Various

“ It is thus that winter brings about in every country a freedom from malaria which is purely thermic, for it is due simply and entirely to a sinking of the temperature below the required minimum. Indeed, if the temperature in winter rises above this minimum, there are often sudden outbreaks of malaria. Sometimes, during very warm and dry summers, the heat extracts all the humidity from the malarious soil, and thus procures for us a freedom from the disease which is purely hydraulic. ”

“ Gentlemen, in dealing with malaria we ought always to hold popular experience in high esteem, for we owe much to it. We owe to it the fact that we have been liberated from the paludal idea, and furthermore, that we have learned that it is often better, instead of trying to prevent the importation, for the most part imaginary, of malaria from distant marshes, to suppress its production in the soil under our feet or in that immediately surrounding us. ”

“ The social importance of the problem is too great to allow of its solution being retarded by the fear that scientific men may be accused of having been outrun by the ignorant. True science has none of these puerile susceptibilities; on the contrary, it deems it an honor to be able to seize all the observations of fact, whoever may have been their first recorder, to put them to the crucial test of methodical experiment, and to convert them into a new stepping stone on the march of human progress. ”

“ We cannot, therefore, in the future, count upon the assistance of external natural forces to increase the power of resistance of human society against the assaults of malaria. Such an object can be obtained only by artificial means. It has been sought to attain this end by the daily administration of the salts of quinine, of the salicylates, and of the tincture of eucalyptus, each and every one tried in turn. ”

“ Time is money, and it may be in the coming years that a demand will arise for faster means of transit than that which we possess at present. How can we meet it? With our railways laid out with the curves and gradients existing, and with our national gauge, and our present type of locomotive, no great advance in speed is very probable; the mean speed of express trains is about fifty miles an hour, and to take an average train of 200 tons weight at this speed over a level line requires between 650 and 700 effective horse-power, within the compass of the best engines of the present day. ”

“ Even if we realize perfectly the hope which I conceived in 1880, and if we are enabled to prove that arsenic increases man's power of resistance to the assaults of malaria, we must not imagine that everything is accomplished. ”

“ In every attempt at the colonization of malarious regions it will be necessary to combat for a long time the diseases caused by malaria, and we must seek for a method of combating them by a means which is in the possession of everybody, and which shall not be dangerous to the general economy of the human organism. Those who do not know from actual experience the miseries of a malarious country, think only of combating the acute forms of infection, which often place the patient in danger of death. ”

“ The great difficulty in manipulating platinum is its excessive resistance to heat. A temperature that will make steel run like water and melt down fireclay has absolutely no effect upon it. You may put a piece of platinum wire no thicker than human hair into a blast furnace where ingots of steel are melting down all around it, and the bit of wire will come out as absolutely unchanged as if it had been in an ice box all the time. ”

“ Science is still too far behind to permit us to hope that we shall soon succeed in discovering this second means by purely scientific researches. We ought, therefore, to gather together with great care all the facts which point to the possibility of a solution of this problem, and if the measures to which these facts point seem to be incapable of doing harm, we ought to try them boldly, and not be restrained by a false idea of the dignity of science. ”

“ Now it is precisely at these hours that the difference between the temperature of the lower layers of the atmosphere and that of the surface of the ground is the greatest, and that the ascending currents of air starting from the ground are the strongest. If malaria consists of solid particles contained in the soil, one may readily understand how their elevation en masse into the atmosphere should take place especially at these two periods of the day. ”

“ There are, finally, peculiarities in the local charging of the atmosphere with malaria which can be explained only in this manner. If the malarial miasm were composed of gaseous bodies emanating from the soil, or rather of chemical ferments formed beneath the ground and raised into the air by gases or watery vapor, the charging of the atmosphere with the specific poison ought to arrive at its maximum during the hottest part of the day, when the ground is heated the most by the sun's rays, and when the evaporation of water and all chemical actions attain their maximum intensity. ”

“ It is not alone that you represent the science and learning of England and the world, but that you are all countrymen of those daring seamen and explorers whose names and whose deeds have become household words throughout the world. ”

“ In many cases the physical conditions of the soil have undergone no appreciable change during centuries, so that it is impossible to attribute so enormous an augmentation of malaria to an increase in its annual production, itself increased by a progressive alteration of the chemical composition of the soil. But if, on the contrary, it be admitted that malaria is caused by a living organism whose successive generations accumulate in the soil, the interpretation of this fact becomes very simple. ”

“ Brake blocks of cast iron have now generally superseded wood; steel is being more and more used, especially on the North Western. There is less use of brasswork for domes and fittings, although it is claimed for brass that it looks brighter and can easily be kept clean. There is greater simplicity of design generally, and the universal substitution of coal as coke for fuel, with its consequent economy; and last, but not least, the adoption of standard types of engines, are among the changes which have taken place in locomotive practice during the past quarter of a century. ”

“ The hydraulic systems are very numerous, for the problem which is presented, namely, that of depriving the ground of its humidity during the hot season, necessitates different solutions according to the nature and the bearing of the soil. Sometimes this is done by digging open or closing ditches intended to draw away large bodies of water. At other limes a system of drainage is established, by means of which the water is drawn out of the earth and its level is depressed, so that the upper malarious strata, exposed to the direct action of the air, are deprived of moisture during the hot season. ”

“ Popular experience, certain modern scientific investigation, and the facts which one can often verify when the soil, which was malarious in ancient times and which has since ceased to be so, is turned up to a great depth, all agree in proving that the ground remains inoffensive as long as it is not placed in certain conditions indispensable for the multiplication of this specific ferment. Up to this point the organism lives, so to speak, in an inert state, and may remain so during centuries without losing any of its deleterious power. ”

“ The average weight of the engines was 18 tons, and the gross loads were, for passenger trains 76 tons, and for goods 160. Now, the weight of an express engine and tender is about 65 tons, and gross loads of 250 to 300 tons for an express, and 500 tons for a coal train are not uncommon, while not only have the trains materially increased in weight, owing to the carriage of third-class passengers by all (except a few special) trains, and also to the lowering of fares and consequent more frequent traveling, but the speed, and therefore the duty of the engines, is greatly enhanced. ”

“ It never produces such good plates as are made by the hand and eye of the trained artisan. 'How are they bored?' Ah, sir, you must excuse me that I do not tell you that. It is simple, but there is just a little of it that is a secret, and that little makes a vast difference between producing work which is good and that which is not. It has cost me no little to learn it, and while it is worth very little just now, perhaps fashion may change, and plates may be wanted to make gold wire again to an extent that may be profitable. ”

“ High speed requires great power, and great power can only be obtained by ample fire-grate area, which for a steady running engine means a broad gauge. The Gauge Commissioners of 1846 in their report esteemed the importance of the highest speed on express trains for the accommodation of a comparatively small number of persons, however desirable that may be to them, as of far less moment than affording increased convenience to the general commercial traffic of the country. ”

“ A popular error respecting platinum is that its intrinsic value is the same as that of gold. At one time it did approximate to gold in value, but never quite reached it, and is now worth only $8 to $12 an ounce, according to the work expended upon it in getting it into required forms and the amount of alloy it contains. The alloy used for it is iridium, which hardens it, and the more iridium it contains the more difficult it is to work, and consequently the more expensive. When pure, platinum is as soft as silver, but by the addition of iridium it becomes the hardest of metals. ”

“ However, when the local conditions will permit, it is well to try whether, by means of forced cultivation of the soil, it may not be possible to increase the efficacy of the hydraulic method of procuring immunity from malaria, or of the hydraulico-atmospheric method of "overlaying." The moment that it is known that this cultivation has frequently been advantageous, there comes forward a crowd of social reasons which induce us to attempt it, even though we be persuaded that we are about to engage in a game of chance. ”

“ With, regard to loads, it is a question whether any express train should be made up with more than twenty-five coaches. The Great Northern engine will take twenty-six and keep time, and the Brighton single engine has taken the five P.M. express from London Bridge to Brighton, consisting of twenty-two coaches, at a speed of forty-five miles per hour. Of course where heavy gradients have to be surmounted, such as those on the Midland route to Scotland, coupled engines are a necessity. Single engines are said to slip more than coupled; thus an 8 ft. ”

“ We owe to it the knowledge, which we now have, that malaria rises up into the atmosphere only to a limited height, so that by placing ourselves a little above this limit in order to eliminate the possibility of the malaria being carried up to us by oblique atmospheric currents, we are enabled to breathe an air which does not contain this ferment, or which contains it only in insignificant amounts ”

“ Stirling conducts his traffic at a higher rate of speed, and certainly with equal punctuality, with his magnificent single 8 ft. engines, as Mr. Webb on the North-Western with coupled engines, and the economy of fuel of the former class over the latter is very remarkable; this is, no doubt, owing, as has been previously pointed out, to their ample cylinder power, which permits of the steam being worked at a high rate of expansion. There is no doubt that if single engines can take the load they will do so more freely and at a less cost than coupled engines, burning on the average 2 lb. ”

“ But some intelligent men, especially M. Ricchi, physician in chief to the southern railroads, were able speedily to triumph over these obstacles, and to place the experiment on a firm basis. The general testimony of all the facts which they have collected tends really to prove that when the administration of arsenic is begun some weeks before the presumed season for the appearance of the fever, and when it is continued regularly throughout the whole of this season, the power of resistance of the human organism to malaria is increased. ”

“ These engines run very sweetly, and are said to steam freely, although with only half the usual number of blasts; but from the small size of the high pressure cylinders, they are liable to slip when starting heavy trains, as the low pressure cylinders are not then effective, while the consumption of coal does not seem to show the saving that would have been expected, when compared with ordinary engines doing similar duty on other lines; for instance, the Great Northern single engine takes trains of the same weight with the same consumption of coal and at a somewhat higher speed. ”

“ I have, during the summer solstice of 1884, carried out an experimental investigation for the purpose of demonstrating the temperature of the solar surface corresponding with the temperature transmitted to the sun motor. Referring to the illustrations previously published, it will be seen that the cylindrical heater of the sun motor, constructed solely for the purpose of generating steam or expanding air, is not well adapted for an exact determination of the amount of surface exposed to the action of the reflected solar rays. ”

“ Nobody wants filigree gold jewelry any more, and there is so little demand for fine wire of the precious metals that few draw plates are desired. The prices now are no more than from $1.25 up to say $8, but it is very rare that one is required the cost of which is more than $4. And of that a very large part must go to the lapidary to pay for the stone and for his work in cutting it to an even round disk. Then, what I get for the long and hard work of boring the stone by hand is very little. 'By hand?' Oh, yes. That must always be the only good way. The work of the machine is not perfect. ”

“ The first case of cholera is generally counted from the first fatal one, whereas this is almost always preceded by non-fatal ones, which have escaped notice. And each subsequent fatal case is interwoven by one, or several, or even many, non-fatal causes. If the string of a row of beads is broken, and the beads scattered everywhere, it would be just as improper to say that they had never been upon a string as to say that, because all the fatal cases of cholera cannot be traced to equally fatal ones, no connection ever existed between them. ”