566 
NATURE 
| April 12, 1883 
have they done?’ Ay, indeed, what have they done! Doubt- 
less they never ask themselves that question. Doubtless they 
never have to struggle against the paralysing consciousness that 
the most they can hope to do is to lay a foundation for others to 
build on, to play the brave part of those silent workers who sow 
that their successors may reap, That is not much, to be sure, 
so far at least as visible results are concerned, but it is a work 
incomparably higher than anything within reach of those 
cowardly cynics who toil for nothing but to make the world 
forget that the noblest of English attributes is generosity.” 
Dr. G. W. LEITNER, the explorer and orientalist, is now on 
his way to England. 
A company has been formed for the construction and working 
of an electric railway from Charing Cross to Waterloo, a Bill 
for which was recently obtained. The line will pass under the 
Thames through iron caissons. The work of construction will 
commence near the northern end of Northumberland Avenue, 
opposite the Grand Hotel, and be continued through an arch 
under that avenue and the Victoria Embankment. Of that arch 
sixty feet under the Embankment have already been constructed. 
The railway will pass under the Thames, and again through an 
arch under College Street and Vine Street, and terminate at 
Waterloo Station, where it will be directly connected with the 
platforms of the London and South-Western Railway, with a 
separate approach from the York Road. The line will be 
double, and worked by means of a stationary engine at Waterloo, 
transmitting the power to the carriages, which will run sepa- 
rately, start as filled, and occupy about three and a half minutes 
in the journey. A tender has been accepied for the construction 
of the railway, to be ready for opening within eighteen months 
from the commencement of the work. A contract has also been 
made with Messrs. Siemens Bros. and Company to provide and 
erect all requisite electrical macninery, rolling stock, and appa- 
ratus not included in the before-mentioned tender, 
IN connection with the meeting of the Civil Engineers on 
Saturday the 7%es makes some very definite statements on the 
position and function of science in our time, which are worth 
placing on record as the deliberate opinion of a leading 
organ of public opinion :—‘‘ Meetings such as that of Satur- 
day evening remind us not merely of the services of a particular 
branch of science to mankind, but of the remarkable determina- 
tion of huaian activity to scientific pursuits which is character- 
istic of the present age. Literature no longer holds the place it 
Once did in the minds of men; nor does it command, as it once 
did, the services of the most powerful intelligences. The pro- 
test against an education wholly or chiefly consisting of the study 
of the classics is the result of a profound change in the con. 
ditions of life. Men have not deliberately and as a result of 
abstract reasoning discarded one set of studies in favour of 
another, On the contrary they have discovered, often to their 
great chagrin, that a complete intellectual displacement has 
taken place. That which was taken up under protest as 
a thing too closely connected with utilitarian pursuits to 
be quite worthy of a man of intellect has now pressed 
into its service the chief intellectual power of the coun- 
try. The tide of intellectual effort sets strongly in the 
direction of science, just as at an earlier period it set 
in the direction of letters, The teachers and leaders of 
the day, the real dominant forces of the age, are the men of 
science, the investigators of natural phenomena, not the thinkers, 
philosophers, or metaphysicians who formerly gave their names 
to sects, and made all the world their partisans. Nothing is 
more remarkable than the profound respect of the scientific 
conception associated with the name of Darwin, not on science 
only, but on literature, art, morals, and, in short, upon life. 
Some will tellus that all this is a lamentable result of the 
materialism of the age, but we naturally ask how it happens 
that some centuries of a non-scientific or literary culture left us 
a prey to the materialism it is supposed to antidote? It is un- 
true, moreover, that material interest has been the great im- 
pelling force. The great discoveries of science have usually 
been made by men seeking no material reward, and, as a matter 
of fact, receiving very little. Science pursues her own way for 
the most part, and her discoveries are afterwards utilised by men 
eagerly seeking for the means of material enrichment. Even 
when it is a question of so practicala thing as a new dye, it will 
be found that the chemist searching into the properties and 
combinations of matter, comes upon the secret unawares, while 
the manufacturer and the dyer reap the profits. It is indeed, 
only upon these terms that nature yields up her secrets.” 
THE death is announced at Basle of [Dr. Ziegler, who has 
been long and honourably known for his numerous and remark- 
able works in cartography. Born at Winterthur in 1801, he 
began his studies under the direction of Carl Ritter, the creator 
of modern geography. At a later period of his life he esta- 
blished in his native town the cartographic establishment which 
is now conducted by Messrs. Wurster and Randegger, From 
Winterthur he proceeded to Basle, and a few years ago, in testi- 
mony of his gratitude for the kindness with which he was received 
there, he presented to the city of his adoption his magnificent 
collection of ancient and modern maps. For the conservation 
and augmentation of this collectiun a special society has been 
formed. Dr. Ziegler’s most important works are his great map 
of Switzerland, maps of Glarus, of St. Gall, and of the Enga- 
dine, and a hypsometric map of the world. His last work, 
completed shortly before his death, and now in the press, was a 
geological atlas and an explanatory description of the geological 
map of Switzerland, 
UNDER the title of ‘Cacao: How to Grow and how to Cure 
it,’ Mr. D. Morris, the Director of the Public Gardens and 
Plantations in Jamaica, has issued a pamphlet of some 45 pages, 
It is divided into chapters, the first of which is of an introductory 
character, and treats of the character of climate and soil of 
Jamaica, the abolition of slavery and its consequent effects upon 
the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and the necessity at the present 
time to plant new economic plants, and a consideration of the 
prospects of cocoa planting. On this point Mr. Morris says: 
‘*T am glad to say that the largest number of the best Trinidad 
varieties distributed from the Public Gardens during the last five 
or six years have been intelligently and carefully cultivated on 
portions of sugar estates which, although unsuitable for canes, 
are admirably adapted for cacao.” Mr. Morris’s remaining 
chapters are devoted to the following considerations : Historical 
description ; cultivation of cocoa ; how te start a cacao planta- 
tion ; planting, pruning, gathering, sweating, curing; yield of 
cocoa-trees; cost of establishing estates, &c. Under these 
several heads much interesting and useful information is given, 
as, for instance, on the original home of the cacao plant, the 
introduction of cacao or chocolate into England, its consump- 
tion in Europe and Great Britain. As a guide to planters or those 
mtending to introduce cacao as a crop, the succeeding chapters 
will be of much value. The little book is both readable and 
useful, and can be obtained in this country of Messrs. S. W, 
Silver and Co. 
ALTHOUGH the Chinese Educational Mission has been recalled 
from the United States before its work was done, through some 
fancy, we believe, that the young men composing it were 
becoming too republican in their ideas, yet the results have been 
in many respects gratifying to those who desire to see Western 
knowledge spread in China. The youths have been drafied to 
telegraph stations, arsenals, and elsewhere, and we observe that 
the secretary and interpreter, Mr. Kwong ki Chin, who recently 
