Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 11. 25 



The idea of employing electricity to telegraph to a 

 distance is a very old one. In 1753 the author of an 

 anonymous letter in Scott's Magazine proposes to trans- 

 mit to a distance the electrical influence of a charged 

 Leyden jar by means of metallic wires. A special wire 

 was to correspond to each letter of the alphabet. The 

 wires were to be charged one after another, and the 

 messages received by observing the movements of little 

 pieces of paper, each bearing a letter, and placed under 

 the extremities of the wires. Later, many other similar 

 ways were proposed, until the discovery of Volta opened 

 up a new prospect. 



The first attempt, practically to apply electricity to 

 telegraphy, took place in 1837, eighty-four years after the 

 publication of the letter in Scott's Magazine, on the 

 London and North- Western Railway. For several years 

 afterwards its use remained almost exclusively limited to 

 railways. The first line opened to the public was estab- 

 lished between Paddington and Slough, on the Great 

 Western Railway. 



In all the preceding examples it has been a question 

 of progress achieved in the domain of inanimate nature. 

 The sciences which busy themselves with the study of 

 living things have had to solve problems much more 

 complicated, and consequently their development has 

 been slower. Apart from their descriptive side, they 

 hardly commenced to make any notable progress until 

 the 19th century, and above all, until after the perfection 

 of the microscope, and the application of modern physics 

 and chemistry. 



Amongst the most remarkable discoveries which have 

 been accomplished by the science of biology, we take one 

 example, bacteriology. 



