May 1 8, 1893] 



NATURE 



69 



a distance of over three miles. The electro-magnetic disturb- 

 ances were excited by primary alternating currents, having a 

 frequency sufficient to generate a low musical note in a tele- 

 phone, in a copper- wire 1237 yards long, erected on poles along 

 the top of the clifiF on the mainland. The radiant electro-mag- 

 -netic energy was transformed into currrents again in a secondary 

 circuit of 610 yards long, laid along the island parallel to the 

 first and at a distance of 3'i miles ; the messages were read off 

 on the island through the instrumentality of the induced 

 currents. 



Any one who has meditated deeply on the nature of the lum- 

 iniferous ether and on its universal presence has probably felt 

 that it must also be concerned in the action of the human brain. 

 The mechanisms of the "live gateways of sense" have been 

 worked out by anatomists and physicists, but their researches 

 are incompetent to declare how the impressions sent along the 

 nerves at last reveal themselves as images or perceptions in the 

 ■mind. Lord Kelvin has discoursed on this matter ; he has sug- 

 gested the existence of a magnetic sense, and has shown that 

 'the mind may be influenced independently of the recognised 

 organs of perception. There are undoubtedly occult pheno- 

 mena which can only be accounted for by the supposition that 

 one mind can interact upon another, even as Mr. Preece's 

 parallel wires acted on each other. 



Setting aside the immense amount of calculated delusion and 

 imperfect observations which has characterised animal mag- 

 netism, clairvoyance, &c. , though probably not more than 

 ^astrology, necromancy, transmutation of metals, and other de- 

 lusions, hampered the early advance of physical and chemical 

 science, there still remains a substantial amount of authentic 

 ■fact on which argument may be founded. Prof. Oliver Lodge 

 <lrew attention to the matter in his Presidential Address to 

 ■section A at the meeting of the British Association in Cardiff" in 

 ■1891, and in the opinion of that acute investigator the subject 

 seems to deserve the attention of scientific societies. 



It is less than fifty years since the nature of epidemics and 

 the mode of their propagation seemed to be beyond the reach 

 •of human comprehension, and when Pasteur commenced his 

 classic investigations into the causes of fermentation and of 

 contagious disease, no one, I presume, thought that such an 

 abstruse study as bacteriology could ever be of the least interest 

 'to engineers, nor would they have thought that the controversy 

 ■relating to spontaneous generation, which raged so fiercely only 

 a few years ago, could have influenced the science to which 

 they were devoted. 



But the triumphant demonstrations of Pasteur, of Lister, of 

 Burdon Saunderson, of Tyndall, and of many other workers at 

 home and abroad have shown that there is no such thing as 

 spontaneous generation ; that zymotic diseases, those scourges 

 of animal and vegetable life, are caused by living organisms 

 whose modes of propagation and of travel are being eagerly 

 studied, and are day by day being better understood ; they have 

 ■shown that we are no longer fighting at random against an un- 

 known and covert enemy, but are face to face with a subtle foe, 

 ■whose tactics we are rapidly learning to understand. We have 

 discovered that his best allies are to be found in the carelessness 

 of his victims as to cleanliness, to drainage, and water supply, 

 and that his most formidable enemy is the engineer, who, 

 being guided by the abstract investigations of the biologist and 

 the chemist, can select with certainty the most fitting source of 

 potable water, and can get rid of the sewage of centres of 

 population, not only without inflictinginjury on the surrounding 

 community, but very often actually benefiting them by removing 

 ■existing sources of pollution and by increasing the productive- 

 ness of the soil. 



But not alone in sanitary matters has bacteriology produced 

 profitable results ; it may truly be said that the great industries 

 ■of brewing, of wine and vinegar-making, and many other 

 manufactures, have been placed on a sound footing by the 

 knowledge we now possess of the occult action of ferments and 

 of bacteria ; and even in agriculture the true nature of the 

 operations which take place in soil, by which the nitrogenous 

 food of plants is rendered capable of assimilation, is one of the 

 triumphs of the research of these our days. Schloesing, 

 Miintz, Pasteur, Munro, Per(iy Frankland, and others, have 

 shown that one of the most important of plant-foods in the 

 soil is nitric acid, and that this substance is elaborated from 

 ammonia by the action of minute living organisms. The 

 ■singular fact has been demonstrated that the work is per- 

 formed by a system of division of labour, one kind 

 -of bacterium converting the ammonia into nitrous acid and 



NO. 1229, VOL. 48] 



declining to do any more, when another species takes up the 

 work and produces nitric acid, which presents the nitrogen in a 

 form which can be assimilated by the plant. " Not only," to 

 use the words of Dr. P. Frankland, " is this process of nitrifi- 

 cation going on in the fertile soils, Ijut enormous accumulations 

 of the products of the activity of these minute organisms in the 

 shape of nitrate of soda are found in the rainless districts of 

 Chili and Peru, from whence the Chili saltpetre, as it is called, 

 is exported in vast quantities, more especially to fertilise the 

 overtaxed soils of Europe ! " But more than that, long and 

 patient research has established the fact that, in certain of the 

 legumenous plants, the same microscopic agency acting in the 

 roots endows them with the power of assimilating the nitrogen 

 of the atmosphere, and by that means makes them the instru- 

 ments for actually enriching the soil instead of exhausting it. 



I have already alluded to the circumstance that the engineer 

 cannot be satisfied with vague statements or with mere abstract 

 opinions. The very nature of his calling implies action ; he has 

 to construct, his works must be stable, his machinery must act, 

 his estimates of cost and of the consequences of his operations 

 must come true, and hence he has to make a close alliance with 

 that most fascinating and fruitful of the sciences — mathematics. 

 It is not given to many to possess the peculiar aptitude which 

 leads up to the highest investigation, but neither has the engineer 

 often need of anything deeper than almost elementary knowledge, 

 especially if he gets into the habit of working out the problems 

 that come before him by the graphic methods which are now so 

 assiduously cultivated, and if he will realise that slovenliness 

 in the matter of calculations commonly leads to disastrous 

 results. Though his attainments may not be high, and though 

 disuse may have made it difficult to wield the power which 

 knowledge, early acquired, once gave him, yet he can always 

 appreciate and put his faith in the great minds which delight in 

 subjecting the theories of physicists to the rigid test of mathe- 

 matical analysis, and thereby stamping them with the seal of 

 irrefragable fact. 



One great quality he must possess, especially in these days 

 when numerous science colleges have rendered high mathema- 

 tical training of easy access — and that is common sense. There 

 is a tendency among the young and inexperienced to put blind faith 

 in formulas, forgetting that most of them are based upon premises 

 which are not accurately reproduced in practice, and which, in 

 any case, are frequently unable to take into account collateral 

 disturbances, which only observation and experience can fore- 

 see, and common sense provide against. 



I have endeavoured to show how the history of abstract 

 science, by which I intend to designate the history of researches 

 entered into for the sole purpose of acquiring knowledge of the 

 operations of Nature and of her laws, without any thought of 

 reward, or expectation of pecuniary advantage, has had its reflex 

 in the records of the engineering profession, and how the most 

 recondite investigations, apparently unlikely to have any direct 

 influence on our practice, have, in course of time, become of 

 cardinal importance. I have also ventured to point out how, 

 in these days, the engineer must banish from his mind the idea 

 that anything can be too small or too trifling to deserve his 

 attention. " Nothing is too small for the great man," is, I am 

 told, written over the cottage once occupied by Peter the Great 

 at Saardam. The truth embodied in that legend should ever 

 dwell in our minds ; for success, I am persuaded, lies largely in 

 close attention to details. 



The discourse concluded by a warm tribute to the merits of 

 the old servant of the Institute who had established the lecture- 

 ship. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — It is proposed to appoint a Syndicate for the 

 purpose of considering the desirability of establishing an ex- 

 amination in agricultural science, open to all trained students, 

 whether members of the University or not. The successful 

 candidates in such an examination would receive a University 

 diploma similar to the existing diploma in Public Health. It 

 is understood that this plan has received the approval of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society and the Board of Agriculture, These 

 bodies, and certain of the County Councils, have further agreed 

 to subsidise a scheme for the regular instruction within the 

 University of candidates for the examination if it be established. 



