worships and loves me for My own sake, and not because he has good reasons for it, has more merit and is dearer to Me than thou. Thou art not more of a Christian for thy superior knowledge and experience." "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas," said our Lord, "thou hast believed. Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed."

Perhaps this illustration may prove to be not unserviceable to our worthy Andover brethren who are seeking in probation after death a solution of one of their difficulties in enabling them to comprehend how any illiterate man, be he a heathen in our own land or one in an Australian jungle, who cannot read the Biblical account of the historic Christ, nor even knows that there ever was a Bible or a Christ, may, nevertheless, not be excluded on account of his ignorance from fulfilling that degree of perfection to which he is called, by the merits of Christ who died for him.

A universal Christianity, then, a Christianity for all men, because Christ died for all, cannot be affirmed, unless it be one, original, positive, systematic and stable; characteristics which suppose the solidarity of the re-created humanity in Christ, from whose regenerative powers men must derive the new life. Well do Catholics call the Church of Christ their Mother. And her maternity is as universal as the merits of Him who is her Spouse. Extra Ecclesiam, nulla salus. Deny these principles and there is no alternative but the anarchical universality dreamed of by Socialism, whose last and logical outcome is Nihilism; whose universal humanity is without solidarity; the denial of all order, law and system; the denial of religion, and of government; the denial of the parental, as of all social and personal responsibility. Freedom would be impossible, for Nihilism is the denial of law, and that is the denial of God. Well may we ask of our earnest seekers at Andover: Men and brethren, in the name of God and of His Christ, whither away?

Scientific Chronicle.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

IN the October chronicles of the past two years we touched briefly on the labors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the work accomplished in the preceding Summer meetings. If we except the National Academy of Science,a society of a higher order, although more restricted in its sphere of action, no other scientific body in this country has done so much towards diffusing scientific knowledge among the people as the American Association. The society was formed on the model of the British Association: the general scope of the two societies is the same, and in all essential particulars they agree perfectly. In view, therefore, of this fact, it may not be amiss to give here a brief account of the last meeting of the British Association, which took place in Manchester last September. Previously two of the annual meetings, namely, that of 1842 and that of 1861, had been held at Manchester.

The meeting of 1887 showed the largest attendance ever recorded, the number of actual members being nearly four thousand, more than four times the largest number ever gathered at the meetings of the American Association. This large number, we dare say, is due, not only to the high esteem enjoyed by the Association in England, but also to the fact that members only may be present at the meetings. As in our country the meetings are open to all, it follows that very many, while enjoying all the benefits of full membership, give very little help to the material well-being of the American Association.

The presence of many well-known foreign scientists lent additional lustre to the late Manchester meeting. Invitations had been extended by the local committee to nearly every eminent scientist in other lands. Over one hundred of these invited guests attended, among whom we were pleased to find not a few Americans. The presence of so many wellknown savants, coming from all parts of the world, naturally gave zest to the proceedings and induced the English members to put forth their best efforts towards making the meeting all that could be desired. The success attained clearly shows that the steps taken by the Manchester committee on this occasion are the only practical means of forming something like an International Association, while it is believed that any attempt to formally constitute such an association would prove impracticable.

However, the large attendance at the Manchester meeting was not the principal cause of its success. Strong in numbers, the meeting chiefly signalized itself for the work it actually performed. Important papers read and discussed; special investigations of different committees and

the action taken on their reports by the whole association-these and like proceedings have given the meeting an importance greater than that attained by any previous gathering of scientists. Worthy of note and greatly aiding the success of the meeting was the opening (in Owen's College, where the meeting was held) of the "Anthropometric Laboratory" for the use of the members. An exposition of scientific instruments showed great care in every department and elicited considerable interest. Among the many scientific novelties displayed, several recent inventions of Sir William Thomson and an ingenious working model of the Manchester Ship Canal attracted much attention. The opening address of the President, Sir H. E. Roscoe, dwelt at some length on the "Recent Progress of Chemistry," and was in keeping with his high reputation. The addresses of the vice-presidents, reported fully in Nature, while worthy of the assembly to which they were addressed, were, at the same time, of interest to a general audience. All bear testimony to the thoroughness which characterized the meeting. To discuss these papers in detail would bring us beyond the limits we have set ourselves. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with a few passing words on two of them.

Mr. Robert Griffin, President of the Section of Economic Science and Statistics, chose for his subject the "Recent Rate of Material Progress in England." It is a matter of interest for Americans to compare the progress of England with that of their own land, a land where so many vast and varied resources are at their command. The substance of Mr. Griffin's remarks may be summed up in the following statement: “In the last thirty years the income-tax assessment, the production of coal and of pig-iron have all more than doubled, while the clearance of shipping in foreign trade has become three times as large. This rate of progress has gone on through these thirty years with almost uniform regularity, except that from 1865 to 1875 it was greater than in the first and last decades.

In another paper the contemplated tunnel under the channel between England and the Continent was treated with great ability. The reading of this paper led to a discussion, the conclusions of which we subjoin.

It was argued that from a technical point of view the work is comparatively easy and not over-expensive. In answer to objections, taken from a military standpoint, objections which, our readers may remember, put a stop to this undertaking, it was shown that arrangements could be made to flood the tunnel in a few moments by establishing connection between it and the fort of Dover, from which sea-water could be passed into the tunnel at the rate of 100,oco cubic feet per minute. Considering it, in the third place, in its probable effects upon commerce, and setting aside the fears of a possible French invasion, it was made manifest that although it might injure the trade of vessels plying between England and the Continent, the carrying out of the project would, in the long run, prove of incalculable advantage to the trade and wealth of the United Kingdom.

INDUCTION TELEGRAPHY.

THE term, electric induction, designates the influence exercised by an insulated electrified body in disturbing the electrical equilibrium of surrounding conductors. If the electricity of the acting body be quiescent, it exerts statical induction; if in motion, traversing the body in currents, it exerts dynamical induction. Both forms of induction have long been known to scientists, and, while there are certain characteristics by which statical may be distinguished from dynamical induction, the general manifestations of both are so much alike that it is still an open question whether the forms are essentially different from one another.

In ordinary telegraphy, and in telephone service, the induction is found to be a great inconvenience. For instance: Cable messages require more time for transmission than do such as are sent over land; because, owing to the greater inducing influence in the cable, the interruptions of the currents cannot be made as quickly as in overland lines. For the same reason despatches cannot be so speedily sent in underground wires as in wires above the surface. In telephone service, the induction occurring between telegraph and telephone wires is a wellknown source of annoyance, as it produces in the receiving telephone discordant sounds which sometimes seriously interfere with the spoken message.

Hitherto electric induction was utilized especially in dynamos and in electro-dynamic machines. Now that it begins to figure in telegraphy, we are inclined to think that the prediction made some years since by an eminent electrician, that, "for the future progress of electric science we must look to induction," is about to be fulfilled.

During the past five years, various trials have been made of this new system of telegraphy, in which, as the name implies, messages are sent by means of electric induction. The system allows of telegraphic communication between trains while both are in motion, even in opposite directions, or, while one is moving and the other is stationary, or, while both are at rest; and it has so far been perfected as to be of practical service to the managers and patrons of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Duplex and even quadruplex telegraphy have been proved possible in the new system, and it is hoped that, by the aid of the telephone, conversation may be carried on between parties in different trains on the same or on different tracks. Should it ever be found possible (as many confidently expect it will) to make the system serviceable in ocean travel, it would not be easy to overestimate the advantages which would thus be secured to the world of traffic.

It is our purpose here to explain, as briefly and clearly as the subject may admit, the scientific principles involved in this new system of telegraphy. Our remarks are based chiefly on the system adopted by the Lehigh Valley Railway Company. On October 6th, 1887, at the invitation of the Consolidated Railway Telegraph Company, two hundred and fifty scientists, desirous of testing the efficiency of the system, made

the trip from New York to Easton, Pa., in a special excursion train placed at their disposal. The system is the outcome of inventions and improvements made by skilled scientists (and especially by Edison, Phelps, and Wiley Smith, to whom the science of electricity is so deeply indebted), and its workings on this occasion gave general satisfaction to the scientific party.

About three years ago, when the first trials were made on the Harlem River Railroad, dynamical induction was utilized. A coil of copper wire surrounding the car was connected with a battery within. The current passing through this wire acted by induction on an insulated wire laid along the road-bed between the rails. But in the trip made on October 6th, 1887, the experiments were made by employing statical induction. It is a well-known fact that in all electric condensers (as, for instance, in Leyden jars), when one armature is suddenly electrified, or suddenly deprived of its electricity, a similar action takes place in the other armature, so long as it is in connection with the earth. Now, in this system of inductive telegraphy, the action is comparable to that of a great Leyden jar, one of whose armatures is the line-wire along the road, the other the metallic roofs of the railway cars united by a copper wire, one end of which is connected with a "double-contact" Morse key in one of the cars. When this key is pressed down, an ordinary battery placed in the train discharges the current on the roofs of the cars. The metallic roofs, thus electrified act by induction on the line-wire. In the circuit of this line-wire, at one of the stations, is a telephone, from which, as from a sounder, may be heard the signals of the operator on the train, the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet being faithfully transmitted as he manipulates the key.

When the key is not pressed down, it closes a telephone circuit in the car and thus, by an operation exactly the reverse of the one just described, messages may be received on the train from the operator at the station. The line-wire acts as the electrifying body; induction is exerted by it on the roof of the train, and as the line current is interrupted the signals are sounded in the telephone in the car.

Thus, despatches can be sent equally well, whether the train be at rest or in motion, and all trains along the route receive the signals, so that, by a single message instructions, warnings of danger, etc., may be sent to all for whom they are intended. The system has, since its adoption, been variously modified and improved. No doubt, continued experience will suggest new improvements, especially as regards the details of instruments, of which our limited space will not allow us to give a minute description.

ALUMINIUM BRONZE AS A GUN-METAL.

ABOUT two years ago, we called attention in this Chronicle to the electrical furnace, then recently invented by the Cowles Brothers, for metallurgical purposes. By their new method, mechanical power,

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