108 



CAPE COLONY. 



CHEMISTRY. 



the Volksraad, which, on April 25, decreed the 

 penalty of 500 fine or a year's imprisonment 

 with hard labor. The leader of the Afrikander 

 Bond, Mr. Hofmeyr, obtained from the British 

 Government a promise that it would allow a 

 Boer republic to be set up in Swaziland. This 

 and the offer of free farms of 3,000 acres in 

 Mashonaland to any Boer who would accept the 

 jurisdiction and conform to the statutes of the 

 British South Africa Company, removed the rea- 

 son for a hostile invasion, which was imminent 

 in spite of the military preparations of the Brit- 

 ish and the co-operation of the authorities of the 

 South African Republic. Several thousand trek- 

 kers came from the Orange Free State and en- 

 camped near Pretoria in May. Having gained 

 without fighting the right that the English Gov- 

 ernment has hitherto denied of free settlement in 

 the country north of the Limpopo, the trekkers 

 disbanded. Col. Perreira still wished to make a 

 demonstration. With a party of about 200 he 

 crossed the Limpopo on June 24, at the Main 

 Drift. The main body on the opposite bank of 

 the river prepared to make a forcible entry. Dr. 

 Jameson crossed over and explained that they 

 could all have farms, whereupon many expressed 

 a willingness to take land from the company, and 

 no further hostile manifestation occurred. Many 

 Boers afterward entered Banyailand and selected 

 farms, although the leaders o'f the trek had insist- 

 ed that the titles that they held from the local 

 chiefs were a valid conveyance, whereas the com- 

 pany had not the shadow of a title, for Lobengula 

 possessed no rights of any kind in this country, 

 and even if he did he had made no grant of lands 

 in any part of his dominions, but only mining 

 rights, to the individuals who had assigned their 

 concessions tc the British South Africa Company. 



Development of Mashonaland. After the 

 settlement of the Anglo-Portuguese dispute, a 

 part of the military police force was disbanded, 

 and the members took up mining claims. Up to 

 July 15 there had been issued 1,557 prospecting 

 and 67 trading licenses, representing as many 

 individual settlers. Of mining claims there were 

 at that date 5,967 in force, besides 2,372 protec- 

 tion certificates. The bulk of these claims were 

 situated near Fort Tuli and in the ' Umfuli dis- 

 trict. In addition, 200 claims for silver and tin 

 found in the Manica district had been registered. 

 A gold claim includes 150 feet in the direction 

 of the reef and 200 feet on either side, and to 

 make it valid the miner must sink a shaft 60 

 feet. The mining operations were placed under 

 the direction of Mr. Rolker, an American engi- 

 neer. The settlers suffered much from fever and 

 dearth of food during the rainy season. From 

 lack of tools they were delayed in their work. 

 The tall grass and the tzetze fly are serious hin- 

 drances to transport. A road was built from 

 Fort Salisbury to the Kaiser Wilhelm field, 130 

 miles. This is the only" district, except in Mani- 

 ca, where placer mining promises well. For a 

 long period Portuguese traders have visited it to 

 buy gold from the natives. 



The Mozambique Company has arranged with 

 French engineers for the building of a railroad 

 from Beira to Massikessi, a telegraph line, and 

 docks. The capital of the company is 1,000,- 

 000. The Portuguese Government gets the rail- 

 road for nothing at the end of thirty years. 



CHEMISTRY. Chemical Theory. In his 



address on assuming the chair of President of 

 the American Chemical Society for 1891, Prof. 

 George F. Barker spoke of the discovery of the 

 periodic law as marking an important epoch in 

 the progress of the physics of chemistry as well 

 as of pure chemistry. For not only does that 

 law assert that the purely chemical properties of 

 the elements are periodic functions of the masses 

 of their atoms, but it asserts also that their phys- 

 ical properties are like functions. New researches 

 were undertaken by the chemist to fix more pre- 

 cisely these atomic masses, new calculations were 

 made upon data already accumulated, and new 

 relations were experimentally established going 

 to show the position of the doubtful elements in 

 the periodic series ; and the most elaborate ex- 

 periments were begun also by the physicist upon 

 the phenomena of solution, of density, of spe- 

 cific heat, of refraction, of electric conductivity, 

 and the like, in order to connect these physical 

 properties with the mass of the atom, and thus 

 to establish the predominant influence of the 

 atom, even in molecular physics. The address 

 was devoted to outlining some of the important 

 relations existing between chemistry and physics 

 and to indicating the directions of investigation 

 in this borderland between the two sciences. At- 

 tention was called to the importance of making 

 the terminology of the two more in harmony and 

 more accurate, particularly of observing the dis- 

 tinctions in the use of the terms atom and mole- 

 cule and mass and weight ; of the line of study 

 suggested by the anology pointed out by Van't 

 Hoff between gases and dilute solutions, or the 

 application of the kinetic theory to solutions ; 

 of the study of electrolysis and of spectrum 

 analysis and the later theories of the origin and 

 relations of the elements. The facts thus far 

 brought put in the investigations of these sub- 

 jects indicate " a tendency toward a true statics 

 and dynamics of atoms ; toward a condition of 

 exact science which will confer upon chemistry 

 the power of prediction." 



Of the two methods which the technologist 

 may pursue in acquiring his art, that which be- 

 gins with learning the scientific principles that 

 lie at its base and proceeds to the application of 

 them is called by Prof. Meldola the synthetical 

 method, while that in which he first seeks pro- 

 ficiency in practice, to become familiar with the 

 science afterward, is called the analytical meth- 

 od. Of the relative merits of these two courses 

 in application to arts dependent on chemistry, 

 Prof. Meldola says that the analytical method is 

 too cumbrous and too circuitous to be of any real 

 practical use. It is possible to lead an intelli- 

 gent mechanic from his every-day occupation to 

 a knowledge of the higher principles of mechan- 

 ical science by making use of his experience of 

 phenomena which are constantly coming under 

 his notice. But " no person engaged in chemical 

 industry in any capacity, whether workman, fore- 

 man, manager, or proprietor, can be taught the 

 principles of chemical science out of his own in- 

 dustry unless he has some considerable knowl- 

 edge of general principles to start with. No 

 person who is not grounded in such broad prin- 

 ciples can properly appreciate the explanation 

 of the phenomena with which his daily experi- 

 ence brings him into contact, and if his previous 



