Chapter VIII: MISCELLANEOUS.--The Inventors' Institute.--Address of the (3)

The nitrifying organism has been submitted as yet to but little microscopical study; it is apparently a micrococcus.

It is difficult to conceive how the evidence for the ferment theory of nitrification could be further strengthened; it is apparently complete in every part. Although, however, nearly the whole of this evidence has been before the scientific public for more than seven years, the ferment theory of nitrification can hardly be said to have obtained any general acceptance; it has not indeed been seriously controverted, but neither has it been embraced. In hardly a single manual of chemistry is the production of saltpeter attributed to the action of a living ferment existing in the soil. Still more striking is the absence of any recognition of the evidence just mentioned when we turn to the literature and to the public discussions on the subjects of sewage, the pollution of river water, and other sanitary questions. The oxidation of the nitrogenous organic matter of river water is still spoken of by some as determined by mere contact with atmospheric oxygen, and the agitation of the water with air as a certain means of effecting oxidation; while by others the oxidation of nitrogenous organic matter in a river is denied, simply because free contact with air is not alone sufficient to produce oxidation. How much light would immediately be thrown on such questions if it were recognized that the oxidation of organic matter in our rivers is determined solely by the agency of life, is strictly limited to those conditions within which life is possible, and is most active in those circumstances in which life is most vigorous. It is surely most important that scientific men should make up their minds as to the real nature of those processes of oxidation of which nitrification is an example. If the ferment theory be doubted, let further experiments be made to test it, but let chemists no longer go on ignoring the weighty evidence which has been laid before them. It is partly with the view of calling the attention of English and American chemists to the importance of a decision on this question that I have been induced to bring this subject before them on the present occasion. I need hardly add that such results as the nitrification of sewage by passing it through sand, or the nitrification of dilute solutions of blood prepared without special precaution, are no evidence whatever against the ferment theory of nitrification. If it is to be shown that nitrification will occur in the absence of any ferment, it is clear that all ferments must be rigidly excluded during the experiments; the solutions must be sterilized by heat, the apparatus purified in a similar manner, and all subsequent access of organisms carefully guarded against. It is only experiments made in this way that can have any weight in deciding the question.

Leaving now the theory of nitrification, I will proceed to say a few words, first, as to the distribution of the nitrifying organism in the soil; secondly, as to the substances which are susceptible of nitrification; thirdly, upon certain conditions having great influence on the process.

_The Distribution of the Nitrifying Organism in the Soil._--Three series of experiments have been made on the distribution of the nitrifying organism in the clay soil and subsoil at Rothamsted. Advantage was taken of the fact that deep pits had been dug in one of the experimental fields for the purpose of obtaining samples of the soil and subsoil. Small quantities of soil were taken from freshly-cut surfaces on the sides of these pits at depths varying from 2 inches to 8 feet. The soil removed was at once transferred to a sterilized solution of diluted urine, which was afterward examined from time to time to ascertain if nitrification took place. These experiments are hardly yet completed; the two earlier series of solutions have, however, been examined for eight and seven months respectively. In both these series the soil taken from 2 inches, 9 inches, and 18 inches from the surface has been proved to contain the nitrifying organism by the fact that it has produced nitrification in the solutions to which it was added; while in twelve distinct experiments made with soil from greater depths no nitrification has yet occurred, and we must therefore conclude that the nitrifying organism was not present in the samples of soil taken. The third series of experiments has continued as yet but three months and a half; at present no nitrification has occurred with soil taken below 9 inches from the surface. It would appear, therefore, that in a clay soil the nitrifying organism is confined to about 18 inches from the surface; it is most abundant in the first 6 inches. It is quite possible, however, that in the channels caused by worms, or by the roots of plants, the organism may occur at greater depths. In a sandy soil we should expect to find the organism at a lower level than in clay, but of this we have as yet no evidence. The facts here mentioned are in accordance with the microscopical observations made by Koch, who states that the micro-organisms in the soils he has investigated diminish rapidly in number with an increasing depth; and that at a depth of scarcely 1 meter the soil is almost entirely free from bacteria.

Some very practical conclusions may be drawn from the facts now stated. It appears that the oxidation of nitrogenous matter in soil will be confined to matter near the surface. The nitrates found in the subsoil and in subsoil drainage waters have really been produced in the upper layer of the soil, and have been carried down by diffusion, or by a descending column of water. Again, in arranging a filter bed for the oxidation of sewage, it is obvious that, with a heavy soil lying in its natural state of consolidation, very little will be gained by making the filter bed of considerable depth; while, if an artificial bed is to be constructed, it is clearly the top soil, rich in oxidizing organisms, which should be exclusively employed.

_The Substances Susceptible of Nitrification._--The analyses of soils and drainage waters have taught us that the nitrogenous humic matter resulting from the decay of plants is nitrifiable; also that the various nitrogenous manures applied to land, as farmyard manure, bones, fish, blood, rape cake, and ammonium salts, undergo nitrification in the soil. Illustrations of many of these facts from the results obtained in the experimental fields at Rothamsted have been published by Sir J.B. Lawes, Dr. J.H. Gilbert, and myself, in a recent volume of the _Journal_ of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In the Rothamsted Laboratory, experiments have also been made on the nitrification of solutions of various substances. Besides solutions containing ammonium salts and urea, I have succeeded in nitrifying solutions of asparagine, milk, and rape cake. Thus, besides ammonia, two amides, and two forms of albuminoids have been found susceptible of nitrification. In all cases in which amides or albuminoids were employed, the formation of ammonia preceded the production of nitric acid. Mr. C.F.A. Tuxen has already published in the present year two series of experiments on the formation of ammonia and nitric acids in soils to which bone-meal, fish-guano, or stable manure had been applied; in all cases he found the formation of ammonia preceded the formation of nitric acid.

As ammonia is so readily nitrifiable, we may safely assert that every nitrogenous substance which yields ammonia when acted upon by the organisms present in soil is also nitriflable.

_Certain Conditions having Great Influence in the Process of Nitrification._--If we suppose that a solution containing a nitrifiable substance is supplied with the nitrifying organism, and with the various food constituents necessary for its growth and activity, the rapidity of nitrification will depend on a variety of circumstances:

1. The degree of concentration of the solution is important. Nitrification always commences first in the weakest solution, and there is probably in the case of every solution a limit of concentration beyond which nitrification is impossible.

2. The temperature has great influence. Nitrification proceeds far more rapidly in summer than winter.

3. The presence or absence of light is important. Nitrification is most rapid in darkness; and in the case of solutions, exposure to strong light may cause nitrification to cease altogether.

4. The presence of oxygen is of course essential. A thin layer of solution will nitrify sooner than a deep layer, owing to the larger proportion of oxygen available. The influence of depth of fluid is most conspicuous in the case of strong solutions.

5. The quantity of nitrifying organism present has also a marked effect. A solution seeded with a very small amount of organism will for a long time exhibit no nitrification, the organism being (unlike some other bacteria) of very slow growth. A solution receiving an abundant supply of the ferment will exhibit speedy nitrification, and strong solutions may by this means be successfully nitrified, which with small seedings would prove very refractory. The speedy nitrification which occurs in soil (far more speedy than in experiments in solutions under any conditions yet tried) is probably owing to the great mass of nitrifying organisms which soil contains, and to the thinness of the liquid layer which covers the soil particles.

6. The rapidity of nitrification also depends on the degree of alkalinity of the solution. Nitrification will not take place in an acid solution; it is essential that some base should be present with which the nitric acid may combine; when all available base is used up, nitrification ceases.

It appeared of interest to ascertain to what extent nitrification would proceed in a dilute solution of urine without the addition of any substance save the nitrifying ferment. As urea is converted into ammonium carbonate in the first stage of the action of the ferment, a supply of salifiable base would at first be present, but would gradually be consumed. The result of the experiment showed that only one-half the quantity of nitric acid was formed in the simple urine solution as in similar solutions containing calcium and sodium carbonate. The nitrification of the urine had evidently proceeded until the whole of the ammonium had been changed into ammonium nitrate, and the action had then ceased. This fact is of practical importance. Sewage will be thoroughly nitrified only when a sufficient supply of calcium carbonate, or some other base, is available. If, instead of calcium carbonate, a soluble alkaline salt is present, the quantity must be small, or nitrification will be seriously hindered.

Sodium carbonate begins to have a retarding influence on the commencement of nitrification when its amount exceeds 300 milligrammes per liter, and up to the present time I have been unable to produce an effective nitrification in solutions containing 1.000 gramme per liter.

Sodium hydrogen carbonate hinders far less the commencement of nitrification.

Ammonium carbonate, when above a certain amount, also prevents the commencement of nitrification. The strongest solution in which nitrification has at present commenced contained ammonium carbonate equivalent to 368 milligrammes of nitrogen per liter. This hinderance of nitrification by the presence of an excess of ammonium carbonate effectually prevents the nitrification of strong solutions of urine, in which, as already mentioned, ammonium carbonate is the first product of fermentation.

Far stronger solutions of ammonium chloride can be nitrified than of ammonium carbonate, if the solution of the former salt is supplied with calcium carbonate. Nitrification has in fact commenced in chloride of ammonium solutions containing more than two grammes of nitrogen per liter.

The details of the recent experiments, some of the results of which we have now described, will, it is hoped, shortly appear in the _Journal_ of the Chemical Society of London.

Harpenden, July 21.

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ANILINE DYES IN DRESS MATERIALS.

By Professor CHARLES O'NEILL.

Twenty-eight years ago Mr. Perkin discovered the first of the aniline dyes. It was the shade of purple called mauve, and the chief agent in its production was bichromate of potash. This salt is not actively poisonous, and no one thought of attributing injurious properties to materials dyed with the aniline mauve. Next in chronological order came magenta red. It was first made from aniline by the agency of mercurial salts, and afterward by that form of arsenic known to chemists as arsenic acid. The fact that this at one time fashionable color was prepared by means of an arsenical compound was spread through the country in a very impressive manner by the great trial as to whether the patent was valid or not, all turning upon the expression in the specification of "dry arsenic acid," and the disputes of scientists whether this expression meant arsenic acid with or without water. The public mind had been for some time previously exercised and alarmed by accounts of sickness and debility caused by arsenical paper-hangings; it was, therefore, easy for pseudo scientists to create an opinion that the magenta dye must be also poisonous, and that persons wearing materials dyed with this color were liable to absorb arsenic and suffer from its action. Ever since there have been, at intervals, statements more or less circumstantial, that individuals have suffered from wearing materials dyed with some of the artificial dyes. At the present time these statements are emphasized by the exhibition at the Healtheries of models of skin diseases said to be actually produced by the wearing of dyed garments. Whether it be true or not that any form of skin disease has been produced by the wearing of dyed articles of clothing is simply a question of evidence, and there is evidence enough to show that individuals have experienced ill effects who have worn clothing dyed with artificial colors. But, as far as we know, there is an entire want of any evidence that will satisfactorily show that the inconvenience suffered by wearers of these dyed goods has been owing to the dyeing material. Years must elapse before chemists or physicians can hope to become thoroughly informed of the physiological action produced by the cutaneous absorption of the thousands of new products which the ingenuity and industry of technological chemists have made available for the manufacture of colors; they are also new to science, most of them very complex in their constitution, and so dissimilar to previously studied compounds used by the dyer, that it may be said we have nearly everything to learn concerning their action upon the human economy. With respect to dyed woolen and silk goods it is almost entirely a question as to the innocence or otherwise of the coloring matter itself, which in nine cases out of ten is an organic body containing no mineral matter of any sort, and not requiring the assistance of any mordant to enable it to dye. Considerations of arsenic, or antimony, or mercury existing in the dyed stuffs are absolutely excluded. In a few cases the dyestuff is a zinc compound, and zinc in small traces may possibly be fixed by the material, but this metal is not known to be actively noxious. Textiles made from fibers of animal origin do not require, and as a rule do not tolerate, the addition of any metal in dyeing with the artificial colors, and if the manufacture of the color require the use of a metal, such as arsenic, which by unskillfulness or carelessness is left in it when delivered to the dyer, the tendency of the animal fiber is to reject it.

But the case with regard to textiles made from vegetables fibers is quite different; upon materials made from cotton, flax, jute, or other fiber of the vegetable kingdom, the new aniline colors cannot be fixed without the assistance of other bodies acting the part of mordants. Some of these bodies are actively poisonous in their nature, and introduce a possible element of danger to the wearer of the dyed article. For many years, almost the only method of dyeing cotton goods with the aniline colors consisted in a preliminary steeping in sumac or tannic acid, followed by a passage in some suitable compound of tin, and subsequent dyeing in the coloring matter. Sumac and tin have been used for two hundred years or more as the dyer's basis for a considerable number of shades of color from old dye-stuffs; there never has been the least suspicion that there was anything hurtful in colors so dyed. Sumac or tannic acid, in combination with alumina, may be held to be equally inoffensive; now it is a fact that the great bulk of cotton goods are dyed with the aniline colors by the agency of these harmless chemicals. But of late years the dyers of certain goods, and the calico printers generally, have found an advantage in the use of tartar emetic, and other compounds of antimony, to fix aniline colors; besides this, some colors are fixed in calico printing by means of an arsenical alumina mordant; it need not be mentioned that antimony, as well as arsenic, is, when administered internally, an active poison in even small quantities, and that externally both are injurious under certain conditions. An alarmist would require nothing further than this statement to feel himself justified in attributing everything bad to fabrics so colored; but the practical dyer or calico printer knows that though he employs these poisonous bodies in his business, and that some portion of them does actually accompany the dyed material in its finished state, not only is the quantity excessively small, but that it is in such a state of combination as to be completely inert and innoxious. In the case of tartar emetic, it is the tannate of antimony which remains upon the cloth, a compound of considerable stability, and almost perfectly insoluble in water; in the case of a few colors fixed by the arsenical alumina mordant, the arsenic is in an insoluble state of combination with the alumina, in fact, the poisons are in the presence of their antidotes, and not even the most scrupulous manufacturer has any fear that he is turning out goods which can be hurtful to the wearer. Persons quite unacquainted with the process of dyeing are apt to think that goods are dyed by simply immersing them in a colored liquid and then drying them with all the color on them and all that the color contains; they do not know that in all usual cases of dyeing a careful washing in a plentiful supply of water is the final process in the dye-house, and that nothing remains upon the cloth which can be washed out by water, the color being retained by a sort of attraction or affinity between it and the fiber, or mordant on the fiber. Dyeing is not like painting or even the printing or staining of paper for hangings, where the vehicle and color in its entirety is applied and remains. It follows, therefore, that many chemicals used in dyeing have only a transitory use, and are washed away completely--such as oil of vitriol, much used in woolen dyeing--and that of others only a very minute quantity is finally left on the cloth, as is the case in antimony and arsenic in cotton dyeing and printing.

There is evidently among working dyers, as among all other classes, an unknown amount of carelessness, ignorance, and stupidity, from which employers are constantly suffering in the shape of spoiled colors and rotted cloth. It is not for us to say that the public may not at times have to suffer also from neglect of the most common treatments which should remove injurious matters from dyed goods; what can be said is, that if the dyeing processes for aniline colors be followed out with ordinary care and intelligence, it is extremely improbable that anything left in the material should be injurious to human health.--_Manchester Textile Recorder._

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CASE OF RESUSCITATION AND RECOVERY AFTER APPARENT DEATH BY HANGING.

By ERNEST W. WHITE, M.B. Lond., M.R.C.P., Senior Assistant Medical Officer to the Kent Lunatic Asylum; Associate, Late Scholar, of King's College, London.

The following case, from its hopelessness at the outset, yet ultimate recovery under the duly recognized forms of treatment, is of such interest as to demand publicity, and will afford encouragement to others in moments of doubt.

M.A. S----, aged fifty-three, was admitted into the Kent Lunatic Asylum at Chartham on Oct. 3, 1882, suffering from melancholia, the duration of which was stated to have been three months. She had several times attempted suicide by drowning and strangulation. She was on admission ordered a mixture containing morphia and ether thrice daily, to allay her distress. On Oct. 10 she attempted suicide by tying a stocking, which she had secreted about her person, round her neck. Shortly afterward, with similar intent, she threw herself downstairs. On Jan. 4, 1883, she attempted to strangle herself with her apron. On the 30th of November following, at 4 P.M. she evaded the attendants, and made her way to the bath-room of of No. 1 ward, the door of which had been left unfastened by an attendant. She then suspended herself from a ladder there by means of portions of her dress and underclothing tied together. A patient of No. 1 ward discovered her suspended from the ladder eight minutes after she had last seen her in the adjoining watercloset, and gave the alarm.

The woman was quickly cut down, and the medical officers summoned. In the interval cold affusion was resorted to by the attendant in charge, but the patient was to all appearances dead. The junior assistant medical officer, Mr. J. Reynolds Salter, M.B. Lond., arrived after about three minutes, and at once resorted to artificial respiration by the Silvester method. A minute or so later the medical superintendent and myself joined him. At this time the condition of the patient was as follows: The face presented the appearance known as facies hippocratica: the eyeballs were prominent, the corneæ glassy, the pupils widely dilated, not acting to light, and there was no reflex action of the conjunctivæ; the lips were livid, the tongue tumefied, but pallid, the skin ashy pale, the cutaneous tissues apparently devoid of elasticity. There was an oblique depressed mark on the neck, more evident on the left side; the small veins and capillaries of the surface of the body were turgid with coagulating blood the surface temperature was extremely low. She was pulseless at the wrists and temples. There was no definite beat of the heart recognizable by the stethoscope.

There was absolute cessation of all natural respiratory efforts, complete unconsciousness, total abolition of reflex action and motion, and galvanism with the ordinary magneto-electric machine failed to induce muscular contractions. The urine and fæces had been passed involuntarily during or immediately subsequent to the act of suspension. As the stethoscope revealed that but a small amount of air entered the lungs with each artificial inspiration, the tongue was at once drawn well forward, and retained in that position by an assistant, with the result that air then penetrated to the smaller bronchi. Inspiration and expiration were artificially imitated about ten times to the minute. In performing expiration the chest was thoroughly compressed. The lower extremities were raised, and manual centripetal frictions freely applied. In the intervals of these applications warmth to the extremities was resorted to.

About ten minutes from the commencement of artificial respiration we noticed a single weak spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, the feeblest possible effort at natural respiration. Simultaneously, very distant weak reduplicated cardiac pulsations, numbering about 150 to the minute, became evident to the stethoscope. The reduplication implied that the two sides of the heart were not acting synchronously, owing to obstruction to the pulmonary circulation induced by the asphyxiated state. Artificial respiration was steadily maintained, and during the next half hour spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm occurred at gradually diminishing intervals, from once in three minutes to three or four times a minute.

These natural efforts were artificially aided as far as possible. At 5:45 P.M. natural respiration was fairly though insufficiently established, the skin began to lose its deadly hue, and titillation of the fauces caused weak reflex contractions. Flagellation with wet towels was now freely resorted to, and immediately the natural efforts at respiration were increased to twice their previous number. The administration of a little brandy and water by the mouth failed, as the liquid entered the larynx. Ammonia was applied to the nostrils, and the surface temperature was increased by warm applications and clothing. At 6 P.M. artificial respiration was no longer necessary. The heart sounds then numbered 140 to the minute, the right and left heart still acting separately. A very small radial pulse could also be felt. At 6:45 P.M. the woman was put to bed, warmth of surface maintained, and hot coffee and beef-tea given in small quantities.

Great restlessness and jactitation set in with the renewal of the circulation in the extremities. An enema of two ounces of strong beef-tea was administered at 10 P.M. The amount of organic effluvium thrown off by the lungs on the re-establishment of respiration was very great and tainted the atmosphere of the room and adjoining ward. The pupils, previously widely dilated, began to contract to light at 11 P.M. Imperfect consciousness returned at 5 P.M. the following day (Dec. 1), and about an hour later she vomited the contents of the stomach (bread, etc., taken on Nov. 30). Small quantities of beef-tea were given by the mouth during the night. At 9 A.M. air entered the lungs freely, and there were no symptoms of pulmonary engorgement beyond slight basic hypostasis; the pulse remained at 140, and the heart sounds reduplicated; she was semiconscious, very drowsy, in a state of mental torpor, with confused ideas when roused, and she complained of rheumatic-like pains all over her.

The temperature was 100.2°; the facial expression more natural; the tongue remained somewhat swollen and sore; she was no longer restless; she took tea, beef-tea, milk, etc., well; the functions of the secreting organs were being restored; she perspired freely; had micturated; the mucous membrane of the mouth was moist, and there was a tendency to tears without corresponding mental depression. The patient was ordered a mixture of ether and digitalis every four hours. On December 2 the pulse was 136, and the heart sounds reduplicated. The following day she was given bromide of potassium in place of the ether in the digitalis mixture. On the 4th the pulse was 126; reduplication gone. On the 6th the pulse was 82, and the temperature fell with the pulse rate. She was well enough to get into the ward for a few hours. Her memory, especially for recent events, was at that time greatly impaired. On the 12th she still complained of muscular pains like those of rheumatism. Apart from that, she was enjoying good bodily health.

A curious fact in connection with this case is that since this attempt at suicide she has steadily improved mentally, has lost her delusions, is cheerful, and employs herself usefully with her needle. She converses rationally, and tells me she recollects the impulse by which she was led to hang herself, and remembers the act of suspension; but from that time her memory is a blank, until two days subsequently, when her husband came to see her, and when she expressed great grief at having been guilty of such a deed. Her bodily health is now (June 30, 1884) more robust than formerly, and she is on the road to mental convalescence.

_Remarks._--The successful issue of this case leads me to draw the following inferences: 1. That in cases of suspended animation similar to the above there is no symptom by which apparent can be distinguished from real death. 2. That in artificial respiration alone do we possess the means of restoring animation when life is apparently extinct from asphyxia, and that, with the tongue drawn well forward and retained there by the hand or an elastic band, the Silvester method is complete and effective. 3. That artificial respiration may be necessary for two hours or more before the restoration of adequate natural efforts, and that the performance of the movements ten times to the minute is amply sufficient, and produces a better result than a more rapid rate. 4. That galvanism, ammonia to the nostrils, cold affusion, and stimulants by the mouth are practically useless in the early stage. 5. That on the re-establishment of the reflex function we possess a powerful auxiliary agent in flagellation with wet towels, etc. 6. That centripetal surface frictions and the restoration of the body temperature by warm applications aid recovery. 7. That the heart, if free from organic disease, has great power of overcoming the distention of its right cavities and the obstruction to the pulmonary circulation, although its action may for a time be seriously deranged, as evidenced by reduplication of its sounds. 8. That when the heart's action remains excessively feeble, and the right and left heart fail to contract synchronously, it would be justifiable to open the external jugular vein. 9. That during recovery the lungs are heavily taxed in purifying the vitiated blood, as shown by the excessive amount of organic impurities exhaled. 10. That restlessness and jactitation accompany the restoration of nerve function, and that vomiting occurs with returning consciousness. 11. That pains like those of rheumatism are complained of for some days subsequently, these probably resulting from the sudden arrest of nutrition in the muscles.

Chartham, near Canterbury.

--_Lancet._

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THE INVENTORS' INSTITUTE.

The twenty-second session of the Inventors' Institute was opened on October 27, the chair being taken by Vice-Admiral J.H. Selwyn, one of the vice-presidents, at the rooms of the institute, Lonsdale Chambers, 27 Chancery Lane, London. The chairman, in delivering the inaugural address, said that in the absence of their president, the Duke of Manchester, it became his duty to open the session of 1885. The institute having been established in 1862, this was their twenty-second anniversary. At the time of its establishment a greater number of members were rapidly enrolled than they could now reckon, although a large number had joined since the commencement of the present year. In 1862 a considerable amount of enthusiasm on the part of inventors had arisen, from the fact that at that time the leading journals had advocated the views of certain manufacturers as to sweeping away the patent laws, enacted anew in 1852, and with them the sole protection of the inventive talent and industry of the nation. This naturally caused much excitement and interest among those chiefly concerned, and a very numerous body of gentlemen associated themselves together and formed an institute for the purpose mainly of resisting the aggression and inculcating views more in accordance with true principles, as well as for explaining what were the true relations of inventive genius to the welfare of the state. He hoped to be able to show strong reasons for this action, and for energetically following it up in the future. Although on that evening there were many visitors present besides the members of the institute, yet he thought the subject could be shown to be of such national importance that it might justly engage the attention of any assembly of Englishmen, to whatever mode of thought they might belong. The institute had persistently done its work ever since its formation. Sometimes it had failed to make itself heard, at others it had been more successful in so doing; but the net result of its labors--and he did not fear to claim it as mainly due to those labors--had been to propagate and spread abroad a fact and a feeling entirely opposed to the false doctrines previously current on the subject, namely, that among our most valuable laws were those which could excite the intelligence and reward the labors of the inventors of all nations. There were still those who wished to see the patent laws swept away, but their numbers had dwindled into a miserable minority, composed mainly of manufacturers who were so curiously short-sighted as not to see that all improvement in manufactures must come from inventive talent, or those who, still more blind, could not perceive that property created by brains was certainly not a monopoly, and deserves protection quite as much as any other form of possession, in order that it may be developed by capital. He need scarcely waste time in pointing out the fallacy of refusing to pay for the seed corn of industrial pursuits, for that fallacy, bit by bit, had been completely swept away, and last year the labors of the institute had been so far crowned with success that the President of the Board of Trade, in his place in Parliament, announced his conviction that "inventors were the creators of trade, and ought to be encouraged and not repressed." Such a conviction, forced home in such a quarter, ought to have produced a great and beneficial change in the legislation on the subject, and the hopes of inventors were that this would surely be the case; but when the bill appeared these hopes were considerably depressed, and now, after a year's experience of the working of the changed law, scarcely any benefit appears to have been obtained, beyond the meager concession that the heavy payments demanded, for an English patent may be made in installments instead of lump sums. Against this infinitesimal concession had to be set a number of disabilities which did not formerly exist, such as compulsory licenses, which disinclined the capitalist to invest in inventions, attempts to assimilate the provisional specification to the complete, or to restrict the latter within the terms of the former, attempts to separate the parts of an invention, and thus increase the number of patents required to protect it, and many other minor annoyances which would take too much time to explain fully. It was true that there was some extension of the time for payment--some such locus penitentiæ as would be accorded to any debtor by any creditor in the hope of getting the assets; but the promised spirit of encouragement to inventors was not to be found in the bill; it was still a boon which must be earnestly sought by the institute.

He had said that the concessions granted were almost infinitesimal, yet a result had been obtained, surprisingly confirmatory of the views always advocated by the institute as to the potentiality of the inventive talent of this nation were it released from its shackles. While in former years the highest number of patents taken out had slowly risen to the number of five to six thousand per annum, in the year now expiring it had bounded to more than three times five thousand--had at one leap reached an equality with the patents of the United States, where only £4 ($20) was paid for a patent for seventeen years, instead of £175, as in Great Britain, for a term of fourteen years. If in the future we could hope to persuade the legislators to be content with no heavier tax than in the United States had yielded a heavy surplus over expenses of a well-conducted Patent Office, he did not fear to assert that the number of patents taken out in this country would again be trebled, and that trade and industry would be correspondingly animated and developed. The result of the wiser patent law of the United States had been to flood our markets with well-manufactured yet cheap articles from that country which might have been equally well made by our artisans at home had invention not been subject to such heavy restrictions, and had technical skill been equally sure of its reward.

The business of the institute in the future was not to rest satisfied with the proposition of Mr. Chamberlain, but to lead him or his successors forward by logical and legitimate means toward the necessary corollary of that proposition. If inventors were indeed the creators of trade, then the President of the Board of Trade was bound to see, not only that they were not prevented from creating trade, but that they received every facility in performing their work. Hence all exertions should be used to convince the Chancellor of the Exchequer that a less tax may produce a greater income: to persuade the legal authorities that this description of property, of all others, most deserves the protection of the law. Inherited direct from the Giver of all good gifts, no person had been dispossessed of anything he previously owned, and the wealth of humanity might be indefinitely increased by means of it. Not many mighty, not many noble, received this gift, but it was the inexhaustible heritage of the humble, it was the rich reward of the intelligent of all races that peopled the earth. To whomsoever given, this gift was intended to contribute to the health and the wealth of the human race, for the bringing into existence new products, for their utilization for the encouragement of the general intelligence of the nations, and for the lightening of the burdens of the poor. It would also cause technical education to be more highly valued as a means to an end--for true inventive genius was never so likely to succeed as when it passed from the summit of the known to the confines of the possible, when, having learnt and appreciated what predecessors had accomplished, it went earnestly to work to solve the next problem, to remove the next obstacle on the path which to them had proved insurmountable.

More beneficial than any other change whatever in our legislation would be a full and cordial recognition, a complete and efficient protection, of property created by thought. Then the humblest individual in the land might have confidence that he could call into existence property not inferior in value to that of the richest landowner, the most successful merchant, or the most wealthy manufacturer, in the whole world. As an instance of this Admiral Selwyn mentioned two prominent cases arising out of the pursuit of two widely differing branches of knowledge, in the one case by an outsider, in the other by a specialist. He referred to Sir H. Bessemer, one of his valued colleagues in the vice-presidency of the institute, and Mr. Perkins, the discoverer of aniline dyes. In each of these instances, whatever might have been the results to the inventors, and he hoped they had been satisfactory, a sum which might be estimated at twenty millions sterling annually, constantly on the increase, and never before existing, had been added to the income-tax-paying wealth of the country. With such a result arising from the development of only two inventions, he thought it would be seen that he must be a most ignorant, foolish, or obstinate Chancellor of the Exchequer who would refuse to allow such property to be created by requiring heavy preliminary payments, or in any way discourage or fail to encourage to the utmost of his power the creation of property which was capable of producing such a result--a result which he would in vain seek for did he rely on landed property alone, since this, in the hands of whomsoever it might be, never could largely increase in extent, and was subject at this moment to serious depreciation in tax-paying power.

The exertion of intelligence, combined with a sense of security in its pecuniary results, was in itself opposed to loose notions of proprietary rights, and tended to diminish that coveting of neighbors' goods which was the fertile source of vice and crime, and which was capable of breaking down the strongest and most wealthy community if indulged, till at last society was resolved into its elements, and when nothing else was left as property, man, the savage, coveted the scalp of his fellow man, and triumphed over a lock of hair torn from his bleeding skull.

Invention was an ennobling pursuit, and was, even among those who were not also handworkers, a means of employment which never left dull or idle hours, while to the handworker it meant more, for it offered the most ready means of rising among his fellows, and, where invention received proper protection, of securing a competence for old age or ill health. Not only, as he had before said, did the results of invention cause no loss to any other individual, unless by displacing inferior methods of working, but in most instances some distinct benefit arose to the whole human race, and unless this was the case the patented invention failed to obtain recognition, soon died out, and left the field clear for others to occupy.

He regretted that so few results had been obtained from the Patent Bill of last year, but he would briefly refer to some of the changes thought desirable by inventors and by the council of the institute.

No one could deem it desirable, it could scarcely be thought reasonable, that an Englishman who was called upon to pay in the United States £7 for a valid patent for seventeen years should be still obliged in his own country to pay £175 for a less term of a patent which does not convey anything but a right to go to law. It was also not reasonable to pretend by a deed to convey a proprietary right while reserving the power to grant compulsory licenses, which must tend to destroy the value of such proprietary right.

It was a reproach to legislative perspicacity that the grantee of a patent should be obliged to accept the view of the state, the grantor, as to the value of the invention to the nation, and also that any other method of proceeding to upset a patent, once granted, should be allowed than a suit for revocation to the crown, on the ground of error, such revocation if obtained not to prejudice the granting anew, with the old date, of a valid patent for the parts of the invention which are not proved to be anticipated at the trial. There are many other points which could not be referred to on the present occasion, but he might say that the duty of the council would be to press them forward until the capitalist could consider patented property at least as sound an investment as any other. So might the wealth of the nation be largely increased, and the sense of justice between man and man be more fully inculcated. In the United States inventors were able at once to secure the favorable attention of capitalists, because there the whole business of the Patent Office was to assist the inventor to obtain a valid--and, as far as possible, an indisputable--patent.

Even so small an article as a pair of pliers, one of the most familiar of tools, had been proved to be capable of patented improvement. Formerly these were always made to open and close at an angle which precluded their holding any object grasped by them with the desirable rigidity. A clever workman invented a means of producing this effect by the application of a parallel motion. He probably went to the office at Washington, was referred to a certain room in a certain corridor, and there found a gentleman whose business it was to know all about the patents for such tools. By his aid he eliminated from his patent all anticipatory matter, and issued from the office with a valid patent, which, developed by capital, had supplied all the trades which employ such instruments with a better means of accomplishing their work, had employed capital and labor with remunerative results in producing the pliers, and had added one more to the little things which create trade for his country.

This was a typical instance of the way in which invention was encouraged in America. Why should it be otherwise here? For many years literary property had received a protection which was yet to be desired for patented invention. Not only for fourteen years, but for the duration of a man's life, was that kind of brain property protected, and even after his death his heirs still continued to derive benefit from it. Should a romance or a poem be deemed more worthy of reward than the labors of those inventors to whom he had referred, and which certainly produced far greater and more abiding advantage to the nation? To secure a due appreciation of the whole importance of invention, no other means could be adopted than that which the institute had been formed to secure, namely, the union of inventors, not only of one nation, but of the whole world. The international character of the subject had been recognized by the institute, and they had never neglected any opportunities of pressing that view of the subject, which had at last obtained some recognition from our government.

No great result could, however, be expected from a congress where inventors, not lawyers or patent agents, still less officials trained in a vicious routine, formed the majority. It might be hoped that next year there would arise an opportunity for such a congress, and that the institute would do its best to improve the occasion. There never had been a time when England more required the creation of new industries. Our agriculturists had signally failed to hold their own in the face of unlimited competition, and the food of the nation no longer came from within. But if that were the case, then some means must be found of paying for the food imported from abroad, and this could only be done by constant improvement in manufactures, or some change by which we might sell some of our other productions at a profit if the food could not be produced but at a loss. Here invention might fitly be called to aid, but could only respond if all restrictions were removed and every facility granted.

Capital must be induced to consider that home investments are more remunerative and not less secure than any others, and this could only be done by adding to the security of the property proposed for investment. He had referred to the unlimited nature of the property created by invention, and they would infer that if properly protected there was equally no limit to the capital that could be profitably employed in developing such property. The institute did not exist solely or even mainly for the purpose of advocating the claims of inventors to consideration, either individually or collectively, but for the great object of forcing home upon the convictions of the people the fact that at the very foundation of the wealth and prosperity of every nation lies the intelligence, the skill, the honesty, and the self-denial of its sons.

If, when these were exercised, for want of wise legislation such virtues failed to secure their due reward, they sought a more genial clime, and that nation which had undervalued them sank to rise no more; or, if the error were acknowledged, and too late the course was reversed, found itself already outstripped in the race of progress, and could slowly, if ever, regain its lost position. Finally he urged the inventors of England to rally round the institution in all their strength, and thus secure the objects of which he had striven, however feebly, to point out the importance. If they did so, this institution would take a rank second to no other in the empire: and while acknowledging that the interests of the inventor must always be subordinate to the welfare of the state, he asserted that the two were inseparable, and that in no other way could the latter and principal result be so completely secured as by according a due consideration to the former.

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THE NEW CENTRAL SCHOOL AT PARIS.

We present herewith, from _L'Illustration_, views of the amphitheater, and first and second year laboratories of the new Central School at Paris.

The amphitheater does not perceptibly differ from those of other schools. It consists of a semicircle provided with rows of benches, one above another, upon which the pupils sit while listening to lectures and taking notes thereof. Several blackboards, actuated by hydraulic motors, serve for demonstration by the professor, who, if need be, will be enabled, thanks to the electricity and gas put within his reach, to perform experiments of various kinds. Electricity is brought to him by wires, just as water and gas are by pipes. It will always be possible for him to support the theory that he is explaining by experiments which facilitate the comprehension of it by the pupils. The amphitheater is likewise provided with a motor which furnishes the professor with power whenever he has recourse to a mechanical application.

It will not be possible for the pupils to have their attention distracted by what is going on outside of the amphitheater, since the architect has taken the precaution to use ground glass in the windows.

As regards the laboratories, it is allowable to say that they constitute the first great school of experimental chemistry in France. The first year laboratory consists of a series of tables, provided with evaporating hoods, at which a series of pupils will study general chemistry experimentally. Electricity, and gas and water cocks are within reach of each operator, and all the deleterious emanations from the acids that are used or are produced in studying a body will escape through the hoods.

The third year laboratory is designed for making commercial analyses. These latter are made by either dry or wet way. The first method employs water chiefly as a vehicle, and alkaline solutions as reagents. The second employs reagents in a dry state, and the action of which requires lamp and furnace heat. The furnaces employed in the new school are like those almost exclusively used industrially for the analysis of ores. The tables upon which analyses by dry way are made are large enough to allow sixteen pupils to work.

Analyses by wet way are made upon tables, with various sorts of vessels. Along with water, gas, and electricity, the pupils have at their disposal a faucet from whence they may draw the hydrosulphuric acid which is so constantly used in laboratory operations.

The architect of the new school is Mr. Denfer.

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[NATURE.]

RESEARCHES ON THE ORIGIN AND LIFE-HISTORIES OF THE LEAST AND LOWEST LIVING THINGS.

By Rev. W.H. DALLINGER, LL. D.