*54 



NATURE 



[December 18, 1902 



the British Empire at his command as well as the general 

 market of the less civilised nations of the earth. Where 

 the United States has gone ahead has been in the special 

 business of iron and steel, a development required by the 

 more special conditions of industry in the United States, 

 and not in every business requiring large markets. Pace 

 Mr. Carnegie, also, it does not appear that the pro- 

 tectionist policy of the United States has favoured the 

 development of great manufacturing. In iron and steel 

 especially, the advance was favoured by naturally high 

 prices attending the great demand for iron and steel, 

 which was always producing a shortage in the old 

 countries of Europe, especially Great Britain, such as we 

 now witness in the United States itself. This recurring 

 shortage, apart from the United States tariff, must in- 

 fallibly have developed naturally the iron and steel 

 industry of the United States, though Mr. Carnegie and 

 others might have realised smaller fortunes than they 

 have done in the process. As to Europe being over- 

 weighted in any way by military armaments, there is an 

 obvious want of connection between the effect and the 

 alleged cause. Extravagant expenditure is, of course, one 

 reason why one community or individual should ac- 

 cumulate wealth at a lower rate than another community 

 or individual, but extravagant expenditure on military 

 objects has precisely the same effect, and no other, as 

 any other kind of extravagance. Overbuilding, excessive 

 outlay on dress or carriages, outlay on churches or 

 theatres, are, or may be, forms of expenditure in which 

 nations or individuals may indulge to their hurt as well 

 as in armies and navies. Nor can the American com- 

 munity throw stones at any other community in this 

 matter, as extravagance is one of the American's special 

 vices, and there is one conspicuous case of this ex- 

 travagance in the remarkable pension list which has 

 grown up since the Civil War, and affects them eco- 

 nomically much as a great debt or great expenditure 

 on army and navy would affect them. Besides, when 

 analysed, however great the outlay may be, the main- 

 tenance of armies and navies does not add to the cost of 

 production in other industries in any country. The 

 expense of these "luxuries," let us call them, is a deduc- 

 tion from the earnings of the community, so that there is, 

 pro tanto, less to spend on other things ; but the cost of 

 producing these other things is not concerned. 



While making these observations on Mr. Carnegie's 

 theories, we cannot but agree with his view that the 

 primacy of Great Britain as an economic unit is passing 

 to the United States. The economic force of the United 

 States is obviously the greatest single force of that kind ; 

 and the preponderance of the United States is increasing. 

 This is no new idea. Mr. Gladstone and many others 

 long ago pointed out how modern industrial forces were 

 tending. People should weigh well, however, what Mr. 

 Carnegie has to say in his own department as to the 

 approaching exhaustion of the iron ores of Great Britain, 

 a matter of common knowledge to those interested. 

 Great industrial changes must follow this impending 

 change. More interesting and surprising even is Mr. 

 Carnegie's anticipation as to the exhaustion of the United 

 States supplies themselves. " Even the United States," 

 he says, " has a proved supply of first class ore only for 

 s.xty to seventy years, and a reserve of inferior grades 

 which may keep her supplied for thirty years longer, say 

 for a century in all, unless the rate of consumption be 

 greatly increased. The enormous extent of territory in 

 the republic over which ore can hopefully be looked for 

 encourages the belief that new deposits are sure to be 

 found." Germany, it is added, has the most enduring 

 supply, although its ore is not nearly so rich as the 

 American. All this points to great economic changes 

 even more far reaching than what is implied by the 

 exhaustion of iron ore in Great Britain only. 



With many other observations, there must also be 



NX 172, VOL. 57] 



agreement, especially as to the importance of home 

 markets, the diminishing importance of foreign trade and 

 the like. There is, in truth, no distinction in essence 

 between home and foreign markets. The proper dis- 

 tinction is between near, less near and distant markets 

 which are all in their nature the same, the availability 

 and accessibility in each case varying with every variety 

 of goods and every variation in the conditions of trans- 

 portation. Other things being equal, there is, of course, 

 more exchange between near than between distant 

 markets, and there are many goods and services where 

 the exchanges are necessarily local. 



The one weak point in the address is really what is 

 said about the effect of European armaments, upon 

 which comment has already been made. It may be ad- 

 mitted that, so far as there is insecurity and fear of 

 invasion, Europe is politically less advantageously placed 

 than the United States, and European business is, pro 

 tanto, checked. But in itself, military expenditure is no 

 worse than any other expenditure, and so far Europe is 

 not handicapped in the race. We should like to throw- 

 out also for the consideration of Mr. Carnegie and other 

 Americans whether they are not living in a fool's paradise 

 so far as their supposed safety from invasion is con- 

 cerned. If the United States fleet were to be defeated 

 by a European Power, say by Germany, and circum- 

 stances were otherwise favourable, the territory of the 

 States would not be safe from invasion. Descents upon 

 the coast such as England was able to make in the War 

 of Independence and in the war of 1812 might be 

 repeated, and even a more serious invasion attempted. 

 The American boast of their freedom from European 

 militarism is one which it is not quite wise or safe to 

 make. R (",. 



THE JUBILEE OF LORD LISTER. 



C\N December 9, 1852, just fifty years ago, Joseph, 

 ^^ now Lord, Lister passed his examination and was 

 admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 thereby becoming a member of the medical profession. 

 The jubilee of such an event abroad would have been 

 made the occasion of a congratulatory address and of 

 the compilation of a notable " Festschrift " to the honour 

 of the great master of antiseptic surgery. Here we do 

 things differently, and it has been reserved for the 

 British Medical Journal to issue a Lister Jubilee number, 

 in which eminent men of various nationalities give their 

 appreciation of Lister's life-work. 



Von Bergmann, of Berlin, contributes some remarks 

 upon the use of iodoform gauze in operations upon the 

 cavities of the body ; Lucas-Championniere, of Paris, 

 writes on Listerian- methods of the present and of the 

 future; and Oscar Bloch, of Copenhagen, upon the anti- 

 septic system in Denmark: ; while von Mikulicz- Radecki, 

 of Breslau, gives a contribution upon the treatment of 

 fractured patella. Among the British contributors, 

 Ogston, of Aberdeen, and Hector Cameron, of Glasgow, 

 discuss the influence of Listerism upon military surgery 

 and upon the evolution of modern surgery respectively, 

 Watson Cheyne, of London, discusses Listerism and the 

 development of operative surgery, while Annandale, of 

 Edinburgh, writes pleasantly of early days, and Chiene, 

 also of the Scotch capital, gives an account of the 

 Edinburgh Royal Infirmary from 1S69 to 1877 — that is 

 to say, during the time Lister held the chair of clinical 

 surgery there. It is a notable number devoted to a 

 notable man. 



Although it is as the founder of antiseptic surgery that 

 Lister's name will descend to posterity, his other achieve- 

 ments must not be forgotten. Into surgery he introduced 

 many valuable methods of operative procedure and also 

 the use of the catgut ligature, and his contributions to the 



