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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 344 



pression of contentment with and acquiescence in the results of 

 science, which seems to find easy access to trained as well 

 as untrained minds before an investigation is half completed or 

 even fairly begun. That some such tacit persuasion of the com- 

 pleteness of the knowledge of the earth has at times pervaded sci- 

 entific thought, there can be no doubt. This was notably the case 

 during the period which followed the remarkable epoch of Laplace. 

 The profound impression of the sufficiency of the brilliant dis- 

 coveries and advances of that epoch is aptly described by Carlyle 

 in the half humerous, half sarcastic language of Sartor Resartus. 

 " Our Theory of Gravitation," he says, " is as good as perfect : 

 Lagrange, it is well known, has proved that the Planetary System, 

 on this scheme, will endure forever ; Laplace, still more cunningly, 

 even guesses that it could not have been made on any other 

 scheme. Whereby, at least, our nautical Logbooks can be better 

 kept; and water transport of all kinds has grown more commo- 

 dious. Of Geology and Geognosy we know enough : what with 

 the labors of our Werners and Huttons, what with the ardent 

 genius of their disciples, it has come about that now, to many a 

 Royal Society, the creation of a World is little more mysterious 

 than the cooking of a dumpling ; concerning which last, indeed, 

 there have been minds to whom the question How the apples were 

 got in, presented difficulties." This was written nearly sixty years 

 ago, about the time that the sage of Ecclefechan abandoned his 

 mathematics and astronomy for literature to become the seer of 

 Chelsea, but the force of its irony is still applicable, for we have 

 yet to learn, essentially, " how the apples were got in," and what 

 kind they are. 



As to the future, we can only guess, less or more vaguely, from 

 our experience in the past and from our knowledge of present 

 needs. Though the dawn of that future is certainly not heralded 

 by rosy tints of over-confidence amongst those acquainted with the 

 difficulties to be overcome, the prospect, on the whole, has never 

 been more promising. The converging lights of many lines of in- 

 vestigation are now brought to bear on the problems presented by 

 our planet. There is ample reason to suppose that our day will 

 witness a fair average of those happy accidents in science which 

 lead to the discovery of new principles and new methods. We 

 have much to expect from the elaborate machinery and perfected 

 methods of the older and more exact sciences of measuring and 

 weighing — astronomy, geodesy, physics, and chemistry. We have 

 more to expect, perhaps, from geology and meteorology, with their 

 vast accumulations of facts not yet fully correlated. Much, also. 



may be anticipated from that new astronomy which looks for the 

 secrets of the earth's origin and history in nebulous masses or in 

 swarms of meteorites. We have the encouraging stimulus of a 

 very general and rapidly growing popular concern in the objects of 

 our inquiries, and the freest avenues for the dissemination of new 

 information ; so that we may easily gain the advantage of a con- 

 centration of energy without centralization of personal interests. 

 To those, therefore, who can bring the prerequisites of endless pa- 

 tience and unflagging industry, who can bear alike the remorseless 

 discipline of repeated failure and the prosperity of partial success, 

 the field is as wide and as inviting as it ever was to a Newton, or a 

 Laplace. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 

 " Terminal facilities of New York " is the title of the supple- 

 ment feature in Harper's Weekly for Aug. 31. The article is from 

 the pen of Mr. G. T. Ferris, and the illustrations, of which there 

 are thirteen, were drawn by Messrs. Schell and Hogan. 



— Following the article on the late Miss Laura Bridgman, in the 

 August St. Nicholas, the number for September contains an ac- 

 count of " Helen Keller," the young girl also deaf, dumb and blind, 

 whose rapid advance in her studies was described in Science a year 

 ago. The sketch is by Florence Howe Hall, a daughter of Dr. 

 Howe, and contains portraits of the child, of her teacher, a fac- 

 simile letter from the little girl herself to Mrs. Hall, and other 

 illustrations. In the same number Lieutenant Hamilton gives a 

 sketch of the modern method of defending coasts or harbors, and 

 shows how necessary such defences have become as a consequence 

 of the development of the world's navies. 



— The September number of the Political Science Quarterly 

 contains a critical estimate of the work of Thorold Rogers, by 

 Professor W. J. Ashley of Toronto University ; a demonstration 

 of the " radical unfairness " of representation in Connecticut under 

 the town-rule system, by Clarence Deming of New Haven ; a dis- 

 cussion of farm mortgages, by an Illinois farmer, W. F. Mappin ; a 

 strong attack upon the policy of the general land office as regards 

 the " indemnity lands " granted to the railroads, by Fred. Perry 

 Powers of Washington, D.C. ; a statistical paper upon Italian im- 

 migration, by Hon. Eugene Schuyler ; the first of two papers upon 

 the materials for English legal history, by Professor F. W. Mait- 

 land, Downing professor of law at Cambridge University, Eng- 

 land ; and the usual number of book reviews. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 

 Electrical Apparatus Abroad. 



Information has reached us that the Sprague Electric Railway 

 and Motor Company has recently closed quite a large contract 

 for electric street railway apparatus with the principal street rail- 

 way company of Florence, Italy, for the equipment of their line. 

 This apparatus includes overhead system of the regular Sprague 

 type, ten complete car equipments using two thirteen horse-power 

 motors on each car, and station equipment complete. 



This will be the first installation of American street railway 

 apparatus abroad, where the progress in electric railway science 

 has been very slow. The present method of running street cars in 

 Florence is partly by animal power and partly by small steam dum- 

 mies ; and it is thought that the electric cars which combine the 

 safety of the horse-car with the speed of the steam-car, and are 

 much cheaper to operate than either, will have a large field to fill. 

 It is said that this equipment is only a small portion of a very 

 large equipment which will be ordered by this company, and if the 

 result proves successful, it is thought that very many other Italian 

 cities will adopt electricity for their street cars. 

 Electricity at Cleveland. 



Cleveland can now be called properly the electric city of the 

 West. In a short time there will be over a hundred electric street- 

 cars running over the principal streets of Cleveland, besides a large 

 number of stationary electric motors in use in a great many varied 

 industries throughout the city. 



The history of the East Cleveland Street Railway Company, 

 which was the first in Cleveland to adopt electricity on its line, is 

 an instance of the success and satisfaction which electric street 



railway cars are giving in every city where they have been installed. 

 The first equipment ol this company was installed by the Sprague 

 Company about nine months ago, and included overhead line, 

 station equipment, and sixteen electric motor cars. The proposition 

 to install this line met with a great deal of opposition in Cleveland. 



The electric line was to cover some of the most important and 

 principal business and residential streets in Cleveland, but the 

 equipment was finally installed ; and after it had been put in opera- 

 tion, the citizens of Cleveland discovered that the neat iron poles 

 and overhead erection were hardly noticeable, while the rapid 

 transit afforded by the street cars was something vastly superior 

 to the former slow service given, when the cars were drawn by 

 animal power. 



There have altogether been five separate orders given by the 

 East Cleveland Company for electric car apparatus. The second 

 order was for four additional cars, the third for eight additional 

 cars, the fourth for eighteen additional cars, and a recent order 

 placed with the Sprague Company by its agent, Mr. C. W. Foote, 

 for thirty additional motors, making seventy-six motor cars to be 

 operated on this one line. 



Besides this road, there are two others in Cleveland ; the Broad- 

 way and Newburgh, and the Brooklyn Avenue roads also operated 

 by electricity. There is nothing which speaks more highly for any 

 kind of apparatus than the indorsement by its users, and there is 

 no indorsement more convincing than the continued addition to an 

 original equipment. The results, therefore, at Cleveland prove 

 conclusively the good results and satisfaction given by electric ap- 

 paratus when applied to street railways, and cannot be too com- 

 pnendatory of the style of motors used. 



