160 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[July 1, 1897. 



the microscopic structure of metals under different treat- 

 ment, and especially of alloys, giving us a knowledge of 

 their nature we never before possessed. The whole science 

 of crystallography and micro-petrology, indicating or 

 establishing the origin of minerals and rocks — leading, 

 indeed, to the entire subject of micro -geology, involving a 

 knowledge of the nature of limestone, for example, or the 

 ultimate structure and primary origin of coal, to say 

 nothing of the palfeontological certainties in minute 

 structure, for which, in the future, we shall be more and 

 more indebted to the microscope. 



" The medico-legal aspect of microscopical research may 

 have a large future. The distinction between human blood 

 corpuscles and those of some other mammals is at present 

 not readily distinguishable, but the difference will certainly 

 be determined by the work of the future. So, too, the 

 micro-chemistry of many poisons can now, and in the 

 future will, be more completely detected than is usually 

 supposed. 



" The condition of the atmosphere in different localities, 

 as showing the presence in greater or less numbers of 

 dangerous or putrefactive organisms, can only be de- 

 monstrated by the microscope ; and for determining speci- 

 fically the evils which water may contain, not only the 

 chemist but the micro-biologist must be appealed to." 



These are, truly, only indications of what may be ; but 

 some of them are pregnant with potent possibilities for the 

 future welfare of the people. 



We have seen how geology began its career as a close 

 ally of mineralogy, and the mutual assistance which geology 

 and biology have all along rendered to each other. Prof. 

 Cole is of opinion that " the utilitarian aspects of geological 

 discovery are likely to be entirely (and very justly) masked 

 in the future by the humanitarian and philosophical aspects, 

 which will become more and more widely realized. For 

 the present I anticipate the most utilitarian discoveries as 

 follows : — (1) Tracing the coal measures below Cretaceous 

 beds from Dover towards London, at a depth of about 

 one thousand feet. County Councils should at once obtain 

 powers for suppression of smoke and periodical removal of 

 refuse heaps from pit mouths, otherwise our south-eastern 

 counties may become ruined, like so much of our desecrated 

 Midlands. The result, however, would be that coal might 

 be sold in London at about fifteen shillings per ton. 

 (2) Miners will become less tempted to waste money in im- 

 possible speculations, such as sinking for coal in Ordovician 

 black shales, as has often been done. But I fancy that 

 the actual practice of mining will owe more now to 

 engineering than to geological discovery. (3) Greater 

 knowledge of earthquake waves and tremors, and their 

 possible periodicity, as is now being gained at so many 

 observatories — notably in Japan — may lead to the actual 

 prediction of dangerous earthquakes. (4) Study of the 

 rise of internal temperature may lead to the actual use of 

 the enormous internal heat-stores of the earth." 



In the domain of chemistry many possibilities are loom- 

 ing in the distance. If we cannot make quinine, we have 

 a partial substitute in antipyrine, and its introduction into 

 therapeutics has lowered the price of the alkaloid — hke the 

 ultramarine, which was formerly dearer than gold, the 

 artificial ultramarine being more beautiful than the natural, 

 whUst for the price of a single ounce of the latter we may 

 now obtain many pounds of the former. Another problem 

 is the synthesis of our daily food, such as sugar, gum, and 

 starch. All that we know of the so-called albuminous 

 bodies is their percentage composition, and that the linking 

 of the atoms is hybrid, as it were, partaking more or less 

 of both the aliphatic compounds and the aromatic bodies. 

 There are those who still hope, with the development of 



electricity, to build up the formative elements of living 

 organisms. 



Moissan's electric furnace is a device for effecting 

 chemical changes of which the last has not yet been heard. 

 His preparation of a compound harder than diamond, as well 

 as diamonds themselves, the formation of several carbides, 

 the volatilization of refractory substances, etc., are probably 

 only the early instalments of a long list of new things. 

 Moissan's beautiful specimens of chromium, variadium, 

 uranium, zirconium, tungsten, molybdenum, and titanium, 

 foreshadow the opening up of a vast field of industrial 

 application, an inheritance of great promise for the almost 

 immediate future. How are they likely to be useful ? 

 Prof. Roberts- Austen says : "It must be confessed that as 

 yet we know but little what services these metals will 

 render when they stand alone ; we have yet to obtain them 

 in a state of purity, and have yet to study their properties; 

 but when small quantities of any of them are associated or 

 alloyed with other metals, there is good reason to believe 

 that they will exert a very powerful influence." It really 

 seems as if we are coming to an age when the dreams of 

 the alchemists will, in a sense, become realized — the age 

 of the wholesale transmutation of metals is at hand ; as 

 yet we have only received an earnest of the advantages 

 which alloys can contribute to the art of working metals. 

 If we cannot appropriate to ourselves the experiences and 

 results which futurity has in store, we can, so to speak, 

 prolong our lives backwards into the past by utilizing the 

 legacies of our predecessors in the scientific vineyard. 

 " The more general introduction of electrical processes into 

 chemical manufacturing," says Prof. Thorpe, " is bound to 

 effect great changes. The application of electrical energy 

 has completely altered the aspect of the metallurgy of 

 aluminium, copper, and the alkali metals, and it now 

 threatens the supremacy of the established methods of 

 manufacturing alkali and chlorine." But still there are 

 not a few who, looking to the future, pin their faith mainly 

 on purely chemical means as the vehicle for carrying us 

 forward in the onward march of progress to the ideal. 



Many good things are expected from the electricians — 

 the intellectual atmosphere is bristling with projects 

 which will probably at no very distant date greatly modify 

 the little ugly world we have so long been trying to trans- 

 form into something which shall more closely resemble 

 the ideal of the Utopian dreamers. Edison says: "I 

 predict that in twenty-five years hence, electricity will 

 have superseded horses entirely in New York City in the 

 performance of every sort of useful work. The horse will 

 have become a mere luxury, toy, and pet." But perhaps 

 the most interesting new departure imminent at the 

 present moment is the system of signalling through space 

 — practically a mode of telegraphing from one place to 

 another without intervening wires. Our own countryman, 

 Mr. Preece, is closely associated with this novel means of 

 transmitting messages. It appears that the principle of 

 the system depends on the induced currents in parallel 

 circuits, so well known, the distance between two stations 

 being the distance between these parallel circuits, which 

 may be separated by a river, channel, etc., but still 

 remaining parallel to each other ; so that if the secondary 

 circuit be so situated as to be washed by the ethereal 

 waves from the primary, their energy is transformed 

 into secondary currents which can be made to affect a 

 telephone. In Marconi's system the transmitter is Righi's 

 form of the Hertz radiator excited by an induction coil 

 controlled by a Morse key. The receiver consists of an 

 exhausted glass tube tightly fitted with two silver poles, 

 the space between them being filled with nickel and silver 

 filings, mixed with a trace of mercury — the powder being 



