HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



II 



the foot of a Dane. In course of time, therefore, 

 the name Bidekar, or Bedegar, as some people pro- 

 nounced it, i.e., the little stabber, came to be the 

 recognised term for a thistle, as being the most 

 common of the prickle-bearing plants. We therefore 

 have now to turn away from the historical personages 

 who, a thousand years before the birth of Christ, had 

 made themselves famous by the use of the spear, and 

 look at the thistle, which had for a similar reason 

 inherited the same name ; and in order to carry on 

 my story it will be necessary to say that the Arab 

 physicians must next be consulted, seeing that they 

 for some centuries bestowed upon my relatives the 

 most scrupulous attention. Perhaps I ought to 

 remark that for a long period these learned men took 

 an important part in the spread of medical informa- 

 tion among the other races 'of mankind, and having 

 discovered certain remedies for the ills of the flesh, 

 they introduced these to the strangers beyond the 

 seas, along with the names by which they were 

 known in Arabia. It was in this way that the 

 Greeks, Romans, and other peoples of early as well 

 as more modern times came into the possession of 

 various medicinal herbs which they often knew only 

 by their Arabic names. When they wished to enter 

 these names in their list of medicines, however, it 

 was necessary that they should add an equivalent 

 term from their own vocabulary which should make 

 it possible for others to identify the article when 

 necessary ; and it is thus that I have found myself (in 

 the person of my ancestors) transferred from Arabia 

 Felix to classical Greece, where the people were 

 wont to speak of me under two names, viz., Bedegar 

 and Akantha-leuke. I confess that, while I felt 

 flattered at seeing my forefathers thus introduced to 

 the famous Grecians, I could not at first understand 

 what they meant by this new name by which they 

 translated the old family name of Bedegar. Upon 

 inquiry, however, I found that leuke was a Greek 

 term meaning white, and akantha soon suggested to 

 my mind a spinous or thorny plant usually known as 

 the acanthus. Thus I found that the Greek regarded 

 the white acanthus as being similar to if not the 

 same as bedegar. This idea was soon abundantly 

 confirmed, for I read that when a Roman dealer in 

 herbs saw the physician display his bedegar, he 

 exclaimed, " Wiiy, that is Spina alba!" I happened 

 to know enough Latin to be able to translate these 

 words, and I found that while the word alba, like 

 the Greek leuke, meant white, spina corresponded 

 with acanthus. All this is matter of history, and, if 

 it were necessary, I could easily mention the names 

 of ancient sages who have favoured my predecessors 

 with their kindly notice. 



While I cannot help feeling a little proud of the 

 distinguished position which the name of our family 

 was securing during the early ages of the Christian 

 era, there is one matter which has given me con- 

 siderable anxiety. I am sorry to find that when the 



early physicians, who lived in lands remote from 

 that which constituted my early home, found that 

 they could not always obtain the genuine Bedegar 

 for their patients, they applied the famous name to 

 other articles found nearer home ; and thus the honour 

 which had for so many years centred about the Arab 

 name began to be dimmed. Of this I shall have to 

 say a little more shortly, but it is needful at this 

 point to refer to a few of the other names by which 

 we came to be known, either occasionally or regularly, 

 in various parts of Europe. I must also show how 

 many ups and downs our family history experienced, 

 owing to the translation of those names from one 

 language into another, and what curious results fol- 

 lowed this process. One thing is a source of comfort 

 to me, however, and it is this. No matter where we 

 might be carried by the merchant, or what vicissitudes 

 we might experience in going from country to country, 

 the people almost invariably associated our old family 

 name with the new names which they gave us, and 

 thus I can boast the possession of the original title 

 to-day : though, as will be seen, that name has been 

 shifted from the spine-bearing thistle to a totally 

 different plant or growth. 



( To be continued.') 



THE TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 

 BETWEEN GREAT. BRITAIN, EUROPE, 

 AMERICA, AND THE EAST. 



By George Walter Niven. 



THERE are at present twenty-six Submarine 

 Cable Companies, the combined capital of 

 which is about forty million pounds sterling. Their 

 revenue, including subsidies, amounts to 3,204,060/. ; 

 their reserves and sinking funds to 3,610,000/. ; and 

 their dividends are from one to 145 per cent. The 

 receipts from the Atlantic cables alone amount to 

 about 800,000/. annually. 



The number of cables laid down throughout the 

 world is 1045, of which 798 belong to governments, 

 and 247 lo private companies. The total length of 

 those cables is 120,070 nautical miles, of which 

 107,546 are owned by private telegraph companies, 

 nearly all British; the remainder, or 12,524 miles 

 are owned by governments. 



The largest telegraphic organisation in the world 

 is that of the Eastern Telegraphic Company with 

 seventy cables of a total length of 21,859 nautical 

 miles. The second largest, is the Eastern Extension, 

 Australasia and China Telegraph Company, with 

 twenty-two cables of a total length of 12,958 nautical 

 miles. The Eastern Company work all the cables on 

 the way to Bombay, and the Eastern Extension 

 Company from Madras eastwards. The cables 

 landing in Japan, however, are owned by a Danish 

 Company, the Great Northern. The English station 



