We are indebted for the facts which we have summarized to the Niagara number, July, 1895, of Cassier's Magazine. We gave from this source last month an account of the development of the marvelous plans at Niagara for turning waterpower into electric-power, and distributing it at a distance for electric-lighting, manufactures, street-railway service, and other purposes. The enterprising publishers of the magazine raised their July number to the character of a superb contribution to scientific literature, not only in the extremely high character, by experts of distinction, of the papers composing the number, but by the great number and the excellence of the illustrations. Such a contribution to knowledge, at the end of the nineteenth century, may be compared, as an intellectual production and for its exceeding interest, to the greatest things which the mind of man has achieved; if, indeed, the splendor of the rising sun of science, in a story of this kind, does not leave the stars of poetry and philosophy, and whatever has won the greatest name in the history of culture, to fade and disappear.

THE ANCESTRY OF WASHINGTON.The descent of George Washington has long been one of the most interesting problems of American history.

The American line of ancestry, going back to a John Washington, who, with his brother Lawrence, came to Virginia in 1657, had been clearly made out, and English authorities a hundred years ago somewhat confidently found that these original American Washingtons were sons of a Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave, in Northamptonshire, England, who was the fifth in descent from John Washington of Whitfield, in Lancashire. This Lawrence Washington died in 1616, and it might have been almost taken for granted that his sons could not have been young enough to be identical with the emigrants to Virginia of 1657. The wills of these emigrants show that their deaths did not occur until after 1675.

In 1863 Colonel Joseph L. Chester, an eminent genealogist, brought out full proof that the sons, John and Lawrence, sons of Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave, could not be the emigrants to

the personal history of a John, son to Lawrence of Sulgrave, and placed beside it the very different personal history of the John who was in Virginia the last thirty years of his life. He also showed that there was a Lawrence of England, son to Lawrence of Sulgrave, who was a clergyman of the established church, while Lawrence of Virginia was not a clergyman.

These researches of Colonel Chester appeared to prove conclusively the existence of a missing link in the Washington ancestry, -the father of the Virginia John and Lawrence; but who this missing link could be, there was nothing to indicate, until, about ten years since, Mr. Henry F. Waters, who had distinguished himself by researches in England, came upon an indication that Lawrence Washington, of Virginia, had formerly lived in the parish of Luton, in Bedfordshire, England, not far to the northeast from London, and that his early home had been at Tring, a parish of Hertfordshire, near Luton.

Further researches by Mr. Waters disclosed the fact that this Lawrence Washington was ington was the son of Amphillis, daughter-in-law to Andrew Knowling, of Tring, and that her other children were John, William, Elizabeth, Margaret and Martha. The evidence further showed that the husband of Amphillis and father of her children was a Lawrence Washington, who had died, leaving his wife with three sons and three daughters, of whom the oldest son was John and the next was Lawrence. Mr. Waters finally found conclusive evidence that the Lawrence Washington, father of John and Lawrence of Virginia, had been a clergyman, educated at Oxford, and for some time rector of Purleigh, in the county of Essex, and identical with the Lawrence Washington, clergyman, who was the fifth son of Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave: the missing link, therefore, in the Washington ancestry.

It is in evidence that this Lawrence Washington, rector of Purleigh, in the county of Essex, "one of the best livings in those parts," was ejected by order of Parliament, in 1643, as a malignant Royalist; that his wife was buried January 19, 1655, probably after his own death; and that his children were thus

left orphans; while the last ten or twelve years of his life were passed in a poor and miserable living which he had been permitted to have, and to continue in after his ejection from Purleigh. The influential friends of the family were Royalists of distinction and they could readily promote any inclination of the sons, John and Lawrence, to emigrate to Virginia.

PASTEUR IN MEDICINE.-The death of Louis Pasteur removes one of the most notable figures of the age of journalism and leaves us with the question whether that figure is a creation of journalism or is an enduring fact. If we are to believe

the papers, not only French, but English and American, he was one of the glories of a singularly accomplished race, and one of the foremost benefactors of humanity. He has long been to the newspapers one of the foremost medical men of the modern world, one of the greatest physicians in the history of mankind, a magician also in controlling the terrors of a most frightful and almost inevitably fatal disease. And what the papers have said and still say has been suggested by the action of scientific bodies and by the recognition extended to his labors by the French government. As early as August 12, 1853, he received the decoration of the Legion of Honor; was made an officer in the same in 1863; a commander in 1868; a grand officer in 1878; and grand-cross July 7, 1881. Of the abundant recognition of his earlier labors it is unnecessary to speak here. The climax of his career was in the establishment of the Pasteur Institute, through the action of the Academy of Sciences, in Paris, March, 1886; a magnificent establishment, the inauguration of which took place November 14, 1888. If the public story of the operations dating from the opening of this institute may be accepted as an authentic chapter in the history of modern science, Pasteur was an apostle of ideas and discoveries, and a practical administrator of relief for human suffering to whom mankind for generations to come cannot fail to pay homage.

This view of his career is very strongly put in the leading article of the Scientific American for October 12, which has come to hand just as the present notice was ready for the printer. We need not say

that the Scientific American represents not only journalism, but science of the highest type, and that an expression, such as we quote, is a representative one, worthy of the highest respect. The following sentences are especially notable:

"If the measure of human greatness is to be found in the amount of blessedness that a man's life and work bring to his fellow-men, there has lately passed from our midst one of the greatest of all great men. The moral philosophers tell us that the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain are chief among the natural instincts of man. If this be so, Pasteur has done more to ameliorate the condition of the race than any one man, living or dead."

"A man of firm convictions, unwearying patience, indomitable courage, and with unlimited capacity for work, he lived in the laboratory. In its quiet seclusion he wrestled with and conquered problems that had baffled the most learned savants of his own and all previous ages.

"Louis Pasteur is the father of the 'germ theory' of diseases. Previous to his discoveries the practice of medicine in treatment of diseases was largely 'guess-work.' Necessarily so; for how shall a man treat correctly a disease the essential nature of which is a mystery to him?"

"Physicians were groping in the dark; wrestling blindly with a foe that they could not see, and that was manifest to them only by its fatal effects. Pasteur has thrown the clear light of science upon this foe, and has shown to the medical world its origin, its method of growth, and the extent of its power; and, best of all, he has put in the hands of the physician a sure means for its extermination.

"Diphtheria, cholera, and hydrophobia have been stripped of their terrors; consumption soon will be; and it is reasonable to expect that before another decade has gone by there will not be a single disease that is not fully under the control of the physician."

"Such was the life-work of Pasteur. He is dead; but his healing touch will be felt to the end of time. If ever fame can render a man 'immortal,' it will be to Louis Pasteur that the generations to come will give the title with grateful reverence."

Whatever may be the truth as to Pasteur, the incidental statements here grievously exaggerate. There is no reason for saying that before Pasteur the practice of medicine was largely guesswork. There does not yet exist proof that what Pasteur did has wholly, or even very largely, changed for permanence the method and effect of medical practice. The germ theory has passed through such changes, and is still in so doubtful a position, as to make it impossible to say that it affords a new basis to the science of medicine. The very great probability is, that like theories which

have previously arisen and have had great vogue, only to give way after a time, so the germ theory will be entirely displaced by better knowledge than we yet have; or we might say by the better knowledge which we are already beginning to get of the chemistry of the animal body.

The claim, moreover, that knowledge of germs has led to provision of a sure means for the extermination of the causes of disease, is entirely without warrant at present. It is yet to be seen whether diphtheria and cholera have been stripped of their terrors. Consumption certainly remains as it was; and there is not the slightest evidence to show that within another decade the physician will perfectly understand the control of all the diseases to which flesh is heir.

Pasteur's work was indeed both impressive and suggestive, but it is a serious question whether the real facts destined to be impressed indelibly on the tablets of history are at all understood as yet. Pasteur was in no sense a medical man; he was a chemist who became a biologist, with views in biology which may, or may not, outlast the century. He began his career as a student of the physical sciences, especially chemistry, and graduated from the Ecole Normale in 1846 with the degree of D. Sc. After filling various positions as professor, he became, in 1863, Professor of Geology, Physics and Chemistry at the École de Beaux Arts, and, in 1867, Professor of Chemistry at the Sorbonne. He wrote essays for the Annals of Chemistry and published works on fermentation, on wine, on vinegar, on the diseases of the silkworm, and on microbes. His chemical works brought him prizes and his services to science and industry were recognized by the French government in 1874 by a pension. He reached the summit of his career with his presentation to the Institute, in 1844, of a plan for curing hydrophobia by inoculating with an attenuated form of the poisonous virus which is the cause of the disease. His plan was examined by a commission and pronounced efficacious. The institute for carrying it into effect began operations, as we have said, November 14, 1888; and to the present time little has been heard but of the success of the work carried on in this institution.

Yet the question remains whether there has been anything like reality in the

work credited to Pasteur and his institute; whether the principle of that work, that of casting out a terribly fatal poison by administering an attenuated dose of the same poison, is a sound principle; and whether, upon proper verification of facts and proper judgment of principles, the whole Pasteur structure would not be swept into the waste-basket with a thousand and one discoveries which have proved illusory and worthless.

How the Koch craze was bravely carried out of reach of criticism for a time, yet speedily collapsed, and is nearly or quite forgotten, we need not remind our readers. It is more to our purpose to bring up the case of the elixir vitæ, which Dr. Brown-Séquard offered to the medical profession. There could be no question of the high medical standing of Dr. Brown-Séquard. He studied in Paris, and was graduated a Doctor of Medicine in 1840. He became professor in the School of Medicine, in Paris, in 1869. He was a great promoter of medical journalism in Paris, and he filled, from 1878 to his death in 1894, the professorship of Experimental Medicine in the College of France. That he had a genius for research, a large experience in medicine, and a very high reputation, justly earned, when he brought forward his elixir, cannot be disputed; nor need it be disputed that there was something in the elixir. But the principle upon which it was prepared was that of a false conception.

It was assumed that the organs of the sheep which are most closely connected with the manifestations of vital energy, would yield an elixir calculated to supply an exceptionally high degree of vital energy. The fact was that these organs yield animal juice, as other parts of the animal would have done, or, we might say, pure protoplasm, and that the only efficacy of the elixir was the efficacy of an easily assimilated food. We could give particulars in regard to a preparation of protoplasm from beef, mutton and fruits, which has on the largest scale shown most remarkable efficiency in exactly the direction aimed at by Dr. Brown-Séquard with his elixir. There was foolishness and only foolishness, ignorance and not knowledge, in his conception of protoplasm derived from certain special organs of the sheep; and the attempt to elevate a simple liquid food to the posi

tion of a magical elixir of life only resulted in leaving in medical science a very considerable scandal.

The serious question in regard to Pasteur is, whether his principle of inoculation with an attenuated virus will not break down when sufficiently brought to the tests of experience; and break down in two ways, (1) by proof that its use is not really operative as supposed, and (2) by evidence of baneful effects following its administration. Within a short time the Boston Herald has given publicity to the report of Mr. Philip Peabody of Boston, president of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, to the effect that the whole structure of Pasteur's scientific fame is as baseless as the momentary fame given by the newspapers to Koch and to Brown-Séquard. The facts alleged by Mr. Peabody in nearly two columns of the Boston Herald appear to be absolutely conclusive. The Chicago Tribune reproduced the Herald article, and the bare fact that in two such journals, in Boston and in Chicago, so carefully framed and so apparently just an exposure of Pasteur's claims can be made, must be regarded as extremely significant. At least the question remains open, whether Pasteur lived and has died one of the glories of France and one of the foremost benefactors of the human race, or whether, as Mr. Peabody says, he has dealt on a vast scale in terrible cruelty with thousands of dumb animals in pursuit of illusions, and has practiced with doubtful effect in his great institute.

HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN.-The death of Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen deprives our current literature of a literary critic whose knowledge and judgment were those of a master. In the Cosmopolitan for October a last word from him particularly reveals what our criticism has lost in his death. He challenges in this He challenges in this "the shallow and absurd contention, which we encounter in well-nigh ninetenths of the literary journals and magazines of this country and England." He objects to Stevenson, Haggard, Doyle, Weyman, and Crockett as evanescent favorites of the hour." He thinks that "what Rudyard Kipling is to develop into remains yet to be seen." Humphrey Ward and Thomas Hardy,

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among living English novelists, he mentions as alone having the same kind of significance as George Eliot, Tolstoi and Tourgueneff. His contempt is unlimited for "the noisy and violent chronicles which our clever sensation-mongers are turning out in such alarming quantities.” Compared with even Scott and Dickens, he greatly prefers "the profound spiritual insight of George Eliot, the masterly character-drawing of Thackeray, and the noble veracity of Tolstoi, Gogol and Tourgueneff." He falls upon Mr. Andrew Lang in the following fashion:

"A literary critic of forty odd years, who can go into ecstacies over Rider Haggard's 'She' and who apparently lacks all comprehension of the scientific spirit of the age, could indeed never be taken seriously anywhere but in England. Upon all the great phenomena which have revolutionized the modern world, Mr. Lang gazes through a pair of rather dim mediæval spectacles, and his attitude toward the great continental movements of thought seems to be characterized by a certain British insularity and superciliousness.

"What above all distinguishes the greater novelists from the lesser is their grip on the great and potent realities of life-their power to deal largely and securely with large subjects, their penetrating insight into the dusky recesses of the human heart. In Andrew Lang and the school he represents I find none of these qualities; but, in their stead, a curious taste for all sorts of archaic trumpery, and a juvenile preference for violent and illogical action. All these traits are normal concommitants of a barren period. England has deluged us of late with second and third-rate novelists, to most of whom Andrew Lang has stood sponsor. During a recent tour by steamer I had occasion to verify the extent of the romantic reaction which is at present sweeping over us. Nine-tenths of the female passengers were reading Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Stanley Weyman and S. R. Crockett, and the remaining tenth were not reading at all."

Of the substantial justice of Professor Boyesen's criticisms there can be no question, and we can but deeply regret that his voice will be no longer heard.

MOORE'S HISTORY OF CONGRESS.-A book of singular interest and of the highest value for instruction in American history is "The American Congress: A History of National Legislation and Political Events, 1774-1895. By Joseph West Moore." It is in effect a history of the United States and a history from a point of view in some respects more important than any other. Mr. Moore's aim has been to supply the general reader and students in our universities and col

leges with a history of everything congressional, to which we look back from the fifty-third of the congresses which have met since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. He begins with briefly sketching the events of colonial history down to the proposition for the Continental Congress of 1774; and with this introduction he goes on to tell, with full knowledge and critical care, the story of the Continental Congress and of the congresses which followed from the adoption of the constitution in 1887. In addition to narrating the origin and the development of the National Government and the legislative action of Congress down to the present time, considerable attention is given also to the origin and growth of parties, to the memorable actions of the various presidents, and to many other matters of American politics which belong in or bear some relation to the story of national legislation.

Mr. Moore presents in a considerable appendix at the close of his work some of the representative documents of American development and lists of the several congresses, of the presidents pro tempore of the Senate, and of the speakers of the House of Representatives, of whom there have been thirty-six.

An extremely rich and valuable feature of Mr. Moore's history are the abundant and extremely well executed sketches of distinguished persons. The reader will learn a great deal, not only about the legislation of our congresses, but about the individuals prominent in American politics. These personal sketches are not only remarkably good as information, but their literary quality is sure to fascinate the reader. Perhaps the general subject suggests a dull book, but Mr. Moore's method has made it intensely interesting, while the thoroughness of his information makes it in the highest degree instructive. It will admirably fill the place for which it is designed, both in our educational institutions and with the reading public.

PROFESSOR C. V. RILEY.-The death of Professor C. V. Riley deprives the science of our time of the services of the most eminent of recent entomologists. Professor Riley had his residence in a beautiful situation on the high ground

in the extreme northwest of Washington, from which the way into the city is by Connecticut avenue, where it makes a considerable descent. Professor Riley

was speeding down this descent on his bicycle, and had just reached the bottom, when an obstruction in the street caused him to be thrown headlong, with almost immediate fatal effect. Of English birth and French and German education, Professor Riley came to America in 1860; spent three years in practical agricultural study; was then for seven years connected with the Chicago Evening Journal and Prairie Farmer; became State Entomologist of Missouri, and helped to start the American Entomologist in 1868; published nine annual reports on the "Insects of Missouri," 1868-77; became United States Entomologist in 1878; Curator of Insects, United States National Museum in 1881; and was in the same year general secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The numerous volumes and the great number of papers devoted by Professor Riley to the publication of the fruits of entomological research formed a body of science, not only of great interest, but of the highest practical value.

THE CHINA DECORATOR.-A monthly publication, which can be especially commended for its invariable maintenance of a high standard, and one whose field, belonging to the domain of fine art, is of great interest, is The China Decorator, occupied exclusively with the art implied by its name. The editor, Mrs. O. L. Braumüller, is intelligently and earnestly devoted to supplying instruction, designs, and the interesting news of a beautiful

A notable fact of the development of this art is the extent to which Chicago, through the enterprise now for a series of years of the Western Decorating Works of Grunewald and Busher in holding annual exhibitions of ceramics. The report of the latest of these exhibitions, held September 16-21, says:

"Do you realize what it means when not only our own artists, upon their return from abroad, but the foreign artists as well, say that amateur ceramic work in this country is far ahead of amateur work abroad? And this wonderful growth of ceramic art work in this country is largely due to the untiring efforts of the Western Decorating Works.