inevitably be blown down." The speaker no doubt had before his mind an imperfect recollection of the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. (now Sir Digby) Wyatt's paper on the first Great Exhibition building at the Institute of Civil Engineers in January 1851, when one "wise man," the present Astronomer Royal, objected to so purely rectangular a structure of iron, and insisted on the necessity for adding diagonal braces, giving at the time a full demonstration of his views. The question was one of Elementary Mechanics, which should have been better understood than it seems to have been. The "wise man was right, as is proved by the adoption of his suggestion in the construction of the Crystal Palace ; and his dictum, so far from retarding or preventing its erection, has probably saved that and similar structures from a hideous catastrophe. This is an instance of a wrongly applied illustration telling strongly against the argument it was intended to enforce. The power of rejecting patents is one, however, which, we fully admit, if conceded at all, should have its limitations, and should be exercised exceptionally rather than generally. But the staff which, under the American system, exercises this power, as some think too freely, is still indispensable for other purposes, as pointed out by Mr. Bramwell in his concluding address. They should, as a matter of duty, be ready and able to afford to inventors the fullest information, and should render them all reasonable assistance in steering clear of those shoals which must surround any patenting system. They should do this, not merely out of kindness to ignorant though ingenious inventors, but on behalf of the community, whose interest it is that a really useful improvement should be introduced in the most perfect possible shape. They should also revise specifications, which, often in ignorance, and sometimes from motives of questionable honesty, vaguely, imperfectly, or incorrectly set forth the invention. They would also sit with the judges on the trial of patent cases, affording that technical and scientific knowledge of the matters at issue in which it is admitted that both the Bar and the Bench are deficient.

In the consideration of this most important question, one of the uses of a well-organised patent system has hitherto been too little noticed-namely, that it may be made, both directly and indirectly, a powerful instrument of public instruction. A body of highly qualified responsible men, eminent in different departments of science and technology, acting in concert, and having at their command the resources and influences of a great department founded specially for introducing material improvements, including a complete collection of all the machines and appliances of manufacturing industry, and all the instruments and apparatus used in both abstract and applied science, which they should explain in public lectures, could not fail to disseminate widely that peculiar class of knowledge which it is found so difficult to engraft on any ordinary educational system.

Nor is this the only important point that entirely escaped notice in the recent discussion. The present constitution itself of the Patent Office was not challenged. It seemed to be considered that this having been, not

|

mittees and acts of the Legislature should not suffice to preserve a constitution so inherently bad. What is it? The Patent Office is governed by four commissioners, the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney-General and the SolicitorGeneral for the time being, and the Master of the Rolls. Of these four, not one is presumably qualified by special knowledge, and three out of the four are liable to change frequently with changes of the Ministry. Nor is it even expected that any one of the four can or will give a moment of his time to Patent Office duties. The late Lord Chancellor candidly avowed to a deputation of the Society of Arts that he had never once entered the Patent Museum. The Master of the Rolls presides over perhaps the hardest worked court in the kingdom. And the two law officers, besides their duties as advisers to the Crown, are encumbered with their still more exacting duties to themselves as barristers in large practice. Notoriously and avowedly these four high legal functionaries leave the Patent Office to the care of its clerical staff. Should so monstrous an abuse be suffered to continue? Is it possible that, whilst it continues, necessary reforms will be introduced and efficient administration maintained? Nothing is more obstructive and more demoralising than a sham-and no worse or more glaring sham than this exists at the present day in a country in which shams are not very few or very retiring. The remedy is perfectly obvious. The Patent Office should be under a Minister of the Crown, directly responsible to the nation through Parliament for its good government. The Society of Arts have been for some time most properly urging that the Patent Museum, considerably expanded, should beplaced under a Minister, with other Museums. Surely they cannot contemplate such a disruption of the whole system as would be perpetrated by placing the Museum under one authority, and the office to which it is an adjunct under another. We trust therefore they will insist that the whole system should be ministerially governed. For the present we abstain from indicating the particular Minister who should have charge of this and similar institutions, not because the appropriate arrangement is at all doubtful, but because our space today does not admit of our delineating it with the necessary fulness.

In conclusion, we hope that the unanimity in the late debate and in the press, in favour of retaining Patent Laws, will silence effectually the feeble cry for their abolition which from time to time contrives to make itself heard. No one can now, at any rate, be considered qualined to raise that question who has not read this discussion, and especially Mr. Bramwell's two closely reasoned masterly addresses.

LIVINGSTONE'S “LAST JOURNALS” The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa, from 1865 to his Death. Continued by a Narrative of his last moments and sufferings, obtained from his faithful servants, Chuma and Susi. By Horace Waller, F.R.G.S., Rector of Twywell, Northampton. In two vols. With portrait, maps, and illustrations. (London: John Murray, 1874.)

Commons and an Act of Parliament, must be taken for granted as inevitable and unassailable. But fifty com

character and of the value of his work, when the sad tidings of his death reached this country last spring,

is amply confirmed by the simple narrative before us. No one, we presume, who knows the work that Livingstone has done, and how he has done it, will hesitate to place him in the front rank of explorers, and award him a niche among the few whom men deem worthy of the highest and most enduring honour. It is, we believe, the simple truth to say that he has done more than any other man to fill up that vast blank in inner Africa which in the maps of twenty or thirty years ago was occupied only by the word " Unexplored" in large and widespread letters, delightful enough to the hearts of lazy schoolboys Now, what with the labours of Livingstone in the south, and those of Baker, Burton, Speke, Grant, and others in the north and north-east, this blank space is reduced to a comparatively small circle around the equator on the 20th degree of east longitude. We have no doubt that within the space of the next twenty years, or less, the heart of Africa will be as fully and accurately mapped as that of South America, if indeed not more so. And when the geography of this region of the earth is complete; when science shall have been enriched with the knowledge of its multitudinous products organic and inorganic, when a legitimate commerce shall have brought its many blessings to the native population, who seem possessed of many capabilities for good; when Central Africa shall have taken its place among the civilised nations of the world—the memory of David Livingstone will be cherished by its peoples as worthy of the greatest reverence and gratitude. It will be long ere the tradition of his sojourn dies out among the native tribes, who, almost without exception, treated Livingstone as if he were a superior being; indeed, had it not been for the baneful influence of the Arab slave-traders, and the troubles which arose from the debased characters of the majority of his own retinue, Livingstone's last journey would have been one of comparative ease, would have been accomplished probably in about half the time, might possibly have been even more fruitful in results than it has been, and, above all, he himself might now have been among us, receiving the honours which he so nobly won.

As it is, we are thankful for the grand results that Livingstone has left behind him, which he achieved in the face of difficulties that would have daunted almost

he did his work and made no fuss about it. Until near the end, when his sufferings must have been extreme, nothing like the cry of an afflicted man escaped him; his difficulties of all kinds were regarded merely as hindrances to the great work (which he was so anxious to achieve. His journal is written in the simplest style, and never betrays any consciousness on his part that he was doing anything very extraordinary. His was no attempt to accomplish a mere traveller's feat; he had a definite task before him— the exploration of the lake region of Central Africa, a task which he never once lost sight of. True, in the end, his work concentrated itself on the discovery of the four fountains of Herodotus, which he expected to find away to the west of Lake Bangweolo, and among which he firmly believed he would find the long-soughtfor source of the Nile. It was on the road to these supposed fountains that he died; had he lived to discover them or to disprove their existence, he would have considered his work as an explorer at an end, and would have returned to spend his remaining days at rest among his friends.

Livingstone's theories as to the sources of the Nile may very possibly turn out to be mistaken; but this can in no way detract from the value of his work. The "Nile mystery" cannot now long remain unravelled; but, compared with the large and substantial achievements of Livingstone, the solution of this is little more than that of an ingenious puzzle. Under all circumstances, Livingstone must ever stand forth as one of the world's greatest explorers, not only on account of his own immediate discoveries, but on account of the impetus which he has given to African discovery; for it is mainly owing to the enthusiasm generated by his noble example that so much has been done during the last thirty years to fill up the great blank on the map of Africa. His own travels, extending over a period of thirty years, embraced an area of some millions of square miles, reaching from the Cape to within a few degrees of the equator, and from the mouth of the Zambesi to est to Loango. And, as we have said, his aim was not to get over so much much ground in the shortest possible time and return reap the reward of his feat. Like the native Africans, he travelled slowly and leisurely by short stages, mainly on

death; thankful are we also to the brave and loyal Susi and Chuma, who stuck so faithfully to their master, and preserved so religiously the invaluable record of his achievements. Their conduct has won for them the admiration of the civilised world, and their care for their master's remains has earned for them the gratitude of all Englishmen.

was worthy of note in the natural productions and phenomena of the region over which he travelled, studying the ways of the people, eating their food, living in their huts, and sympathising with their sorrows and joys. Already have various departments of science been enriched by his observations; and, what is perhaps of more importance, he has shown that in Africa a fertile field remains for the minute observations of the trained naturalist, ethnologist, geologist, and meteorologist.

It is impossible in the space at our disposal to give any adequate idea of the results of his last seven years' journeys. Indeed, as we have said, the records in his journals are so terse, there is so little of what is super

wishing to have a satisfactory notion of what he accomplished must go to the work itself. Mr. Waller has wisely printed the journal as he found it, making no attempt at a systematic arrangement of the material; this will, no doubt, be done gradually, and the observations

was to be an almost daily witness of its inconceivable cruelties, and to feel himself powerless to help. Even in this matter, however, we believe his words and example will have had a good moral effect on many of the native chiefs, if not on the degraded dealers; for the people are so demoralised by the latter, that they hunt and sell each other. This Arab slave-hunting was a great hindrance to Livingstone's progress, as the dealers had so terrified the people as to make them suspicious of every stranger, and, with one or two creditable exceptions, did all in their power to poison the native mind against the white man, for they knew that he regarded their doings with unmitigated disgust. No good can come to Africa, and no exploration of her rich interior can be carried out with complete success, until this cruel traffic is

abolished; and in the interests of science as well as humanity, we hope that the British Government will never cease to use its powerful influence until it is stamped out. We only wish that the Sultan of Zanzibar, whose subjects the half-caste traders nearly all are, could be induced to follow the example of the Khedive of Egypt, and depute some man of determination and vigour to sweep the interior of the entire horde of slave-hunters.

And here we cannot help saying that we almost wish that Livingstone had possessed some of Pasha Baker's wholesome sternness and disregard to the trivial scruples of his men and of petty village chiefs. It would have saved him many annoyances, and might in the end have been the means of saving his life. But he was so full of the great object of his mission that he did not care to waste the time and energy required to bring his lowminded sepoys and Johanna men under discipline; and his conscience was so tender, his humanity so strong, and his desire to live at peace with all men so much of a religion, that he would rather stay weeks at a village to suit the caprice of its childish chief than break away at the risk of giving offence or provoking hostility. His genuine tenderness of heart peeps out unconsciously every now and then, his charity was wonderfully wide, and his forbearance often almost annoying.

Lake Nyassa was reached on August 8, and passing down its east and round its south side, Livingstone struck out in a generally N.N.W. direction for the south end of Lake Tanganyika. We need scarcely say that this part of the journal, recording a journey through a country much of which had not hitherto been explored, is full of valuable notes on geology, botany, zoology, geography, topography, and the manners and customs and connections of the people. Here, as in almost every other part of his journey, the number of streams met with flowing into the great lines of drainage is astonishing; a dozen would sometimes have to be crossed in a day's march. After rounding the south end of Nyassa, however, he first met with those bogs, or earthen sponges, which abound also around Lake Bangweolo, and in the midst of which, and no doubt partly through their malarious influence, he died.

forming kind, falls down, rots, and then forms thick dark loam. In many cases a mass of this loam, two or three feet thick, rests on a bed of pure river-sand, which is revealed by crabs and other aquatic animals bringing it to the surface. At present, in the dry season, the black loam cracked in all directions, and the cracks are often as much as three inches wide, and very deep. The whole surface has now fallen down, and rests on the sand; but when the rains come, the first supply is nearly all absorbed in the sand. The black loam forms soft slush, and floats on the sand. The narrow opening prevents it from moving off in a landslip, but an oozing spring rises at that spot. All the pools in the lower portion of this spring-course are filled by the first rains, which happen south of the equator, when the sun goes vertically over any spot. The second, or greater rains, happen in his course north again, when, all the bogs and river-courses being wet, the supply runs off, and forms the inundation: this was certainly the case as observed on the Zambesi and Shiré, and, taking the different times for the sun's passage north of the equator, it explains the inundation of the Nile."

This is an important observation with regard to the Nile, though it may very well turn out that Livingstone himself was mistaken with regard to its source or sources. He found, as we have said, the same phenomenon in a much higher degree on the east and south sides of Lake Bangweolo, and believed it to be "the Nile, apparently enacting its inundations, even at its sources."

We wish we could linger with the traveller and speak in detail of some of the multitude of interesting observations he made as he sauntered along. The people themselves between Nyassa and Tanganyika are full of interest to the ethnologist, the sociologist, and the student of the ways of men. Their physique and intelligence are of a high order, and they have scarcely any of the negro characteristics. They are by no means savages, and in almost every village Livingstone was well and kindly treated by the chief and his people. There is no such thing as a national bond of union here, each village being a separate community, presided over by its chief. The region here, as everywhere else in Livingstone's journey, is thickly populated. The people are polite, industrious, and on the whole peaceful, the great disturbers of their peace being the Mazitu, a people to the north of Nyassa, who rove far and wide in search of slaves, leaving death and desolation in their track. The great industry here, and over a great part of the region visited by Livingstone, is the smelting and manufacture of iron, which is obtained in abundance from various ores. In this industry the people display considerable skill and ingenuity, and manufacture the metal into a great variety of implements, utensils, and weapons. Each tribe has its separate tattoo badge. The country itself, hilly, and well wooded, is of the most fertile kind, and abounds in buffaloes, elands, haartebeest, and other large animals, and evidently with not a few birds that are new to the zoologist. (To be continued.)

interest by meteorologists, as not only model monograms of the subject discussed by them, but as further developing and occasionally opening up certain lines of inquiry which lead to practical applications of the science. In these respects the Report for 1873 is the best, as well as the most suggestive. Its outstanding feature is the discussion of the deficient rainfall of the Presidency during 1873, so disastrous by the famine which followed it; and the developing in the course of the discussion of a principle which, if confirmed by future observations, "will enable us to some extent to forecast our [Indian] seasons, or at least to speak with some confidence to their probable character for some months in advance."

From the increased number of stations now in connection with the department, and from the additional data obtained from the meteorological superintendents of the Governments of Ceylon, the Upper Provinces, Central India, and Berar, it is possible to form a conception of the geographical distribution of pressure, temperature, rain, &c., over one-half of India and its seas. The summaries of all the observations made over the region during the past seven years form an admirable feature of the Report. We very cordially join in the hope expressed that the observations which have been made in the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras will in future be accessible, and that those made in the Punjâb will be put on such a footing as to be trustworthy and comparable. As regards the last-named region, in all the annual reports we have seen (down to 1870) the barometric observations are given uncorrected for temperature and unaccompanied with the readings of the attached thermometer! When, on making the annual survey of the meteorology of India, the north-west, west, and south of the country can be included, it will be possible to write the history of the two monsoons of the year, and probably to point out the determining causes of their irregularities.

"The principal meteorological characteristics of the year 1873 were an excessive temperature, in Oude and the North-western Provinces more especially; an unusually low pressure of the atmosphere in the same region, and probably also in the south-east corner of the Bay of Bengal, while in Eastern Bengal pressure was persistently high; great unsteadiness in the winds, indicating the predominance of local causes in affecting the air currents, while the normal monsoon current from the south-west set in nearly a month later than usual, and ceased nearly a month earlier; lastly, a general deficiency of moisture in the atmosphere, as is betokened both by the hygrometric observations, the comparative absence of cloud, and the great deficiency of rainfall."

The usual characteristics of the Indian summer monsoon, based on the past seven years' observations, are thus stated :

"In ordinary years the winds of the south-west monsoon blow, on the one hand from the Arabian Sea, on the other hand from the Bay of Bengal towards a line lying to the south of the Ganges, at no great distance, and parallel to that river. A barometric depression begins to appear in or near this region in April, and by the time the rains set in in June it is well established; the pressure decreasing along it from east to west where this trough, as it may be termed, merges in the great barometric depression of the Punjâb and the Bikaneer Desert. To the south of this line the winds from the Arabian Sea blow across the Central Provinces, chiefly from the west. the north of it, those from the Bay of Bengal, turning

Το

with the Gangetic Valley, blow in an opposite, or easterly, direction, their line of meeting being along this trough." Bengal being thus dependent, as regards its rainfall, on the aërial current which blows from the Bay of Bengal up the valley of the Ganges, it is evident that whatever weakens this current or directs it to the northward will have a serious influence on the rainfall. Now, in 1873 the trough described above did not occupy the usual position to the south of the Ganges, but a position considerably to the north-west, in Oude and Rohilcund, immediately under the hills. A change in the direction of the wind necessarily followed this change in the position of the area of lowest atmospheric pressure; and in strict accordance with the now well-known relation of wind to pressure, there was an unusual prevalence of westerly winds over the greater part of Bengal during June and July, and the rainfall consequently was deficient.

The observations made in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands show the existence of a barometric depression over the south-eastern portion of the Bay of Bengal, the effect of which would be to deflect a large portion of the monsoon current of the Bay of Bengal towards Sumatra and the Tenasserim and Burmah coasts. Thus, then, the monsoon current, on which Bengal is dependent for its rainfall, was not only deflected northward from its usual track during 1873, but was also weakened in force by being partially drained away to the south-east in the direction of Burmah.

In the examination of the rainy seasons of 1868, 1869, and 1873, Mr. Blanford has the merit of first drawing attention to the existence of local and persistent variations of pressure, which appear as a local exaggeration or partial suppression of the great annual variation-the pressure remaining for many months, sometimes through two or more consecutive seasons, either higher or lower than the average, relatively to other parts of the country, over a more or less extensive track. It is to these persistent irregularities in the distribution of atmospheric pressure that the irregularities in the distribution of the rainfall must be ascribed, and it is to the further in

vestigation, by future observations, of the characteristic feature of persistency in this class of barometric variations that we look with hope to the realisation of a great triumph awaiting meteorology, viz., the prediction, for some months in advance, of the general character of the coming seasons of India, and thereafter a gradual extension of the principle to other countries.

As regards the humidity, the only data of observation published in the Report are the dry-bulb observations. To these are added the computed values for the elastic force of vapour and the relative humidity. In future issues of the Reports we should recommend that the wetbulb observations be also published. In a country of able to have the whole observed facts relative to the such extreme climates as India, it is eminently desirhumidity before us, particularly since, from the present defective state of our hygrometric tables as regards dry hot climates, computed values can be regarded only as rough approximations. In estimating the state of the sky, a clear sky is entered as дo, and a sky completely covered with cloud as o. It might be well in future to adopt the recommendation of the Vienna Meteorological Congress on this head, by which a clear sky is