28o 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 351 



at Matadi,— a point which is easily reached by sea-going steamers, 

 and where inexpensive works will easily enable those steamers to 

 unload their cargoes on wagons. The terminus of the railway at 

 the Stanley Pool will be at Ndolo, at a little distance above Kin- 

 chassa, and also above all the rapids which hinder navigation in 

 the caiaract region. Beyond this point light- draught vessels can 

 ascend the Kongo and its affluents for an uninterrupted length of 

 11,500 kilometres. Ndolo is admirably situated for the building of 

 spacious quays. 



Matadi and Ndolo will be the two principal stations. A second- 

 class station will be erected in the district of Kimpesg, where trav- 

 ellers will stop, as two days will be required to pass the distance 

 between Matadi and Stanley Pool. The trains will not run by 

 night. Three other stations will be established along the line, — 

 one at the Lufu, another at the Inkissi, and a third at Ntampa, — 

 thus dividing the total distance between the Lower Kongo and the 

 Stanley Pool into five sections of an average length of 85 kilometres 

 each ; each section being itself divided into four sub-sections by 

 three halting-places, with water-tank and crossing-way. 



To sum up, the general estimate of the scheme demands a capi- 

 tal of 25,000,000 francs, which will be sufficient to build the road, 

 purchase the rolling stock, cover the general expenses both in 

 Europe and Africa, and meanwhile pay the interest on capital dur- 

 ing the construction of the railway, which, according to estimate, 

 will occupy four years. 



The figure of 60,000 francs, or more exactly 58,500 francs per 

 kilometre, for the Kongo Railroad, is a maximum price, which has 

 only been reached, on the one hand, because the construction really 

 does, on one portion of the track, involve some difficulties ; on the 

 other hand, because the highest valuation has been adopted. When 

 we look to the matter closely, we must even admit that the price 

 we have named is a high one ; for, as a matter of fact, the Kongo 

 Railway is an exceptionally easy undertaking. The laying- out of 

 its course was only influenced by purely topographical considera- 

 tions ; and the surveyors had no troublesome allowances to make 

 for connecting the road with any particular establishment for in- 

 dustrial, commercial, or even political purposes. There were no 

 lands to purchase, besides which (and this is an important item, 

 to which I call your full attention) there are and there will be no 

 side profits to be allowed for. The undertaking is, and will re- 

 main, completely independent from speculation ; the cost of the 

 railway, such as we give it, being strictly that established by the 

 estimates. 



Furthermore, the proposed railway is not a wide-gauge railway, 

 but a narrow-gauge railway, adapting itself to all the variations of 

 the ground it will travel over, and exactly befitting the commercial 

 position of a country yet in its infancy. I remember the graphic 

 words used by one of my colleagues on the Board of theCompagnie 

 du Commerce et I'lndustrie while we were discussing the width of 

 the road, and I will repeat it to you. " What we want," he said 

 (and we all agreed with him), "is a good and substantial iron track, 

 where locomotives and wagons may be set rolling." 



The transport-power of the Kongo Railway, with its seventy- 

 five centimetres gauge, between " bourrelets," will meet all present 

 requirements, and will meet them for a large number of years to 

 come. 



The construction of the Kongo Railway will be proceeded with 

 by the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Congo, commanding a 

 registered capital of ^i ,000,000 sterling, of which one-fifth has been 

 subscribed by English capitalists, thanks to the spirited enterprise 

 and the great authority of Sir William Mackinnon. 



Thanks to the disinterested intervention of the Belgian Govern- 

 ment, who have subscribed ^^400,000 worth of shares which will 

 never bear more than 3I per cent interest, and who forfeit all ex- 

 cess of profit in favor of the other shares, it will only require, in 

 order that the ordinary capital invested in the undertaking may reap 

 a return of 8 per cent, that our receipts shall reach 3,000,000 

 francs, — an amount which, according to the terms laid down by 

 the contract for the early period of the undertaking, will certainly 

 be realized if the up traffic reaches 2,250 tons, if passenger traffic 

 reaches the total figure of 300 up and down passengers, and if the 

 railway in its down journey carries 200 tons of ivory, 600 tons of 

 gutta-percha, and 3,000 tons of miscellaneous goods, paying only 



100 francs for carriage. These figures will undoubtedly be reached 

 from the beginning. Even at the present time, 1,800 tons are 

 carried up the Kongo. We only, therefore, provide for an increase 

 of 450 tons within four years. The 200 tons of ivory above men- 

 tioned merely represent what is actually conveyed by native carriers. 

 As to the 600 tons of gutta-percha, one single branch of the Com- 

 pagnie du Haut Congo — the Ludbo branch — is in a position to 

 purchase 240 tons per annum ; and the 300 remaining tons will be 

 provided by palm-oil, gums, wood for building-purposes, etc. 



The opportunities afforded to communication by the 11,500 

 kilometres of practicable waterway of the Upper Kongo and its 

 tributaries will, indeed, enable us to drain towards the Stanley 

 Pool, for carriage by the railway, the various exchangeable com- 

 modities which the immense territories of the Upper Kongo abun- 

 dantly produce. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 A Physiological Study of Absinthe. 



As commonly met with, absinthe only contains about thirty 

 minims of essence of absinthe to the litre, the remainder consisting 

 of alcohol, together with from sixteen to a hundred drops each of 

 the essence of anise-seed and star anise-seed, coriander, fennel, 

 peppermint, angelica, hyssop, and melisse ; and the color is given 

 by fresh parsley or nettles. Cadiac and Meunier, as reported in 

 The Medical Analectic, recently undertook to investigate the ac- 

 tion of the various components of the liqueur, in order to ascertain 

 to which of them its peculiarly intoxicating effects were due. They 

 found that hyssop induces epileptiform attacks in ten-grain doses, 

 while fennel induces visual troubles and languor. Poisonous doses 

 of coriander give rise to sudden anesthesia and muscular convul- 

 sions. Melisse determines a passing stimulation, followed by 

 lassitude and sleepiness. Both varieties of anise-seed possess 

 powerfully stimulating properties, with consecutive visual troubles, 

 muscular inco-ordination, and dulness of sensation, with abrogation 

 of the will and heavy sleep. 



Although not, strictly speaking, poisonous, anise-seed is a vio- 

 lent excitant of the nerve-centres, even in the relatively small 

 quantities contained in the usual allowance of the liqueur. If the 

 dose be increased, epileptiform attacks are induced. A litre of 

 ordinary absinthe only contains about thirty drops of the essence, 

 — a dose \ hich, if taken all at once, only gives rise to powerful 

 mental .ilation, increasing the appetite and facilitating diges- 



tion. IiurcLver, it leaves behind it neither depression nor somno- 

 lence. The sum total of the effects of the blend is a sensation of 

 comfort and physical and mental activity, followed by lassitude and 

 indisposition to exertion, and, in large doses, to epileptiform at- 

 tacks. The authors are disposed to attribute the major part of 

 the injurious effects to the collateral essences, and seriously recom- 

 mend manufacturers to discard the use of several of these, and 

 of anise-seed in. particular. 



The Native Egyptian as a Subject for Surgical Opera- 

 tion. — The native Egyptian is an extremely good subject for 

 surgical operation. Clot Bey, the founder of modern medicine in 

 Egypt, has it that " it requires as much surgery to kill one Egyp- 

 tian as seven Europeans. In the native hospitals, the man whose 

 thigh has been amputated at two o'clock is sitting up and lively at 

 six." Shock is almost entirely unknown, and dread of an impend- 

 ing operation quite an exception. In explanation may be noted 

 the resignation inculcated by their religion ; the very small propor- 

 tion of meat in, and the total absence of alcohol from, their diet ; 

 and in general their regular, abstemious, out-of-door life. 



The Diseased-Meat Scare. — The Medical Record com- 

 ments editorially on Dr. Behrend's article, which has excited much 

 talk and learned editorial writing in the daily press. It says, " But 

 it is yet entirely unproved that the meat of tuberculous cattle ever 

 caused tuberculosis in man. Bovine tuberculosis is generally pul- 

 monary. Tuberculous bacilli are found sometimes in the glands, 

 but practically never in blood or muscle, except in acute general 

 infection. Even if the bacilli do get in meat- muscle, Nocard, who 

 is an ingenious and skilful bacteriologist, has shown that they are 

 destroyed or digested in the tissue. And Nocard has positively 



