July, 1906.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



487 



of time as the result of a fortuitous concurrence of cir- 

 cumstances and of a spontaneous storing- up of the 

 forms capable of self-preservation through changes in 

 material and thereby of " persistence." 



If, then, it is certain that the above-mentioned ex- 

 perimenters ''' have produced no actual forms of life, 

 even of the lowest order, and have not solved the 

 problem of the artificial creation of life, and if this 

 problem cannot be solved bv one kind of experiment 

 alone by reason of the number of primary life-activities 

 necessary even to the lowest organism, we must assume 

 that further research will be necessary in order to ascer- 

 tain how far the various experiments of these writers 

 are a new and valuable contribution towards the solving 

 of this problem by the slow method insisted upon above, 

 namely, the combining of artificially produced individual 

 activities f- 



* Including Charlton, Bastian, Stadelmann. (MS. note.) 

 I This is practically the argument used in The Origin of Life which 

 which has just been published. I do not think however it is likely 

 that we shall succeed in producing artificial forms of life which 

 would correspond to the organic types existing naturally in nature. 

 The probability of hitting on the exact conditions would be 

 infinitesimally small. The most we can hope to do, as I have tried 

 to show, is to imitate these by approximation. The artificial types, 

 of course, do not satisfy all the conditions of niitiinil life, it all 

 depends, therefore, upon what we understand by life. If a scale 

 of gradually increasing complexity can be established, from the 

 supposed inanimate to admittedly animate nature, there should be 

 no reason why we should confine the definition of life to natural 

 types which have survived on account of their fitness for their 

 surroundings. As a curve may approximate to its asymptote, so 

 may artificial life approximate to natural life. But as the latter 

 is the survival of countless generations, it is likewise to be expected 

 that it should be more perfect than anything that by artificial 

 means we should ever hope to obtain. I believe the subdivision cf 

 the radio organism proceeds from the interior, as I have tried to 

 show, and that the growth is not by accretion, but by assimilation, 

 as in the case of most organic crystals. They appear to assimilate 

 sulphur and other substances frorri the medium in which they 

 grow. 



The Hedjaz R^ailway. 



15y P. L. .ScL.ATER, D.Sc, F.R..S., I<-.R.G..S. 



.So httlo i.s known in Western luirope .-ilioiit the " Hed- 

 jaz Railway," which has been planned witli the object 

 of conveying Mahometan pilgrims direct to Medina 

 and Mecca, :ind so saving them the dang-er and toil of 

 a long overland journey, that some information on this 

 rather mysterious subject may not prove unacceptable 

 to the readers of " Ivnowledge. " 



livery Mussulman, as we know, is bound to imder- 

 take the pilgrimage to Mecca once in his life. .\nd this 

 pilgrimage properly begins at Damascus, where the 

 holy tent is kept, although few pilgrims nowadays, ex- 

 cept those who live in the district, go round by 

 Damascus and perform the journey of 27 days over- 

 land, w-hen Ihey can be conveniently carried by steamer 

 to Djedda, which is only 45 miles from the Holy Citv. 

 The pilgrim.ige-caravan leaves Damascus with great 

 ceremony once a year, at a period varying according- to 

 the Mohammedan calendar, and procei-tls by the great 

 pilgrim-route to Medina and Mecca. 



The ijilgrini-route (Derb-el-IIejji) is marked on most 

 maps, and the railway, I believe, follows it very closelv. 



The exact inventor of the clever scheme of construct- 

 ing a railway along the pilgrim-route from Damascus to 

 Mecca is not known, but in Turkey is commonly sup- 

 posed to have been (he Commander of tin- Faithful him- 



self; and this may -well be the case, for the present 

 Sultan is one of the most wary and capable of crowned 

 heads, especially in matters relating to his own 

 sovereignty. It'is obvious that a railway made pro- 

 fessedly to carry pilgrims would also be available to 

 transport soldiers and military stores. And both these 

 articles are n-iuch required in Central Arabia, where the 

 continued and successful rebellion in \'emen has long 

 been a source of g-reat anxiety to the Sultan and his 

 advisers. 



However this may be, in May, 1900, it was announced 

 in one of the official journals of the Turkish Empire that 

 a railway was to be made from Damascus to Medina 

 and Mecca, and the whole Mahometan world was in- 

 vited to contribute every possible assistance to this 

 pious work. This good news was trreatly appreciated 



/SYRIA 



'^-^^''-'-t--?^ B^yrcuy^ DAMASCUS 



Haifa/3AJ jMzalrcb 



Medina 



Hedjaz. Railway V. 



open -CJ-C-— \ 



DjeddaWiMEcCA 



by the Mahometan press, and was spread abroad not 

 only o\er Turkey, Egypt, and .Arabia, but throughout 

 the eastern world where there were adherents of the 

 Islamite faith. The great advantages of the new 

 scheme, religious, political and economical, were duly 

 dwelt on, and the Hedjaz Railway was lauded a.s of 

 equal importance to the Suez Canal. 



To commence the work six Mussulman engineers 

 were assembled (not without some diHiculty), and 

 despatched to Damascus to make a preliminary survey, 

 and it was agreed that all mtiterials for the holy project 

 should be stipplied exclusively bv Mahometan factories. 

 Three new railway-battalions of soldiers, each a 

 thousand strong-, were raised to act as " navvies." But 

 it was soon discovered that, though tlie Turks might 

 be eOicient as navvies, they could not make rails or 

 build locomotives and trucks, and it was found 

 necessary to go to Belgium and Germany for a supply 



