Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/437

Rh have but one result in the great majority of cases, namely, that of making the knowledge gained simply the means of obtaining a degree, and not an end in itself—a something to be used and then thrown aside and forgotten. The absolute inability of most students to make any practical application of their college learning, or to see the connection and interdependence between its various branches, is a clear indication of the light in which they regard it. The same conditions which prevail in the English schools are even more pronounced in the United States, and while Prof. Ramsay's causa vera is only part of the story, his article as well as Dr. Ostwald's letter deserves the thoughtful attention of our educators and economists, for, while we have no commercial supremacy to lose, we have, what is perhaps more important, one to gain.

Prospective Railway Routes in Africa.—In describing, before the Geographical Section of the British Association, the probable railroad routes in Africa, Major Leonard Darwin, president of the section, mentioned the routes up the Nile and into parts of the central Soudan as among the most important. In the Nile route, the river itself would afford a large part of the medium of communication; but the region of the cataracts, covering several hundred miles, would have to be spanned by a railway connecting the lower river with Berber. Above Berber is a navigable waterway at high Nile for fourteen hundred miles to the Fels rapids, besides between four hundred and six hundred miles on the Blue Nile and the Bahr-el-Gazal. There is, perhaps, only one other place in Africa where an equal expenditure would open up such a large tract of country as between Suakim and Berber. Two routes for railways from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza have been proposed, one running through the British and the other through the German sphere of influence. The German route would be the shorter of the two; but there is some reason to think that the British line will open up more country east of the lake which will be suitable for prolonged residence by white men. A line from the south end of Lake Tanganyika to the northern end of Lake Nyassa and thence to the coast would open up a vast extent of territory, and would, especially if eventually connected with the Victoria Nyanza, be more valuable than any other line in Africa in putting an end to the slave trade. On the west coast, the Congo points to the most important line of communication. After a hundred and fifty miles of navigable waterway we come to two hundred miles of rapids, along which a hundred and seventeen miles of rails are already laid. Then, on entering Stanley Pool there are, according to the Belgian estimates, seven thousand miles of waterway. If all the representations are correct, there is no place in all Africa where two hundred miles of railway may be expected to produce such marked results. Another region of great promise is that of the Niger, but the political conditions of the country it—lying on the border land between the Mohammedan and the pagan tribes—make the early execution of railways somewhat problematical. Formidable mountain ranges being few, the chief impediments to railway construction in Africa are the drifting sands, wide tracts of rocky country, the dampness of the forest causing rapid decay of material, and the deadly nature of the climate.

The Evolution of Aseptic Surgery.—A part of the presidential address of Sir Joseph Lister at the British Association was devoted to the story of the development of the author's system of aseptic treatment of wounds. It began with the publication of the results of Pasteur's researches on fermentation, by which it was proved that putrefaction was not produced by any chemical action of the atmosphere, but by germs. Sir Joseph then sought for some substance that would prevent the development of germs in the bodily tissues without harming the tissues themselves, and found it in carbolic acid. Diluted with water, this substance when applied quickly transferred itself to the tissues and attacked the germs. In cases to which the watery solution was not adapted, or where it was too irritating, a solution in some organic substance, not parting with the carbolic acid so readily, was found to be bland and unirritating, and served as a reliable store of the antiseptic. While continuing his experiments in confirmation of Pasteur's theory, Sir Joseph found that blood drawn with antiseptic precautions into sterilized vessels might remain free from microbes for an