
work most appropriately celebrates the opening of the
twentieth century."

[Transcriber's note: In the previous sentence the words
"nothing" and "larger" appear interchanged.]

_London Times,
December 14, 1900._

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
In the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: DOMINANT LINES.

----------Scientific Literature: End--------

----------SCOTLAND: Start--------

SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900.
Union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches.

"In the ecclesiastical world only one event of the first
importance has happened [in Scotland, in 1900], the
consummation of the union between the Free and United
Presbyterian Churches, which has been the subject of
negotiation for six years past. The May meetings of the
leading representative courts of the two denominations were
occupied almost exclusively with the final arrangements for
the formal act of union, which was fixed to take place on
October 31. An attempt by a number of lay office-bearers of
the Free Church to postpone the final step, on the ground that
the congregations had not been directly and fairly consulted,
failed of its object. On October 30 the General Assembly of
the Free Church and the Synod of the United Presbyterian
Church held their last meetings in Edinburgh as independent
bodies. On the following day they formally constituted
themselves the United Free Church of Scotland in the Waverley
Market, the largest public hall in Scotland, in presence of an
audience computed to number 6,000 persons. The union has, as
is the rule in Scotland, been accompanied by a 'disruption.'
The minority of the Free Church, which on October 30 resolved
to remain outside the United Free Church, is very small in
number and is financially weak, but it claims to be the true
Free Church of Scotland, it is asserting itself vigorously in
the Highlands and islands, where Free Church
'constitutionalism' has always been strongest, and it has
taken the first step in a process of litigation for the
purpose of discovering whether it or the United Free Church is
legally entitled to the property of the original Free Church
founded in 1843. But for this secession, the strength of which
is not accurately estimable, the new denomination would,
according to the latest official returns, have opposed about
1,680 congregations and about 530,000 members to the 1,450
congregations and 650,000 members of the Church of Scotland."

_London Times,
December 27, 1900._

{450}

SEA POWER.

See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.

SEAL-KILLING DISPUTES.

See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.

SEGAN FU, SI-NGAN-FU, The Chinese Imperial Court at.

See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

SEMINOLES,
United States Agreement with the.

See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

SENEGAL; A. D. 1895.
Under a French Governor-General.

See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).

SENOUSSI, The Sect of the.

See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.

SERAPEION, Discovery of the.

See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT:
DISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEION.

SERVIA: A. D. 1894-1901.
Abolition of the constitution by royal proclamation.
Final exile and death of ex-King Milan.

See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (SERVIA).

SERVIA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Promulgation of a new constitution.