Molecular Asymmetry and Life.—Speaking in his presidential address to the Chemical Section of the British Association on Stereochemistry and Vitalism, Prof. A. R. Japp expressed the conclusion that "the production of single asymmetric compounds or their isolation from the mixture of their enantiomorphs [or opposite forms] is, as Pasteur firmly held, the prerogative of life. Only the living organism, with its asymmetric tissues, or the asymmetric productions of the living organism, or the living intelligence with its conception of asymmetry, can produce this result. Only asymmetry can beget asymmetry. The absolute origin of the compounds of one-sided asymmetry is a mystery as profound as the absolute origin of life itself. The two phenomena are intimately connected.... No fortuitous concourse of atoms, even with all eternity for them to clash and combine in, could compass this feat of the formation of the first optically active organic compound. Coincidence is excluded, and every purely mechanical explanation of the phenomena must necessarily fail. I see no escape from the conclusion that at the moment when life first arose a directive force came into play—a force of precisely the same character as that which enables the intelligent operator, by the exercise of his will, to select one crystallized enantiomorph and reject its asymmetric opposite. I would emphasize the fact that the operation of a directive force of this nature does not involve a violation of the law of the conservation of energy."
Dr. Russell's Photographic Researches.—At the recent meeting of the British Association at Bristol, Dr. W. T. Russell gave, before the Chemical Section, some further information regarding his recent researches on the surprising action exerted by certain substances in the absence of light on photographic plates. The Journal of the Society of Arts gives some of his more striking results: "Some ordinary type, a portion of the cover of Punch, and the wrapper of a packet of tobacco produced strongly defined pictures; the last mentioned was particularly interesting, inasmuch as the red ink had proved active, the blue inactive. Strangely, writing ink (old-fashioned) is quite inactive, and paper having writing on it in ink, even over a hundred years old, when placed between a sheet of active material and a sensitive plate, yielded a picture in which the writing appeared quite distinctly, white on black, in spite of the original being in some cases indistinct; ferrous sulphate behaves like ink. The list of materials that are active is very long, and includes wood, which gives a picture of the grain and knots. Many metals are active, but zinc is very active only when bright, so that a dirty sheet of zinc rubbed with sandpaper gives a picture of the scratches. Many alloys are also active, pewter and fusible metal being two of them, and curiously some brasses are, while others are not. The effective agency that passes from the material to the sensitive plate shows peculiarities. It passes through gelatin, gutta-percha, celluloid, collodion, wet gum arabic, and some paper, while other paper, glass, minerals transparent to light, and many other substances are opaque to these emanations, and some striking effects were exhibited demonstrating the interference of these opaque substances when interposed between an active substance and the sensitive plate. For instance, a five-pound note placed printing downward on the sensitive plate gave a picture of the printing inscription, but when placed under a zinc plate with the printing toward the zinc plate it gave a picture of the opaque paper with the water marks distinctly showing, and, what is still more astonishing, the zinc plate, after contact with the note, itself yielded a picture of the inscription, showing that the influence from the ink had passed to the zinc plate. It was noteworthy that the signature was not in writing ink. A cutting from the Times, the paper being transparent, showed a picture of the printing on both sides; the picture, moreover, was reversible, showing that a perfect picture of both sides of the paper had been impressed on the one plate. This interesting phenomenon is, however, not quite explained, but the great amount of work he has done leads him to the provisional opinion that the effect is due to the evolution of hydrogen peroxide."
Scientific "Trade Hunting."—The recent movement in England toward the establishment by the Government of a commercial intelligence office for the securing and diffusion of information regarding foreign trade has given rise to considerable discussion among the English trade papers. The business of the office is to be the gathering of general information of interest and value to the English merchant with a foreign trade, and especially of pointing out new ways for the extension of foreign commerce, and calling attention to possible new markets for English goods. A number of schemes have been proposed, among others that of sending an expert once every year or two to the different foreign "trade areas," for the purpose of collecting information and samples, and of giving a trustworthy estimate of its commercial prospects; another, that of extending the consular reports in such a manner as to compass the same ends. There is considerable opposition to the scheme from some branches of business, where it is held that no one is so likely to get hold of useful information as the trader himself, and that the publishing of such Government reports as the scheme contemplates would result in giving the information to foreign as well as English traders, and thus negative whatever advantage might come to the English merchant from his individual discovery of a valuable market.
Dr. Neufeld.—The London Times of September 13th gives the following account of the career of Dr. Neufeld, who has just been delivered from captivity in Omdurman by the English forces: "Karl Neufeld studied medicine at Leipsic University, and went early in life to Egypt, following first his profession as a medical man and subsequently as a merchant. At the beginning of the eighties he had a practice at Keneh, Upper Egypt, where several Germans and also natives of his own home saw him. Subsequently he set up as a merchant at Assouan. After the fall of Khartoum and the firm establishment of the Mahdi's power at Omdurman, Neufeld seems to have formed a scheme for opening up commercial intercourse with the closed Soudan, for he equipped a caravan with which he proceeded to Berber, which was then in the hands of Osman Digna. The latter sent the German, whom he looked upon as a dangerous spy, to the Khalifa Abdullahi. This was in 1886. Neufeld was condemned to death, and was taken to the place of execution. He behaved there so courageously, asking to be executed like a Mohammedan, instead of suffering death by hanging, that the Khalifa was struck and respited him under the gallows. He was taken to the general prison, with heavy chains on his hands and feet, and treated altogether in a most abominable manner. He was kept alive by the women, who took pity on him and fed him, as they had done before him to Slatin. Then an endeavor was made to utilize his knowledge. He knew nothing about founding cannon, but he managed to manufacture powder, and he was also ordered to invent a machine for coining money. Owing to the escape of Father Ohrwalder and, later, of Slatin Pasha, his position became worse. He was again manacled and threatened with having his arms and feet hacked off if he should attempt to escape. There were many efforts to liberate him. The Austrian Catholic mission, induced by Father Ohrwalder, Slatin Pasha, the British Government, the German, and more especially the Austrian, representatives at Cairo, all endeavored to further the escape of Neufeld. He frequently received money, but he refused to escape, as he would not accept liberty without his wife—an Abyssinian slave presented to him by the Khalifa—and the two children whom she had borne him. The latter would have been exposed to fearful tortures, and thus Neufeld chose to remain a prisoner. He was active subsequently also as an artist, and as he could draw well he was ordered to decorate the mausoleum of the Mahdi, and this pleased the women of the Khalifa so much that they petitioned the latter for his liberation. It is also said that he has written Arabic books and illustrated them. The latter part of his twelve years' detention appears to have been less onerous, as after the escape of Slatin he had to be interpreter to the Khalifa and translator of European newspapers which the ruler of the Soudan received regularly. It is to the credit of the Khalifa Abdullahi that not one of the Christian prisoners received a hurt on the approach of the Anglo-Egyptian forces. It is expected that a narrative of his experience in the Soudan will be shortly published by Dr. Neufeld."
Natural Selection and Fortuitous Variation.—The three principal objections urged against Darwin's theory of natural selection were stated by Prof. W. F. R. Weldon, in his presidential address to the Section of Zoology and Physiology of the British Association, as being that the species of animals we know fall into orderly series for the selection of which purely fortuitous variations can not be supposed to afford opportunity; that minute structural variations can not be supposed to affect the death-rate so much as the theory requires they should, while many of the characters by which species are distinguished appear to us so small and useless that they can not be supposed to affect the chance of survival at all; and that the process of evolution by natural selection is so extremely slow that the time required for its operation is longer than the extreme limit of time given by estimates of the age of the earth. The first of these objections the speaker alleged to be due to a misunderstanding of words; we regard as fortuitous what we do not understand; and he proceeded to explain how what we call chance may be shown, especially by a method developed by Professor Pearson, to be a real and important factor. To the other two objections Professor Weldon opposed the results of observations of his own and of Mr. Herbert Thompson on the small shore crabs (Carcinus mœnas) at Plymouth Beach. "In these crabs small changes in the size of the frontal breadth do, under certain circumstances, affect the death-rate; and the mean frontal breadth among this race of crabs is, in fact, changing at a rate sufficiently rapid for all the requirements of a theory of evolution." In conclusion, he said: "I hope I have convinced you that the law of chance enables one to express easily and simply the frequency of variations among animals, and I hope I have convinced you that the action of natural selection upon such fortuitous variations can be experimentally measured, at least in the only case in which any one has attempted to measure it. I hope I have convinced you that the process of evolution is sometimes so rapid that it can be observed in the space of a very few years." The whole difficulty of natural selection, he added, is a quantitative difficulty; and he insisted upon the need of observations and measurements of the rates of variation.