Reports that in India the 'attempt to enforce sanitary measures of precaution against the plague has led to much angry discontent among the natives, who regard sanitation as a craze of the white man, and who bitterly resent the interference with their domestic privacies which it involves'. The discontent has now resulted in the assassination of the chairman of the plague commission in Poona and a lieutenant in the British ArmyArmy
CloseView the register entry >>. Advises that if the natives 'would much rather die than be kept alive by European methods of sanitation [...] we had much better let them die and be done with it', but also counsels that there is 'a zeal for sanitation which leads men to sanction a kind of persecution that is every whit as indefensible as the Inquisition'. (9) Also records the 'sensational' news of the suicide at sea of the South African millionaire Barnett I BarnatoBarnato, Barnett Issacs
(1852–97)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, who, 'although suffering from occasional mental depression, [...] had shown no symptoms of a suicidal mania'. Barnato nevertheless 'lived under too great a strain of financial excitement, and it did not mend matters that he began drinking champagne immediately after breakfast. Millionaires, especially those who are making their millions, should never drink anything except water'. (12)
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews. The Queen, the Reign, and the Jubilee
Calls on the American government to 'save the seals [of the Alaskan Islands] from destruction by adopting the method of herding and branding recommended by Dr. JordanJordan, David Starr
(1851–1931)
WBI CloseView the register entry >>' (see Anon, 'The Progress of the World', Review of Reviews, 15 (1897), 413–23), and warns that 'a five years' armistice in the warfare waged by man against the seal, will be necessary to avert the threatened extermination of the herd' (110). Reports that the 'disaffection and almost revolutionary discontent provoked by the efforts to enforce sanitary regulations in Poona continues to harass public attention', and advises that the 'savage resentment occasioned by the use of soldiers and police to enforce the most elementary sanitary regulations ought at least to convince Lord George HamiltonHamilton, Lord George Francis
(1845–1927)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> that he had better proceed very cautiously in attempting to reimpose the C. D. Acts in India' (111). Also records that in early July 'Dr. AndréeAndrée, Salomon August
(1854–97)
RLIN CloseView the register entry >>, accompanied by Dr. StrendbergStrindberg, Nils
(1872–97)
RLIN CloseView the register entry >>, a young scientist of twenty-five, and Mr. FrænckellFrænkel, Knut Hjalmar Ferdinand
(1870–97)
RLIN CloseView the register entry >>, an engineer, started from Danes' Island on the North-West coast of Spitzbergen' in an attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. According to their own calculations, the men should by now have completed their journey, but 'no authentic news by carrier pigeon or otherwise has reached the world of the safe arrival of the intrepid explorers'. Observes that 'balloons, from their great bulk, are bad to steer, and Dr. Andrée has gone perforce where the wind chose to take him', although 'If they perish, it is at least some consolation that there are only three'. (116)
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 123–33.
Character Sketch. Mark Twain
Anon
Genre:
Regular Feature, Biography
Subjects:
Machinery, Technology, Invention, Commerce
Recounts a personal conversation with Mark TwainTwain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
(1835–1910)
CBD CloseView the register entry >> onboard the SS New YorkSS New York CloseView the register entry >> in 1894, during which the American humorist discussed his long held plans to gain 'the exclusive contract for the type-setting of the world' with the introduction of a 'perfect' self-adjusting type-setting machine [the so-called Paige Compositor invented by James W PaigePaige, James W
(d. 1917)
http://www.twainquotes.com/paige.html CloseView the register entry >>] (126). Twain declared that he and his collaborators had 'constructed a machine which could think', and gave an 'elaborate explanation of the immense superiority of his machine over all others, and especially over one, which, he declared, seemed to develop more unscientific lying and bad spacing than any other machine invented [probably the Mergenthaler linotype]' (127). Reflects that 'if his machine would do all he said it would be an earthquake. Labour-saving machines in the long run increase employment no doubt, but in their immediate effects they inflict great hardships on multitudes' (128). Concludes by noting that since their conversation three years before, Twain has 'been involved in difficulties through no fault of his own' after the failure of the type-setting machine venture and is now 'manfully struggling [...] to satisfy his creditors' (132). Expresses the hope that the character sketch of Twain will 'have contributed, however little, to help the sale of the new edition of his works and the forthcoming volume of his latest travels', and suggests that readers 'who owe him many happy hours [...] at least pay a peppercorn acknowledgement of their debt by purchasing "The Surviving Innocent"Twain, Mark 1897.
The Innocents Abroad; or, The New Pilgrim's Progress: Being an Account of
the Steamship "Quaker City's" Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy
Land, London: Chatto & Windus
CloseView the register entry >>' (132–33).
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 151.
The Coming Revolution in the Navy. By Admiral Colomb
Futurism, Science Fiction, Electricity, Telegraphy, Technology, Machinery, Language, Extinction, Energy
Bellamy's novelistic account of life in the early twenty-first century depicts the use of many new technologies, including 'the electroscope, by which he maintains it will be possible for anybody to see anything that is going on in any part of the world. Already the telephone has taught us that we can listen to a sermon or a play at a distance of hundreds of miles. He maintains it will be possible to adapt the same useful agent to the service of the eye, so that we shall be able to see as far as we can hear'. Because of this 'combination of the telephone and the electroscope [...] the habit of meeting together in public assembly [...] goes out of fashion', and the new mode of world-wide communication also 'presupposes the blotting out of dialects, and of many of the languages of the smaller peoples', as well as the adoption of 'a kind of Volapuk or universal language'. Also predicts that by the year 2000 'the horse will be as extinct as the dodo, his place having been taken by the electric motor', while the 'force and power that is used to work the machines' will be 'obtained from the natural inequalities of temperature', and 'Power [...] with all its forms of light and heat and energy, is to be practically exhaustless and costless, and scarcely enters as an element in the economical calculation'. (194)
Reflects that 'August, as usual, was a great month for Congresses. The British Association for the Advancement of ScienceBritish Association for the Advancement of Science
CloseView the register entry >>, the greatest of all the autumnal assemblies, met this year in Toronto. There also the British Medical AssociationBritish Medical Association
CloseView the register entry >> has held its meeting. It is well to see great scientific associations treating the Empire as a whole and considering Toronto to be as much a British town as Liverpool or Leeds' (227). Also prints a photograph of John EvansEvans, Sir John
(1823–1908)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, the President of the British Association, and an engraving of the University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
CloseView the register entry >> (228–29). Reports that a 'petition signed by more than 60,000 women has been presented to the Government, protesting against any return to the regulation system dealing with contagious diseases in India', and also notes 'the insolence, to use no milder word, with which the military authorities in India' have treated George F Hamilton'sHamilton, Lord George Francis
(1845–1927)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> attempts to interdict any 'attempt to return to the evil system of past days'. Advises that the '60,000 women memorialists will probably find their best line of action in supporting Lord George Hamilton's veto against the insubordination of Indian authority'. (228)
Describes the life of the late Isaac HoldenHolden, Sir Isaac, 1st Baronet
(1807–97)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, the Scottish inventor who effected several improvements in the machinery involved in the manufacture of yarn and wool. As a young man Holden helped form the mechanic's institute at Reading, and 'mechanic's institutes were his colleges until he was over forty'. At Reading he 'gave lectures on natural philosophy and chemistry. A demonstration at a chemical lecture was destined to make a mark in the world. It was to show on the end of a stick how sulphur and phosphorous could ignite. An attentive lad went home and related the experiment to his father. They repeated it, with the result that the father patented the lucifer match!'. (235) Holden then went to Yorkshire and made his fortune in the wool-combing business by 'inventing a comb with a square action to imitate the motion of the hands', and later he became 'the partner of the present Lord Masham, then Mr. Samuel ListerLister, Samuel Cunliffe, 1st Baron Masham
(1815–1906)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>' (236). Also relates how Holden 'found time to attend scientific lectures at the SorbonneUniversité de Sorbonne
CloseView the register entry >>', where 'he heard FlourensFlourens, Marie-Jean-Pierre
(1794–1867)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> lecture on physiology and the means to ensure health and long life. He had already learned a good deal of what Flourens taught in John Wesley'sWesley, John
(1703–91)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>"Natural Philosophy"Wesley, John
1763. A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation; or, A Compendium of
Natural Philosophy, 2 vols, Bristol: printed by William Pine
CloseView the register entry >> [...] a well regulated mind and desires, the sparing use, when old, of food containing phosphates of lime, such as bread, and of meat, unless one had to do heavy muscular work' (238).
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 241–52.
The Topic of the Month. The Rush to the Klondyke Gold-fields
Observes that amidst the chaotic rush to begin mining the gold reserves recently discovered in Alaska, the 'geologists have been busy explaining how it is that there is gold in the valleys of the Klondyke creeks'. Their calculations, moreover, reveal that the 'gold found in placer deposits is but as the dust on the fringe' compared to that which is 'stored up in the quartz rock', and to 'locate the mother lode will be for years to come the modern nineteenth-century Western world substitute for the search for the Holy Grail'. Explains that the 'deposit of gold dust and of gold nuggets in the bed of the Klondyke creeks is due to the operation of very simple causes' by which 'Nature' works 'calmly and continuously in the course of ages. Her mill never stops'. (245) Declares that 'with patience God stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all', while also noting that 'Creation never stops, the streams are still dropping gold-dust from their heedless fingers into the pockets of their channels, and still the heavy gold nugget, glacier crushed, sinks down into the gravelly bottom, awaiting such time as Nature will seal it up again in her mighty safe of petrified conglomerate' (245–46).
Light, Spectroscopy, Chemistry, Bacteriology, Disease, Medical Treatment
Describes the treatment of dermatological diseases by light rays pioneered in Denmark by Niels R FinsenFinsen, Niels Ryberg
(1860–1904)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, who found that 'it was the blue-violet rays that were injurious, and the utter darkness being unpleasant to his patients and a hindrance to himself, he decided to treat his patients by red light—that is, with windows and curtains red, this colour having no ill effect upon the skin. In "Finsen's red room" it is, therefore, not the red light that is beneficial to the patient, but simply the exclusion of the blue, violet and ultra-violet rays' (281). While a similar treatment was previously used by three English doctors, 'Finsen was the first to adopt the light-cure in a scientific manner'. There is 'no pain attached' to the therapeutic treatment, but the 'cure is necessarily slow', although in the 'treatment of lupus—one of the worst and most obstinate of skin diseases—the results, we are told, have been most encouraging'. (282)
Reports that the American government is so concerned that present levels of Canadian and British hunting of the fur seals in the Behring Sea will mean that 'there will soon be no seals left to catch, and the only surviving herd of fur seals will disappear from the planet', that they are threatening to 'order the entire destruction of the herd' when it next arrives at the American-owned Pribyloff Islands for the annual breeding season. This 'odious task', they claim, will be a necessary one because otherwise 'the seals will all be dead in six years, and during those six years there will be friction and irritation and endless worry between Washington and London. If the seals are to die, they had better die quick, and save all future botheration'. (331)
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 368–69.
Our Real Peril in India. Plain Words to Lord George Hamilton
Imperialism, Government, Sex, Hygiene, Public Health, Disease
Warns that it is 'necessary to speak very plainly' because the 'real danger in India does not lie in the Afghan passes', rather it lies in the 'action which has been taken in India for the ostensible purpose of coping with the contagious diseases in the armyArmy
CloseView the register entry >>'. This attempt to 'return to the old system of regulation, examination, and the whole devildom of official licensed and State-patronised prostitution [...] strikes at the root of our Empire' because it gives the impression that India is 'being "run" [...] with absolute disregard of the explicit commands addressed by the India OfficeIndia Office
CloseView the register entry >> to the authorities in India'. Insists that if George F HamiltonHamilton, Lord George Francis
(1845–1927)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> 'intends his orders to be set at defiance by his underlings in India' then he should 'make way for some one who recognises the responsibilities of Empire'. (368)
Reports that 'Mr. Rhodes'sRhodes, Cecil John
(1853–1902)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> dream of an overland telegraph line from Cairo to the Cape [is] beginning to materialise into fact. The wire now works to Berber, and Mr. Rhodes last month ordered another five hundred miles of telegraph wire from England in order to carry his end of the line northward to Lake Nyassa' (442). In addition, the 'opening of the railway line to Buluwayo' will take place later in the month and is 'an outward and visible sign of one part of the work which Mr. Rhodes has accomplished. To plant a railway terminus in the blood-stained kraal of LobengulaLobengula Khumalo, King of the Ndebele
(Matabele)
(c. 1835–93/4?)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> is an achievement which ten years ago would have been relegated to the twentieth century. But it is already an accomplished fact' (442–43). Also notes that the myriad 'troubles which afflict India show no sign of abatement', and the 'Hindu astrologers have long held that India is approaching a great catastrophe, which will culminate in the year of April, 1899, and end in April, 1900 [...] Madame BlavatskyBlavatsky, Helena Petrovna Hahn
(1831–91)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> also prophesised in the same vein' (443).
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 476.
Edison in Iron-mining. The Industry to be Revolutionised
Reports that Thomas A EdisonEdison, Thomas Alva
(1847–1931)
DSB CloseView the register entry >> has found in the New Jersey mountains large reserves of 'low-grade ore which might be pulverised' into black sand from which grains of iron can then be extracted with the use of an electro-magnet, and observes that 'Edison is quite a geological factor of no slight magnitude. By aid of dynamite and steam shovels, his conveyers lift 100,000 cubic feet of mountain side every day. They are eating out through the rock mountain a trench 100 feet deep'. Also notes that 'Even the rejected sand is found to be valuable for building purposes and sent off by the trainload every day. So much dust about the machinery got as grit between the wheels and made mischief that Mr. Edison invented a lubricant which will not work without grit or dust. So he conquers'.
Palaeontology, Prehistory, Human Species, Anthropology, Imagination
Records the palaeontological 'discoveries made by Dr. NüeschNüesch, Jakob
(1845–1915)
RLIN CloseView the register entry >> in a rock-shelter at Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen', and comments that the 'same generation which learned through Mr. H. M. StanleyStanley, Sir Henry Morton
(1841–1904)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> of the actual existence of pygmies in the forests of Central Africa now discovers from these Swiss remains that a race of pygmies flourished in Europe thousands of years ago'. In addition, notes that 'Our fairy tales seem on the way to partial verification', and advises that 'Novelists in search of a plot might surely find in these Schaffhausen discoveries abundant suggestion for a new order of fiction'.
Comments that 'it is significant of the difference between the Latin and Teuton styles, that while only a few experts can follow SpencerSpencer, Herbert
(1820–1903)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, any English reader can understand Lombroso'.
Urges that this book by 'an agnostic of a very pronounced type' should be added to 'the library of Christian Evidence', and suggests that, despite his lack of 'admiration, much less reverence, for the central figure of the Christian religion', Grant AllenAllen, Grant (Charles Grant Blairfindie)
(1848–99)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> may well 'figure as the nineteenth century successor of the eighteenth century PaleyPaley, William
(1743–1805)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>' (519). Observes that in the book 'Allen succeeds in conveying the familiar idea that Christianity stands in the same relation to all other faiths of mankind that man does to the brute. In other words, as man is to the ape, so is Christianity to the primitive beliefs of the savage. It is an evolution, a natural evolution, whose existence is justified by the law of the survival of the fittest. Christianity, like man himself, may claim to be the heir of all the ages', and 'in Christianity, the final evolution of all creeds, the original deposit of faith is never for a moment obscured' (520). Praises the book for 'the testimony which it renders to the part which a belief in Spirit Return has played in the history of our race', but expresses concern on behalf of 'Those of us who know that they exist', that 'Allen, unfortunately, does not believe in ghosts. He does not know that they exist' (521). Also criticises Allen for the 'lordly way' in which 'he disdains to conduct the inquiries' that have led 'Professor CrookesCrookes, Sir William
(1832–1919)
DSB ODNB CloseView the register entry >>, Alfred R. WallaceWallace, Alfred Russel
(1823–1913)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, and Camille FlammarionFlammarion, Camille
(1842–1925)
DSB CloseView the register entry >>, to name only three among eminent men of science' to 'believe in Spirit Return, and the persistence of life after death' (522). However, in an appended footnote, Allen replies that 'I did once for some time inquire into spiritualism, and attended several séances in a spirit of pure inquiry; but nothing ever happened; I never saw any of the phenomena described by these men of science' (522n.).
Reports that the 'opening of the railway which is linking Bulawayo to Cape Town has been the great event of the year in South Africa' (553). Also reflects that the 'season has been wonderfully mild', and 'in the gardens of Southern England there were more flowers in blossom in November than are often to be found in May. The chrysanthemum—the one great boon which we owe to Japan—has been singularly luxuriant' (563).
Section: Leading Articles in the Reviews
Review of Reviews, 16 (1897), 584–87.
The Engineers and Their Machines. The American Menace to British Industry
Engineers, Machinery, Industry, National Efficiency, Declinism
Reports the 'revival of the ancient prejudice against the use of machinery for expediting work' during the current dispute, ostensibly over the eight hour day, between the engineers and their employers, observing that the idea 'has gained possession of the Engineers' SocietyAmalgamated Society of Engineers
CloseView the register entry >> that their true interest lies in limiting the output of machinery, and of putting artificial restrictions upon the liberty of the employers to make the best use of their machines' (584). Also records that 'the Americans are beating us hollow in the iron trade. This is partly due to natural advantage, but also to the absence of artificial restrictions with which our iron-masters have to deal' (585).
Sex, Hygiene, Public Health, Morality, Gender, Vivisection, Medical Practitioners
Complains of the popular misconception which 'prevails as to Sarah Grand'sGrand, Sarah (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden MacFall
(née Clarke))
(1854–1943)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >> latest work. One idiot seems to imagine it is a tract against vivisection because, as a character touch, a page is devoted to describing the vivisection of a dog; while a passing reference to the C. D. Acts has been magnified until people imagine that Sarah Grand has been republishing Mrs. Butler'sButler, Josephine Elizabeth
(1828–1906)
ODNB CloseView the register entry >>"The Constitution Violated"Butler, Josephine
Elizabeth 1871. The Constitution Violated: An Essay,
Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas
CloseView the register entry >>'. The novel nevertheless features a medical practitioner called Dan Maclure, 'who earns his living by acting as examining surgeon under the C. D. Acts, and divides his leisure between telling his young wife foul tales of the lupanar, in vivisecting dogs in his own house, and making love to his lady patients'. (619)