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Survey o
TRIUMFHS OF INTENTION.
A writer in Leslie's Magazine says:
How tremendously patented inventions
have contributed to the prosperity of
the United States appears from the
growth of industries depending entirely
on inventions. In the generation between
1880 an 1910, the value of our
iron and steel manufactures leaped from
$207,000,000 to $1.377.000.000?an in
crease of 588 per cent. Between 1860
and JL910, the output of sewing machines
grew from less than $4,500,000 to
over $28,000,000?an increase of 542 per
cent. Between 1850 andd 1910. the production
of agricultural implements increased
from less than $21,000,000 to
over $146,000,000?an Increase of 846
per cent.* In the generation from
1880 to 1910, the output of photographic
apparatus Increased from $142,000
to nearly $16,000,000?an increase
of 1,064 per cent. Coming down to more
recent examples of manufactures covered
by patents: In the decade between
1899 and 1909, the output of automobiles
leaped from less than $5,000,000 to over
$249,000,000?an increase of 5,200 per
cent. During the same period, the production
of wire jumped from less than
$9,500,000 to nearly $90,000,000?an increase
of 800 per cent; the output of
phonographs increased from about $2,000,000
to nearly $12,000,000?a growth
of 324 per cent; the production of cash
registers and calculating machines
jumped from about $5,500,000 to nearly
$24,000,000?an increase of 321 per cent;
the output of patented food preparations
grew from $39,000,000 to $125,000,000?a
growth of 220 per cent.; the production
of fountain pens increased from a little
over $1,500,000 to over $4,500,000?an
increase of 178 per cent. Over the same
period, the output of photo-engraving
grew from $4,000,000 to over $11,500,000
?an increase of 177 per cent.; photographic
products from less than $8,000,000
to over $22,000,000?an increase of
198 per cent.; the production of rubber
goods rrom $&z,OOO.OOO to $128,500,000
?an Increase of 144 per cent.; typewriters
from less than $7,000,000 to
nearly $20,000,000?an Increase of 185
per cent.; production of electrical machinery
from $92,000,000 to $221,000,000
?an increase of 140 per cent.
ANTISEPTICS AND ANTITOXINS.
The Mechanics Magazine has this to
say of the remarkable prevention of
fatalities which has been accomplished
by modern BCience: Although the coon- .
municability of many diseases haB been
recognized from earliest history, it was
not until about 1860 that Pasteur In
his great laboratory proved the depend
euce ot rermentation, puxreraction and
decay on the presence of minute organism.
Up to this time, as Velpeau
remarked, "a pin-prick was a door for
death." Almost all surgical wounds
suppurated, and the suppuration, which
no one could explain or prevent, was
so often fatal that a conscientious surgeon
advised his pupils to think ten
times before undertaking an apparently
necessary operation. Lister, pondering
over Pasteur's discovery, conceived the
idea that if microbes could be killed
or excluded from the field of operation,
the mortality and sugerine from sur
gery might be reduced. Thus was antisepsis
Introduced to surgery. Whereas
the death rate in compound facture was
two out of three jjjfore the days of
antiseptics, todPy' jB less than one
in fifty; whereas in old days
operation was followed as, a rulo by
rotting sores, lockjaw, gan^rene an<i
by death in appalling proportion of
cases, today with antisepsis vfbe 8ur"
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THE PRE8BYTERL
>f Currer
geon may open almost any cavity of
the body, and the wounds will heal
in almost every case without a drop
of pus. Hospital igangrene, erysipelas
and blood poisoning, once the scourges
of hospitals and army camps, are now
almost unknown after operation, y
GREAT IS CANADA.
An extended tour of northwest Canada
has just been made by the Chairman
of the Chicago Association of Commerce,
Mr. Edward E. Gore. His estimate of
the government and resources of the
Dominion is expressed in these words:
"Canada will be the greatest democracy
on the face of the earth if she can continue
the respect for law that now prevails
within her borders." Mr. Gore
lauds the Canadian local governments
and makes striking comparisons be
tween the administration of local political
affairs in the two countries, at the
expense of United States municipalities.
The high moral plane of Canadian officials,
the business-like administration
of their governments and the wholesome
respect for laws due to their strict en
forcement regardless of whom they hit.
are features that the Chicago delegation
Tegard as most important in Canada's
development. "Breaches of the law in
Canada are swiftly and surely punished.
In the afTairs of local government the
Canadians have a superior form and
conduct public afTairs more efficiently
and capably than they are conducted in
the states. Americans who have become
citizens of Canada uniformly say
that they are better satisfied with the
conduct of public afTairs in Canada than
when they were citizens here. They
feel that they have a greater protection
of the law in the country of their adoption
than they had here. When candidates
for municipal offices are chosen,
the affiliation in national politics are not
only ignored, but the people fiercely Tesent
any attempt to intrude national issues
Into local affairs."
ANTIQUES FOR BRITISH MUSEUM.
The department of oriental books and
manuscripts at the British Museum has
acquired a Coptic manuscript of the
first half of the fourth century, containing
the books of Deuteronomy,
Jonah and the acts of the Apostles in
the Sahidic dialect, which is one of the
earliest Biblical manuscripts of any
considerable size in existence. The same
department of the museum has also
acquired two of the few surviving parts
of the great manuscript of the Chinese
Encyclopaedia, nearly the whole of
which was destroyed by Chinese Insurgents
In Peking during the siege of
the legations In 1900. The department
of Greek and Roman antiquities, says
the annual report of the Museum, has
been unusually fortunate in having obtained
at least three accessions which
may be counted as of first-rate importance.
One of these is a very fine sepulchral
relief of the fourth century B. C.,
of exceptional size. Another is a bronze
head, probably of the Emperor Augustus,
of more thaa life size, with eyes
inlaid with glass and alabaster, which
was discovered on the site of the an
cient Meroe. in Nubia, and the third is a
bronze chariot of the sixth century B.
C., found near Orvito, and now restored
on a modern core of wood. The department
of coins and metals received among
its gifts the Bleazby collection of Mohammadan
coins of India, consisting
of over 2,600 coins, 173 in gold and
forming an nnequaled numismatic
record of Mohammadan rule In India
from 1166 to 1857,
* V OF THE SOOTH
it Events
WAR IS NO GOOD.
The British Association for the Advancement
of Science has been in session
at Dundee, Scotland. Speaking on
"Economical and Moral Factors in International
Policy," Norman Ajigell, author
of "The Great Illusion," argued
that war hetwpfir Oron t U.Hol- " -
Vltvuv Uiivcuu ouu
Germany would effect nothing; that it
would make little difference which
might triumph in such a contest; that
in modern warfare the victor as well
as the vanquished would suffer loss. He
said even though Germany ddd vanquish
Britain, some sixty million English
people?a hundred and fifty millions,
including the United States?
would remain with their own laws and
literature and political traditions, just
as before; there would remain as much
intellectual and moral ferment in the
world as before. Even though Britain
were Incorporated into the German empire
those very elements would be incorporated
that the war was waged to
prevent from touching. Confiscation of
private property in our day is impossible,
since you cannot turn a man out
of his business, and a farmer oft his
farm. They are secure in their meant
of livelihood, and in a position to resist
Germinization."
BIRD LORE.
Within two months in 1911 over 1,000,000
birds were caught and killed in
one of the departments of France. Mme.
Meurt'he and Moselle, French naturalists,
declare if all the bird life of the
world were dest.oyed, the earth would
be uninhabitable for man within nine
years, notwithstanding that traps and
poisons might be used in their place for
killing small Insects. Marsh island,
Louisiana, containing about 74,000 acres,
has been bought by E. A. Mcllhenny of
Avery island, and will be added to 13,000
acres deeded a few months ago to the
state by Mr. Mcllhenny and others to
form a great preserve for wild birds.
The purchase price was $143,000. The
plan of the conservationists is to establish
throughout the Mississippi valley a
cnam or preserves for wild birds.
WORLD'S BOOK-SHELF PROMOTER,
Of the making of useless books there
is no end. and in this endless uselessA
i
[September 25, 1912
neBS the great American commonwealth
outdistances all competitors. In getting
out good, bad and indifferent publications,
it is recorded that the government
printing office in Washington is the
largest in the world, and at present the
nrinto??fl ot?/? 1 * " " ' *
r..->vio ?is cugaseu on me puDiicauon
of a huge set of books which will comprise
more than 100 volumes, all of
large size and costly binding. Incidentally
It may be noted that in getting out
these big sets of bookB, Uncle Sam's
book bindery is using 10,000 sheets of
gold leaf per day for tinting the volumes
in gold letters. The year book of the
department of agriculture will be a
volume of 800 pages, of which an edition
of 050,000 will be printed.
UMYERSITIES EAST AND WEST.
The thirteen state universities of the
Middle West dispose of over $11,000,000
of working income and maintain 3,000
professors and instructors teaching 35,000
young men and woimen. The thirteen
leading endowed institutions of the
East, namely, Harvard, Yale, Columbia,
Cornell, Pennsylvania, Princeton,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Brown, Boston, Tufts, Syracuse, Williams
and Amherst, have 34,000 students,
taught by 4,000 men, and eniov a
working Income of about $13,000,000.
The difference between the two groups
is not great, but the significant thing is
that the western universities have been
growing in attendance about twice as
fast as the eastern institutions. At
present they have four times as many
students as they had twenty years ago,
and five times as large a teaching force.
?The Century.
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A POWERFUL ILLUMTNANT.
The Hamburg American liner Kaiser,
in Auguste Victoria has been fitted with
a searchlight of 80,000 candle power.
This mighty illuminant throws a beam
over the waters which discloses objects
five mdles away. She is the first bier
ocean liner to carry such a light. If it is
found to be of praotical use, under all
conditions, no doubt other ships plying
between Europe and America will be
similarly equipped. The apparatus containing
the light stands 7 1-2 feet high
and is 4 deep. It has been manufactured
expressly for the Hamburg-American
line and was only completed just before
the sailing of the vessel
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