FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



509 



cause English laws allow them to get 

 gold from the English cheaper than 

 their goods can be obtained. " Suppose 

 a merchant in Britain buys £100,000 

 worth of corn from America and gives a 

 check on the Bank of England for the 

 amount of the purchase. The American 

 draws the £ 100,000 in gold and takes it 

 home; he will have to pay no export or 

 import duty thereon — indeed, the proba- 

 bility is he may get a premium on the 

 gold in America. But reverse the trans- 

 action: Suppose the British merchant 

 sold £100,000 worth of his goods to 

 America, there would, in the first place, 

 be the exorbitant duty imposed there 

 upon our manufactures of from forty to 

 fifty per cent. Or suppose our merchant 

 wished to buy corn or any American 

 produce in exchange for his goods in 

 place of bringing money, the case would 

 be different — it would tell against the 

 American farmer, who would get a less 

 price for his corn, etc., than he would 

 have done by free trade." This instance 

 is given " to show how free trade in gold 

 would bring about free trade and reci- 

 procity between the United States and 

 Britain, and is applicable to every other 

 state with which we trade. . . . There 

 should be full scope given to all good 

 banks in tlie country, large or small, to 

 carry on banking business in the best 

 modern manner for the benefit of all 

 parties, so as to encourage and develop 

 all trades and industries." 



Rats and the Plag'ue. — In his in- 

 troductory address at the opening of the 

 London School of Tropical Medicine, Dr. 

 Manson preached a war of extermina- 

 tion against rats with the vigor of Cato 

 calling for the destruction of Carthage. 

 " Were I asked," he said, " how I would 

 protect a state from plague, I would 

 certainly answer. Exterminate the rats 

 as a first and most important measure." 

 He added, " At the present juncture, 

 were I the responsible sanitary head of 

 any town in Europe, in anticipation of 

 a possibility compared to which in hor- 

 ror and in destructiveness a general 

 European war would be a trifle, I would 

 do my best to have every rat and, if 

 possible, every mouse in my district 

 promptly exterminated." Dr. Manson 

 does not reveal his plan of campaign. 

 Wholesale poisoning of sewers" might 

 have serious disadvantages, and there 



would be difficulties about inveigling 

 the rodent population of these subterra- 

 nean health resorts (as some enthusiasts 

 consider them to be) into a lethal cham- 

 ber. Are we to cry havoc and let slip 

 the cats of war? or to hurl an army of 

 snakes against the foe? In either case 

 we might find ourselves in the awkward 

 position of a king who had called a too 

 powerful auxiliary to his aid. Already 

 action is being taken on the rat theory 

 of plague. The French Government has 

 ordered that special precautions are to 

 be taken to prevent the importation 

 of rats in vessels from plague-stricken 

 places. It is to be hoped that similar 

 precautions will be taken in regard to 

 the transports which convey the Indian 

 contingent to the Cape, or the situation 

 there may become complicated by the 

 intervention of an enemy who will deal 

 destruction impartially to Boers and to 

 Britons. 



Forestry in California. — As a rem- 

 edy for the devastation of the forest 

 lands of California, Marsden Manson, 

 having shown that Government admin- 

 istrations with politics in them can not 

 be trusted in the matter, recommends 

 that all forest reservations and public 

 lands upon mountain slopes within the 

 borders of the State be granted to the 

 University of California in trust, for the 

 purpose of maintaining, developing, and 

 extending the water supply of those 

 regions forever. For this purpose the 

 regents should be empowered to lease, 

 under proper control, the timber cut- 

 ting and pasturage privileges of those 

 areas, and to use the resultant fund to 

 protect the catchment areas, to main- 

 tain a college of practical forestry, to 

 construct reservoirs at such points as 

 may be necessary to the industries of 

 the State, and dispose of the water for 

 the benefit of the trust, to acquire 

 mountain lands to be added to the 

 catchment areas, and to do all such 

 things as may maintain wise systems 

 of forest and water conservation and 

 use. The extent of income-bearing prop- 

 erty which can be made available for 

 forest preservation and storage of flood 

 waters, Mr. Manson says, is far beyond 

 the general idea. 



Another New Element. — The min- 

 eral pitchblende is distinguished for its 



