"The ground of all human art is bodily motion. Into bodily motion comes rhythm, which is the mind of dance and the skeleton of tone.' Tone is the heart of man, through which dance and poetry are brought to mutual understanding.' This organic being is clothed upon with the flesh of the word.' Thus, in the purely human arts, we rise from bodily motion to poetry, to which man adds himself as singer and actor; and we have at once the lyric art-work out of which comes the perfected form of lyric, drama. This, as he conceives it, is to arise when the pride of all three arts in their own self-sufficiency shall break to pieces and pass over into love for one another.'

6

"Whether or no the art-work of the future ' is to be on the lines which Wagner laid down; whether Beethoven may not satisfy the musical sense more completely on one side, and Shakespeare the dramatic sense on the other; whether, in any case, more has been demonstrated than that in Germany, the soil of music and the only soil in which drama has never taken root, music is required to give dramatic poetry life-all this matters little. A man with a genius for many arts has brought those arts, in his own work, more intimately into union than they have ever before been brought; and he has delighted the world with this combination of arts as few men of special genius have ever done with the representation of their work in special arts."

AFTER IMPRESSIONISM, WHAT?

"WE are on the morrow of something in art; are we likewise

on the eve of something?" Charles Morice, with this sentence, opens in the Mercure de France an inquiry into the actual tendencies of the plastic arts. He reviews the present art situation, particularly in painting, points out the prevailing confusion of genres and virtual disappearance of schools, and essays to ascertain what ideals and ideas are influencing the work of the younger artists of the day. He has obtained interesting expressions of opinion from a considerable number of such artists, having put to them in an identical letter the following questions, among others of a more technical nature:

1. Do you feel that to-day art tends to take new directions? 2. Is impressionism dead? If so, is it possible to revive it? 3. What is the significance of Whistler, Fantin-Latour, and their coworkers? What have they left us?

4. Should the artist expect everything of nature, or should he demand of her only the means of giving form and expression to the ideas in his own mind? In his own introduction to the "symposium Mr. Morice indicates the need of an examination and inquiry such as he has undertaken (it is not yet concluded) in the following passages, which we translate in condensed and free style:

"

It is manifest that in the present period the plastic arts hesitate between recollections and desires, the former weighing heavily on the latter and hindering them in their flights. There results a deep disorder, which for some time the annual expositions have plainly avowed.

The primitive masters and those of the decadence have met in a transition epoch and, as it were, walk side by side with the masters

of the age of Pericles, those of the Renascence, those of the age of Louis XIV., and so on. All the ages seem to claim ours as a neighbor. And it is not merely the intimacy between innocence and corruption that is characteristic of our time; it is also the existence of corruption in innocence. The same soul is shared by conflicting tendencies, and lives sadly, producing fruitlessly, in this unstable equilibrium.

Mr. Morice goes on to say that in the past every artistic "revolution" was in reality a return to first principles of truth and beauty. The impressionists alone repudiated the past and claimed to have advanced, "evoluted," and discovered new principles of artistic representation. Indeed, the bolder spirits have advised the closing of the museums, because of the alleged futility and worthlessness of the older art. But impressionism is already a thing of the past, and instead of revolt there is aimless anarchy. Each artist is a law unto himself; he has his own philosophy, his own method, his own dogma.

Nevertheless, is not this chaos a sign of life? Is not the absence of rigidity and routine favorable to the emergence of a new artistic order based on freedom, spontaneity, and progress? Is not art on the eve of positive, significant developments? Mr. Morice does not answer these questions in his preliminary observations. He gives first the views of the artists who have responded to his request. Some of these replies follow:

GASTON PRUNIER: “Art in our individualistic epoch turns in vicious circles and eludes all classification, baffles all prevision. Return to intimate sincerity, to the realization of the whole personality of the artist, is absolutely necessary. Weary of feats of technical virtuosity, we must go forward toward an art of human expression, of synthetic emotion. Such an art will succeed analytical impressionism, which follows a method that has no future in art. Whistler created rare harmonies and left followers whose preciosity will excite interest so long as the general principles of the system are not discredited. But there is no room for neo-impressionism, and no sense in going over the same ground again. The time is ripe for a synthetic art. Personally, I should like to arrive at intimate communion with nature, borrow her characteristic expressions, get impressions from her, in order to realize some day whatever of humanity there may be in me."

CHARLES CAMOIN: Art, I believe, evolves constantly; it renews and revivifies itself through the diversity of temperaments. In a general way, it seems to me that the task of our generation is to complete the work begun by the impressionists. Impressionism is not dead; it was a renascence and can not be done with, and those who are to appear will not be able to ignore it. . . . Yes, I expect everything from a study of nature."

M. E. SCHUFFENECKER: "In my view, the nineteenth century had no art; it merely had artists. I do not now see any new art except in Anglo-Saxondom. The art of this strong and self-conscious race bids fair to have interest and a future. Impression does not need to renew itself, but to complete its work. It is the logical, beautiful, wise way. The artist should expect things

of himself alone, of the inner flame kindled by nature. Nature, in truth, is the necessary frame, in which the artist moves, rises, and descends, has his moments of exaltation and quietude, receives and exhausts inspiration. But the whole principle of his art is in himself."

RENÉ PIOT: "No, there is no general movement; there are only anarchy and passionate individual strivings and searchings. Should a movement arise, it will not escape the law of succession, of evolution. It will be a reaction from preexisting forms, but an offspring of them at the same time. . . . It is difficult to define impressionism, there being so many shades of it, but the keen sense of life and the rejuvenation of technique we owe that movement will always remain, enriching art as romanticism has literature. Nature? All our troubles result from vscillations between nature and personality, between passive receptivity and emotional activity. Our perfect esthetic will be formed when harmony between these two forces shall have been achieved. The great quality is sincerity-not mere photographic copying of nature, that some mistake for sincerity,' but in the sense of personal elevation and exaltation in the presence of nature, communion with her, and capacity to receive and interpret her revelations."-Translations made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

OUR NATIONAL CARELESSNESS.

THE frightful accident in New York city last week, when a car

from the elevated road plunged into the street, killing or injuring nearly every one in it, recalls rather unpleasantly the fact that we stand first among all the countries of the world in the number of lives lost through accidents, and prompts the lay observer to ask whether we are not able to direct some of our worldfamous ingenuity toward their prevention. An attempt to answer this question discloses a remarkable state of things, which is brought out by George Ethelbert Walsh in an article on "Accident-preventing Devices in America," in Cassier's Magazine (New York). He finds that we invent devices for the prevention of accidents in almost every department of industrial and home life, but we do not use them; such of them as are good are adopted in foreign countries, not in the land of their origin. The fact is, Mr. Walsh says, that abroad people are made to look out for the safety of employees, travelers, and so on. Here the law has little to say, and we do as we choose. Evidently we choose to be careless, if we are to judge from the appalling annual death-list. Says Mr. Walsh:

“An attempt to explain this peculiar condition of affairs is not so difficult, for the cause may be summed up in the simple statement that the employment of safety-devices is not enforced in this country by law so rigidly as in most of the manufacturing countries of Europe. The inventor of safety-devices is too often discouraged in his work through the lack of cooperation of manufacturing companies and of the Government. While we stand first in respect to activity in inventions, we are nearly at the foot in respect to the enforcement of adequate laws for protecting human life.

'Comparisons of deaths and accidents in the leading manufacturing countries indicate the results of a policy which fails to unite the manufacturer's interests with those of the inventor. Among the miners alone the number of accidents in this country surpasses those of any similar kind in any country of Continental Europe. For every thousand miners employed in the United States the average number killed each year is 2.36; in Germany, 1.88; in Belgium, 1.62; in England, 1.58; in Italy, 1.30, and in France, 0.85. While it is possible that the local conditions of mines and of methods pursued in getting out the ore by improved machinery may partly explain the difference thus indicated, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that lax laws and non-employment of proper safety-devices are responsible for a great unnecessary loss of life.

“Our railroad accidents show conclusive evidence that all possible efforts are not being put forth to safeguard human life. In the last five years 38,890 people were killed on the railroads of the United States, and 253,823 were injured. To make these statistics seem even more emphatic, it may be stated that the average number of people killed per day for the past five years has been 21, and the number injured per day for the past five years has been 139. Such an appalling list of the maimed and killed employees and patrons of the railroads of a single country makes war seem somewhat tame in comparison. .

66

An employer of a large force of men recently remarked that it would take half of his time to investigate the alleged safety-devices brought to him. . . . The few that were adopted proved unpopular with the men. They objected to using something to protect themselves from accidents which they could prevent by exercising a little caution. For instance,' said he, 'there were a great many truckmen employed who had to load and unload heavy barrels. A number of broken legs each year showed that the work had in it

Such a museum would furnish illustrative material for both workmen and manufacturers. Statistics would furnish valuable data to those interested, and specialized work in the various industries would make it possible for manufacturers to learn at once if there were inventions made to cover any particular field of work. Inventors would also be helped in their work, and this is important, for while some fields are overcrowded with safety-devices, others have been almost entirely neglected.

“A museum of security should bring together in a classified xhibition the patented and the non-patented appliances for protecting life in all the different departments of human endeavor. Their orderly exhibit would do as much toward educating employees to use them properly as toward inducing employers to adopt them. This has been particularly exemplified in the Amsterdam museum, where practical illustrations of the respective values of the different devices are exhibited. Machinery, with all the safety-appliances in place, is in operation during the hours of exhibition, and even dummy workmen are in position to show how the appliances operate. Red paint is used on every moving part of the machinery to indicate danger. Rapidly revolving emery-wheels are surrounded by hoods to protect the operators if the wheels should fly to pieces, and buzz-saws are similarly cased in so that no arm or leg can be injured.

"When it is realized that the life and health of every skilled workman represent an asset that a factory can not afford to ignore, the value of using all possible protective methods for insuring the same will be appreciated. We in this country have been slower to recognize this fact than have the employers of labor in Europe, but efforts are now being made in the right direction. There are every year in this country thousands of needless accidents in mines, in factories, and on railroads that fill our courts with damage-suits aggregating millions of dollars. While some of these suits are dismissed, the cost of defending them in the courts is an important item. It therefore follows that, as a matter of investment, every employer of labor should encourage cooperation to increase the use of safety-devices in factory, shop, and mine."

Across South America by Wireless.-Among the many important installations of wireless telegraphy already in operation, or soon to be constructed, one of the most interesting, we are told by the writer of a brief note in Harper's Weekly (New York, September 2), is the proposed line in Peru between Puerto Bermudez and Iquitos, a distance of 1,000 kilometers (621.37 miles). He says:

The reasons influencing the choice of wireless telegraphy for this purpose apply with equal force in other places in South America and Africa, and are chiefly the superstition of the natives as regards the wires and insulators and the difficulty of penetrating the forests and jungles to construct an ordinary line. In Peru it has been considered for. some time of the greatest importance to establish communication between Lima and Iquitos, the main port on the Amazon, and while there was telegraphic communication across the Cordilleras, the wires did not extend beyond Puerto

Bermudez, which was accordingly made the starting point of the wireless system. A contract has been awarded to a German company to provide the apparatus, and this will give it a virtual monopoly of wireless telegraphy in Peru. Between Puerto Bermudez and Iquitos the plan is to have three intermediate stations and ultimately to extend the line to Manaos on the Amazon and then down the river to Para, thus affording direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. There already is a cable up the Amazon, but the service is frequently interrupted, and in the upper water the swift currents would have rendered the laying of such a means of communication impossible. As wireless telegraphy has proved successfu. at sea, between islands, and over large tracts of land in Alaska, it is interesting to have a practical demonstration as to whether equally good results will be achieved in actual practise in the impenetrable forests of South America. If such is the case, there will be, without question, a wide application of the idea, as it will put within reach at small expense districts otherwise quite isolated."

TH

A PHONOGRAPHIC POSTAL CARD. HE latest thing in postals is one on which a phonographic message may be recorded by means of a special form of talking-machine, the message being reproduced in the sender's voice by the recipient, who uses a similar machine. This novelty has just been introduced in Paris, and, if it is as efficient as it is represented to be, it ought to be popular. We translate below a description contributed to La Nature (Paris) by Mr. Henri-René d'Allemagne. He says:

"The phonopostal is an apparatus intended to record and afterward reproduce the human voice with the aid of a piece of cardboard of the size and shape or a postal card. The idea of replacing the wax-covered cylinder of the ordinary phonographs with a sheet of paper that may be sent like a letter had already been conceived by the great intellect of Jules Verne, who, pushing present inventions to their extreme limits, foresaw much that would one day be successfully realized. Nevertheless, Jules Verne was not the inventor, properly speaking, of dirigible balloons or submarines; he was endowed with a sort of second sight, and it was left for more practical minds to realize the dreams of the charming writer who was the delight of our younger days.

PREPARING A PHONOGRAPHIC POSTAL CARD.

"The advantages of the phonopostal are many; in these days of extended tours there can be nothing more attractive than to put in one's automobile or in a corner of one's bag this apparatus, which takes up no more room than two or three boxes of letterpaper. By adding a few dozen cards prepared for use as records, we may, at each stopping-place, send to those at home fresh and, as we may say, vibrant news of our journey. On the other hand, the explorer may also receive news from his family-not the limited news of the ordinary epistle, but news in which he may hear the soft voices of his children, and recognize the sweet prattle of babies yet too small to hold pen or pencil; and this charming :sensation of freshness and remembrance may be renewed again and again, for one of the peculiarities of the phonocard is its power of indefinite use.

machine. The diaphragm of the instrument has a sapphire point that traces the record in a sensitive layer of what is called' sonorine' spread over the surface of the card. The essence of the invention lies in the composition of this substance, which, altho easily spread on a sheet of cardboard, possesses all the advantages of the wax with which the ordinary phonograph cylinders and gramophone disks are covered. In addition sonorine is so hard that it will safely bear the roughest handling that it is likely to get in passing through the mails. To quote again:

"The sounds are recorded in a spiral, beginning at the edge of the card and growing continually smaller until the last circle is barely as large as a 10-centime piece. The groove made is so hard that even the two postmarks are not able to destroy more than a syllable or two. .

One of the most appreciable advantages of this new mode of communication is to assure the relative secrecy of the correspondence. Until it is so well known to the public that janitors feel obliged to provide themselves with the reproducing apparatus, the members of this honorable body will be deprived of the pleasure of reading the correspondence of tenants. . . . We have almost a new cipher, easy of use and demanding neither preliminary study nor special knowledge.

The phonographic correspondence may be put on the side reserved for the address, and this may be written over the grooves traced by the recording diaphragm, without the slightest interference with the reproduction of the sounds.

"The construction of the apparatus is particularly delicate, for it was necessary to make the price very low in order to attract the public. . . . It was necessary to regulate the machines so that each would reproduce, as exactly as if it had just come from the workshop, a record made several months or several years previously. This result has been reached by a minute regulation of the speed of each of the talking-machines, for it must not be forgotten that the sounds vary considerably with the speed with which the handle is turned. The final problem to be solved was the difficulty met by the constructors in making diaphragms of extreme sensitiveness-as well that which serves to make the record as that which enables the receiver to hear the sounds inscribed on the card."-Translation made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

THE DOMESTICATION OF THE AFRICAN

THE

ZEBRA.

HE use of the zebra in Africa as the horse is used in other countries seems to be on the eve of accomplishment. Isolated cases of zebras trained to harness have been noted from time to time in these columns, but the training of the animals in large numbers is now being attempted, with good prospect of success, in the Kongo country under the auspices of the Belgian Government. We are ́informed by Mr. Gustave Regelsperger, who writes on the subject in La Nature (Paris), that Lieutenant Nys, of the Belgian army, who went to the Kongo in November, 1902, to study the training of elephants and zebras, has obtained very important results with the latter quadrupeds. Having captured ninety zebras at Sampwe, in Katanga, July 30, 1904, he has been able to tame them and is now undertaking to train them to harness. Says Mr. Regelsperger:

"After an energetic chase, the herd was shut up all together in a vast enclosure built for the purpose. Finding themselves prisoners, the zebras first galloped madly about for two hours. When they had calmed down they began to browse about the kraal. As there was no water in the enclosure it was necessary to bring it to them; this was no slight task, as 2,700 liters [about 675 gallons] of water had to be carried daily from a distance of a kilometer [a little over half a mile]. To make the animals drink was another difficult matter. As they would not go near the zinc vessels in which the water was offered to them, these were sunk in the

ground and their edges were hidden under the grass, but even then the dainty animals kept away, doubtless because of the odor of the natives who had handled the vessels.

"The result was that there were some deaths in the first days following the capture; certain animals persisted in refusing food and drink, . . . and some after long fast

TRAINING A ZEBRA AT GAGRI, TRANSCAUCASIA.

attempted the domestication of several of the animals with a view to training them to the saddle."-Translation made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

but they were in good health and had become quite docile. They could be approached without their kicking or biting."

Apparently Lieutenant Nys's report stops at this point, the training of the zebras to harness being still in progress. As this training has now been accomplished a number of times, he will probably have little trouble with it. Mr. Regelsperger adds a few facts about the previous taming or training of zebras. In 1879 a young animal, whose mother had been killed in the chase, was tamed by Major Cambier, of the Belgian army. It followed him like a dog, but he seems to have made no attempt to train it to harness. Later, Dr. Paul Reichard of the German expedition of 1881-84 asserted in his report that the zebra was destined to render great service to Africa as a transport animal. He said that he had seen at Zanzibar a zebra that had been trained to saddle and bridle. In 1893 the German traveler Uechtriz saw a number of tame quaggas (a species of zebra) at Cape Town. He had previously seen a merchant in Namaqualand mounted on one of these animals. The writer goes on to say:

"Several persons have succeeded in training zebras and reducing them to perfect docility. Some circus managers have also had excellent results, exhibiting zebras, like horses, in various evolutions. Hagenbeck, the well-known dealer in wild animals at Hamburg, who has had many zebras in his establishment, declares that they are quickly tamed. It seems certain, then, that the numerous zebras that roam over the whole southeastern region of the African continent may be some day of practical use.

"The part of the Kongo where there are most zebras is certainly Katanga, where Lieutenant Nys is carrying on his experiments. These quadrupeds live in the grassy plains of that region, and do not appear to pass to the west of the Lualaba, while to the east they are found also in the prairies near Tanganyika and throughout the country between this lake and the east coast. They are often found living fraternally with antelopes.

'Major Cambier reports that along the east shore of Tanganyika the herds of zebras sometimes reach the number of 80 to 100 animals. In Katanga Dr. Reichard met in a single day about ten herds of 20 to 30 zebras each. Captain Lemaire, in 1899, several times saw herds of zebras in the same country. The mission of Lieutenant Nys will certainly make a great step toward the domestication of the zebra. These creatures can do great things in Africa, and, especially, their use will enable travelers to dispense with negro porters. As a material confirmation of the preceding, Mr. Martel sends us the accompanying photograph, showing the training of a zebra by him in 1903 at Gagri, Transcaucasia. At this place his Imperial Highness the Prince of Oldenburg has

THE DEADLY THIRD RAIL MADE INNOCUOUS. HARMLESS third rail is promised the public by the New York Central road in its new suburban electric equipment. The deadliness is to be subtracted by the simple expedient of covering the rail, or rather of boxing it in, and making the contact from beneath. This plan has been tried successfully on an experimental section. Its manner of working is shown in the accompanying illustrations, taken from The Street Railway Journal (New York, September 2). Says this paper:

Between

vauge Line of. Track Rail

The third rail, as shown, is supported every 11 feet by iron brackets, which hold the insulation blocks by a special clamp. The blocks, which are in two pieces, are 6 inches long, and are designed so as to be interchangeable. Experiments are now being conducted with insulators of reconstructed granite, vitrified clay, rubber, and indurated fiber to determine the relative advantages of these materials for the conditions. the supporting brackets the upper part of the rail is covered by woodThis sheathing. sheathing, as shown, is applied in three parts, which are nailed gether. At the joints where the third rails are bonded, and at the feeder taps, the wooden sheathing is mortised...

en

to

The principal reason for adopting the undercontact rail is that it can be more thoroughly protected, and hence is safer than the ordinary type of contact rail. There are no projecting

3/4" Diam

70#Contact Rall

live edges bolts, and no slot between the third rail and its cover through which an animal or any person ignorant of danger can make contact with the live conductor. The only possibility of reaching the third rail is from below and by an upward movement, and this fact, it is thought, greatly decreases the chance of injury from shock. Other advantages which it is claimed are possessed by this arrangement over the ordinary type of third rail are: (1) There is less strain on the insulators, as the pressure from the shce acts against instead of with gravity; (2) the board protection, havi ▾ a continuous support, is less apt to crack and warp; (3) the rail.

more protected from the weather, and hence less liable to corrode; (4) the contact surface is more thoroughly protected from sleet and snow; (5) the construction is self-cleaning, and as there is a much greater space between the lower portion of the third rail and the tie, there will be less danger of an accumulation of snow, ice, and rubbish, and consequently less leakage."

In an editorial notice the journal above quoted expresses the opinion that no little interest will be created in the railroad world by the decision of the New York Central to use this new form of third rail. It says:

The under-contact third rail has been suggested before, but the system has never been worked out, or at any rate tried out, before. The principal objection which has been raised to this form of construction in the past has been the difficulty of designing a satisfactory system of switches and crossings, but this seems to have been more theoretical than actual. In other respects the system certainly possesses a number of advantages over the ordinary type of third rail, even with a protecting cover, and the adoption of the system by such a large corporation as the New York Central, and upon such an important scale as will be involved in this company's 'electrical zone,' promises to settle for all time the relative advantages of the two systems of third-rail contact."

"Dr. Russell has not found a new cure' for consumption, nor even a new consumption-remedy,' as one of the medically sanest of the metropolitan papers labeled it, nor do we believe that he would authorize such a designation. He has simply found what may prove to be a useful adjuvant in the therapeutic management of this disease, and only harm can come from calling it a cure or even a remedy. He has for some time been treating tuberculosis along the recognized lines of hypernutrition and fresh air and has met with a fairly satisfactory measure of success in a class of patients to whom the sanatorium treatment is not available. Meeting, however, with certain cases of the apparently curable type in which ill success attended his best efforts, he was driven to the conclusion that there was an unknown something lacking in the prescribed diet of proteids, hydrocarbons, and carbohydrates, the want of which retarded or prevented the cure. This unknown something he was led to believe, by some process of reasoning which the published report does not explain, to be vegetable juice. Th lack was supplied by the addition to the diet of the expressed .ces of all the vegetables in the market and also of apples and pineapples."

That this addition to the dietary is theoretically sound is acknowledged by the writer, who quotes from Fernie's book, " Meals Medicinal," the statement that the constitution of vegetable foods is "altogether of a building-up character, as distinguished from animal life (which involves excretions of the broken-down products as part of its being)." It is possible, he thinks, that the raw vegetable juices may be just what is needed to insure assimilation of the proteids, carbohydrates, and fats contained so abundantly in the dietary ordinarily prescribed for the consumptive. To quote further:

"Dr. Russell claims (or is said to claim, in the newspaper reports) to have had eleven cures' of pulmonary tuberculosis since January 7, when he began to add vegetable juice to the dietary of his patients. We hope he did not really make such a claim, for it is only a wild optimist who would pronounce any consumptive cured in six months, and an assertion of this sort only throws discredit on the reasonableness of the one who makes it. The patient may have taken on flesh, the cough and fever may have ceased (temporarily), and the tubercle bacilli may have disappeared for a time from the sputum - but a 'cold' may bring them all back next

week. It is claims such as this, made by physicians, which justify the headliners of the lay press in announcing the discovery of infallible cures, and raising false hopes in the minds of the incurably ill. It is possible, and we hope it is true, that Dr. Russell has discovered an aid to assimilation which will be an adjuvant to the recognized methods of treatment of tuberculosis, but that is the most that can be tentatively admitted, and even that remains to be proved."

THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSAL ETHER.

THAT

HAT scientific men should spend not one, but many lifetimes in trying to work out the mechanical constitution of a substance whose existence can not be demonstrated by the direct evidence of any of the senses, is certainly a striking fact. The reasons why they feel obliged to do this, and the degree of success that has been reached, are stated in the following editorial paragraphs in The Electrical World and Engineer (New York):

"The universal ether has never possessed any experimental right to exist. No one has ever yet seen, felt, or tasted it. It is probably correct to say that there is not a single observation or recorded experiment which brings the ether home to our senses as ether. Nevertheless, we all believe that it exists, because our minds can not grasp action across a void, and in order to make our mental conceptions work, we are obliged to create a something out of nothing. We can not imagine, for example, that the sun's light, which we know by observation takes about 500 seconds to reach our planet, does time' in empty space, or spends these 8 minutes in nothing-doing nothing. Again, the space within a highly exhausted glass tube can not, in our minds, be regarded as empty of everything; for if we place the tube inside an electrically excited solenoid, we can ascertain that magnetic energy exists in the tube. We are unable to think that magnetic energy can exist in nothing. To meet these and numerous like difficulties, the ether has been invented.

Once having adopted the ether, its duties develop at an astonishing rate. It has to fill all space, or stretch out to infinity in all directions, without any holes or blank cavities. It must permeate all substances to the innermost, more thoroughly even than water permeates a submerged sponge. The motion of matter must give rise to no displacement in the permeating or environing ether. The ether must be capable of absorbing electric and magnetic energy, and of transmitting gravitational stresses. Electromagnetic energy must be propagated through it at a uniform and definite speed. All of these properties must be everywhere the same-to ranges of billions of miles, so that the ether in which the earth floats next year must be, within measurable limits, identical in behavior to the ether in which the planet floats to-day, for the entire solar system is supposed to shift its position in space by half a billion miles per annum. It must be admitted that an ether which can do all this is a very remarkable entity. Speculations as to what it can be like have been ripe for many decades. Some estimated that it was jelly-like. Others preferred to suppose it made up of distinct grains like extremely small shot. The astronomer wanted one kind and the electrician wanted another. Some scientists postulated for it a rigidity much greater than that of steel, together with a tenuity much below that of the rarefied gases in a Crookes tube."

The occasion for these remarks is a paper contributed to The Journal of the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, July) by Prof. W. S. Franklin, in which the writer discusses the propagation of electric waves on a theory of the ether propounded many years ago by the English physicist Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell supposed the ether to consist of contiguous spheres that rotated one upon another like cog-wheels, and from this hypothesis he deduced very ingeniously many of the properties described above. Professor Franklin finds that this theory helps to account for the behavior of electric waves over wires. Unfortunately the theory is merely a mechanical symbolism, which aids the mind in understanding. without professing to represent, actuality. Is it permissible to use such a theory? The writer in The Electrical World and Engineer believes that it is. He says:

"It may be permitted any honest man to doubt the existence of