574 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



costly black porcelain and the dark tints in 

 majolica-ware. The chloride of uranium is 

 coming into use as a substitute for the chlo- 

 ride of gold in photography. It is antici- 

 pated that two extensive fields for the em- 

 ployment of the metal will soon be opened. 

 One is as a substitute for gold in electro- 

 plated ware, for with platinum and copper 

 it forms two beautiful yellow alloys. Its 

 platinum alloy has a special value from its 

 power of resistance to the action of acids. 

 The other use will be found in electric in- 

 stallations, and depends on its high elec- 

 trical resistance. Uranium has hitherto 

 been found only in pockets or patches in 

 Bohemia, Saxony, and Cornwall, but in the 

 centennial year of its discovery a lode of 

 the metal which promises a large supply 

 was found in the latter region. 



A Chemist's Services to Mankind. In a 



recent address on the life-work of Pasteur, 

 Sir Henry E. Roscoe emphasized the benefits 

 to humanity which have resulted from the 

 researches of the great French chemist. 

 "The first and obvious endeavor of every 

 cultivator of science," he said, " ought to be 

 to render service of this kind. For, although 

 it is foolish and shortsighted to decry the 

 pursuit of any form of scientific study be- 

 cause it may be as yet far removed from 

 practical application to the wants of man, 

 and although such studies may be of great 

 value as an incentive to intellectual activity, 

 yet the statement is so evident as to almost 

 amount to a truism, that discoveries which 

 give us the power of rescuing a population 

 from starvation, or which tend to diminish 

 the ills that flesh, whether of man or beast, 

 is heir to, must deservedly attract more at- 

 tention and create a more general interest 

 than others having so far no direct bearing 

 on the welfare of the race." Pasteur's se- 

 ries of valuable labors, including the discov- 

 ery of the causes and remedies for the sick- 

 nesses which wine and beer undergo, the 

 cure of the silk-worm disease, the existence 

 of which in one year cost France more than 

 one hundred millions of francs, the extermi- 

 nation of fowl-cholera, and of the fatal dis- 

 ease known as anthrax in cattle and wool- 

 sorters' disease in man, culminates in his dis- 

 covery of a successful treatment for rabies. 

 Prof. Itoscoc gives an idea of the wide de- 



mand for the treatment of Pasteur's labora- 

 tory in these words : " There I saw the French 

 peasant and the Russian moujik (suffering 

 from the terrible bites of rabid wolves), the 

 swarthy Arab, the English policeman, with 

 women too and children of every age, in all 

 perhaps a hundred patients. All were there 

 undergoing the careful and kindly treat- 

 ment which was to insure them against a 

 horrible death. Such a sight will not be 

 easily forgotten. By degrees this wonder- 

 ful cure for so deadly a disease attracted 

 the attention of men of science throughout 

 the civilized world. The French nation 

 raised a monument to the discoverer better 

 than any statue, in the shape of the ' Pasteur 

 Institute' an institution devoted to carry- 

 ing out in practice this anti-rabic treatment, 

 with laboratories and every other conven- 

 ience for extending by research our knowl- 

 edge of the preventive treatment of infec- 

 tious disease." The contrast between the 

 spirit of science and the spirit of war is 

 well expressed in Pasteur's own words at 

 the opening of this institute: "Two adverse 

 laws seem to me now in contest. One law 

 of blood and death, opening out each day 

 new modes of destruction, forces nations to 

 be always ready for the battle-field. The 

 other, a law of peace, of work, of safety, 

 whose only study is to deliver man from the 

 calamities which beset him." 



The Cotton Fiber. Mr. Thomas Pray, 

 Jr., in a lecture before the Franklin Insti- 

 tute, said that the ordinary way of judging 

 raw cotton by feeling with the fingers was 

 exceedingly crude, seeing that the fibers vary 

 all the way from -^his f an mcn i Q thickness 

 for the coarsest " upland," to ?oW f r tne 

 best Sea Island cotton. Some few cotton- 

 spinners have now been induced by Mr. Pray 

 to adopt the microscope in examining cot- 

 ton. The finest cotton raised in any of the 

 fields of the world comes from the Missis- 

 sippi delta. Under the microscope it is seen 

 to be beautiful in structure, of perfect de- 

 velopment, full of oil deposits, and having 

 nearly four hundred spirals per inch. It 

 makes very strong yarn, capable of coloring 

 all the delicate shades, like pink, and bleach- 

 es in the most perfect manner. Dyers fre- 

 quently find spots in cotton goods that will 

 not take color at all, or only unevenly. Cer- 



