262" SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNDERGRADUATE. 



have seen again and again a youngster, innately noble, rotted 

 through evil communications ere he knew they were evil, must 

 not only warn him, but must open up to him lines of thought and 

 conduct that will allure him to put forth his finest efforts. He 

 must know from the beginning that South Africa is a greater 

 than he ; he must spring with joy at the ennobling thought of 

 " Pro Patria ! " ; he must rejoice in the pride of his Race and in 

 their imperial lot ; he must learn from the beginning that any 

 society that is not founded upon the great rocks of truth, justice, 

 simplicity, and duty — from which alone spring the streams of 

 national greatness — is doomed to extinction ; that the making of 

 money is not the be-all and end-all of his work ; and that only a 

 lofty patriotism justifies his existence as a South African citizen. 

 If we inspire him thus, and if he be destined to go out, he will 

 go out all white, as the last Roman centurion on the last Roman 

 wall went out all Roman, when confronted with the hordes of 

 barbarism. There were a dozen javelins in that centurion — but 

 they were all in front. 



Our Undergraduate will not have lived in vain. 



Preservation of Timber. — A new process of pre- 

 serving timber has been devised in which the preservative con- 

 sists of melted paraffin containing silica in suspension, with a 

 small quantity of naphthalene. The silica is added in the form 

 of a fine diatomaceous earth, and timber, regardless of its dimen- 

 sions, may be permeated to the centre in four hours. The treat- 

 ment is said to add resilience to the timber, and to render it 

 immune to the attacks of marine borers, as a consequence of the 

 hardness of the silica. It is also said that spikes and nails hold 

 better in timber preserved by this process than in ordinary creo- 

 soted timber, and moreover remain free from rust. Wood treated 

 by this process is claimed to be efficiently protected against water- 

 logging under all conditions. 



Hydrolysis of Sugar by Ultra-violet rays. 



— Berthelot and Gaudechon have lately found that maltose and 

 saccharose are reduced to glucose and levulose by ultra-violet 

 rays exactly as they are by diastases. More recently investigations 

 with respect to the conversion of other sugars have been reported 

 in Comptes Rendus, and in all cases the action of ultra-violet rays 

 was found to be similar to that of enzymes, so that results 

 identical with those of digestion may be brought about in vitro 

 under conditions which are perfectly aseptic, and alimentary 

 liquids may be artificially digested by submitting them to the 

 action of ultra-violet rays. 



