110 



CHILE. 



..teel and other less suitable forms of iron. The 

 Bessemer process was suggested and made suc- 

 iv-isful bv the chemical knowledge which was sup- 

 plied to 'those who were interested in the proce- 

 dure. A broad extension of the application to 

 further utili/ation of chemical knowledge and 

 Mi'estioii is anticipated. The metallurgical 

 chemist and the chemical metallurgist are at 

 present engaged in furnishing metals and alloys 

 new to commerce at the disposal of engineers who 

 can use them, as they are more suitable than 

 others heretofore employed in their various de- 

 MIMIS. The necessity of chemical knowledge and 

 chemical advice to the gas engineer was enlarged 

 upon. The spheres of the engineer and the chem- 

 ist are closely connected in the matter of water 

 supply, as well as in that of the purification of 

 sewage, as to which the cooperation of the chem- 

 ist and the engineer has enabled such cities as 

 London. Manchester, etc., in recent years to carry 

 out on an experimental scale most important trials 

 of natural aud bacterial treatment of sewage, and 

 has led to the publication of reports on the sub- 

 ject which will become classical. This experi- 

 mental work has promoted considerable and valu- 

 able development and improvement of the bac- 

 terial method. 



In studies of the chemical and biological 

 changes that occur in the treatment of sewage on 

 " bacteria beds," E. A. Letts and his coadjutor 

 represented in the British Association that a large 

 portion of the unoxidized nitrogen was found to 

 have disappeared during the passage through the 

 beds. This may have been due either to the escape 

 of the nitrogen in a gaseous state as free nitrogen, 

 or possibly as oxids, or to the passage of the 

 nitrogen into the tissue of animals or vegetables. 

 Both of these causes of loss may operate at the 

 same time. An examination of sewage matter be- 

 fore and after the passage through the beds 

 showed that in nearly all cases the amount of dis- 

 solved nitrogen present in the sewage was greater 

 after treatment than before, although, of course, if 

 free nitrogen were evolved, only a minute fraction 

 of it would remain dissolved in the sewage effluent. 

 With respect to the possible biological explana- 

 tion of the loss, it is pointed out that the sewage 

 beds at Belfast and other places swarm with 

 minute insects (Podura aquatica), and that spe- 

 cies of worms are also present. These in feeding 

 on the sewage undoubtedly cause a loss of ni- 

 trogen. 



CHILE, a republic in South America. The 

 Congress consists of a Senate of 32 members 

 elected for six years and of a Chamber of Deputies 

 elected for three years by the direct vote of the 

 people. Senators in the provinces and Deputies in 

 the departments. The President is elected indi- 

 rectly for five years. Federigo Errazuriz was 

 elected President of the republic for the term be- 

 ginning Sept. 18, 1800. The Cabinet constituted 

 in November, 15)00, was composed as follows: 

 Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Mar- 

 *ano Sanchez Fontecilla; Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs. Worship, and Colonization, Alberto Gon- 

 zalez Errazuriz; Minister of Justice and Public 

 Instruction, Francisco Herboso; Minister of Fi- 

 nance. Manuel Covarrubias; Minister of War and 

 Marine, Arturo Besa; Minister of Industry and 

 Public Works, Emilio Bello Codecido. 



Area and Population. Chile has an area of 



10.829 square miles. The population on Jan. 1, 

 1900. was estimated at 3,110,088. The number of 

 marriages in 1800 was 13.053: of births, 106.787- 

 of deaths. 80.278: excess of births, 20,509. San- 

 tiago, the capital, had 320.038 inhabitants in 

 1899; Valparaiso, 143,022; Concepcion, 55,458. 



The numbers of agricultural and industrial im- 

 migrants, brought from Europe by the coloniza- 

 tion agents of the Government have been 1,402 

 in 1895, 2,102 in 1896, 870 in 1897, 564 in 1898, and 

 548 in 1899. The sum appropriated for coloniza- 

 tion in 1898 was 616,890 pesos. The Government 

 has large tracts of land for suitable settlers. 



Finances. The ordinary expenditures author- 

 ized for 1900 were 11,068,114 pesos for the interior, 

 2,047,332 pesos for foreign affairs and colonies, 

 13,265,827 pesos for justice and public instruction, 

 5,705,955 pesos for finance, 9,766,588 pesos for the 

 army, 7,154,699 pesos for the navy, and 24,407,487 

 pesos for industry and public works; total, 76,- 

 415,002 pesos. The ordinary revenue was esti- 

 mated at 95,954,390 pesos in currency, and the 

 extraordinary revenue at 22,404,386 pesos; total 

 revenue, 118,358.776 pesos. In 1899 the total rev- 

 enue was 97,218,070 pesos in currency and 95,- 

 948,104 pesos in gold, and the expenditures were 

 77,726,740 pesos in currency and 78,777,314 pesos 

 in gold. 



The public debt on Dec. 31, 1899, amounted to 

 310,254,183 pesos, 234.289,414 pesos representing 

 the foreign debt, which was 17,571,706 sterling, 

 consisting of 11,441,160 of 4|-per-cent., 5,813,- 

 266 of 5-per-cent., 179,900 of 5J-per-cent, and 

 137,380 of 6-per-cent bonds. The internal debt 

 was made up of 2,109,155 pesos of 3-per-cent. ob- 

 ligations, 20,827,203 pesos borrowed to release 

 mortgaged lands, 1,903.532 pesos of municipal 

 debts for which the Government is liable, and 

 51,124,880 pesos of paper money. The paper 

 money was issued by the Government in 1898 

 after three years of contraction and an attempt 

 to introduce specie payments on a gold basis. 

 The coinage act of 1895 prescribed the coinage of 

 20-, 10-, and 5-peso gold pieces, called colons, doub- 

 loons, and scudos, and silver pesos, the ratio of 

 30 to 1 being adopted. From 1895 to 1898 there 

 were coined 42,699,530 pesos in gold and 8,009,354 

 pesos in silver. When the issue of 50,000,000 pesos 

 of new paper money was authorized in July, 1898, 

 the President was authorized to lend 20,000,- 

 000 pesos to the banks at 4 per cent., and to 

 raise a loan of 4.000,000 for the purpose of with- 

 drawing the forced paper currency after four 

 years. 



The Army. The active army is recruited by 

 voluntary enlistment. After serving two years the 

 soldiers are transferred to the National Guard, 

 excepting those who are reengaged as non-com- 

 missioned officers. All able-bodied Chileans be- 

 tween the ages of eighteen and fifty are under obli- 

 gation to serve in the National Guard accord- 

 ing to the military law of Feb. 12, 1896, but 

 exemption is granted to very many. The law of 

 Dec. 31, 1896, fixed the maximum strength of the 

 active army at 9,000 men. The infantry are in the 

 main armed with Mauser rifles of a Chilean de- 

 sign, though some carry Mannlichers of 8 milli- 

 meters caliber. The cavalry weapon is a Mauser 

 carbine of the Chilean model. The. effective 

 strength of the active army in 1899 was 2,835 in- 

 fantry, 1,745 artillery, 2,092 cavalry, and 315 en- 

 gineers; total, 6,987 men. There are about 2,400 

 officers in the National Guard, training in which 

 takes place a^t the age of twenty, after w^hich the 

 members pass into the sedentary, and at the age of 

 thirty into the passive guard. 



The Navy. The Chilean navy contains 3 ar- 

 nior-clads, the O'Higgins, Capitan Prat, and Al- 

 mirante Cochrane; the armored cruiser Esme- 

 ralda; the monitor Huascar; 4 protected cruisers, 

 the Blanco Encalada, Ministro Zenteno, Presi- 

 dente Errazuriz, and Presidente Pinto; 3 torpedo 

 cruisers, the Almirante Simpson, Almirante 



