MISCELLANEOUS.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2704, 8 April 1874, Page 5 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS.

Information has been received from Alexandria that Colonel Gordon, who is to succeed Sir Samuel Baker/having arrived in Egypt a day or two before, started on the 22nd ult. to England, by the Peninsular and Oriental Company steamer Simla, via Brindisi. He was expected to return to Egypt in tbe course of three weeks. A report has reached the Boyal Geographical Society from a trustworthy source to the effect that the Livingstone Relief Expedition under Lieutenant Cameron had reached Unyanembe about the end of August, As this place is situated about two-thirds of the way between the coast aud Ujiji, where Mr Stanley met Dr Livingstone, some news of the renowned traveller is anxiously expected.

It was stated a short .time ago that a Belgian peasant had made the extraordinary discovery that earth, coal, and soda, mixed up together, would burn as well and better than any other combustible, and the fact has since been proved beyond a . doubt. The way in which he found this but was curious .had been scraping the.floor, of his cellar with a shovel, in order to bring all the bits of coal lying about into a heap, which, mixed as it is with earth and other impurities, he put/ into bis 8 tove. -- To his astonishment he found - that this- accidental compound ; burnt better instead, of worse thau 'he expected, and emitted much greater heat. , Being an intelligent. man, ■he endeavored to discover the cause, and found' that a good deal of soda, probably the remnant of the last wash, lay about on the floor of the cellar, and that some of it must have got into bis heap.. He then made a few experiments, and at length improved his : compound sufficiently' to render. ,it practical, The publicity given in Belgium to this discovery caused trials to be made everywhere,, and it has now been ascertained that three parts of : earth and one iof coal dust, watered with a concentrated I solution of Boda, will burn well and emit 'greatheat. Many Parisian papers talked of it, but only one, the. u 'Mohitear," .went'so. [ far-as, to make the experiment at its print-, ling office. A certain quantity of friable and slightly sandy earth was mixed with the quantum of coal-dust prescribed ; the two ingredients were well incorporated with each other, and then made into a paste with the solution above mentioned. The fire-place of one of the. boilers had previously been lighted with coal, and the .fire was kept up with shovelfuls of the mixture. The latter, in a few seconds, was transformed into a dry brown crust, which soon after became radhot, and then burnt brightly, but without being very rapidly consumed. The fact of the combustion is therefore well ascertained; but before the system can be universally adopted, there are some important points to be considered, such as the calorific power of the mixture compared to that of pure coal, its price,, and, above all, a remedy for t)bie great drawback attaching to it—its fouling the fire-grate considerably.

Mr 0. R. Huxjey, writing to, the " Globe " with reference to utilisation of the tides as a motive power for machinery, says a plan is about to be submitted to the Government which illustrates the availability of water as a motive power, formal! standing machinery, whether for dockyards, arsenals, rivers—in fact, wherever water is within reach. It is calculated that this invention will save the Government £200,000 in fuel * alone,, and throw .into the market, for use, coal in such quantity as to reduce Jthe price of this costly luxury to one-half its present figure, and cheapen considerably. most articles of manufacture. '.'. '...., It is quite that if physiologists are to be allowed to make experiments on living animals at all, the most careful regulation of such experiments should be imposed by the Government, to prevent the cruelty and torture which the law already forbids. We do not doubt, that tbe physiologists of England violate the statute 12 and 23 Victoria, c. 92, whenever they either vivisect dogs or cats, I without completely chloroforming them, or | when they give them a painful disease with the, view of watching its progress and experimenting on the remedies. Evidently the power of scientific curiosity'is far too great for it to be safe to tout to the humane instincts of all physiologists. The law should provide that no .experiments of the kind should be permitted anywhere but in a licensed physiologists's laboratory, and then only in the presence of some inspector appointed for tbe protection of tbe lower animals, to take guarantees against the possibility of torture, It mightj no doubt, be true that this would limit the progress of scientific discovery, but there is a price for scientific discovery which ought never to be paid. Dr Brown-Sequard is held,. up by his friends as the most tender-hearted of physiologists, but Dr Brown-Sequard himself describes experiments in which he set living oreaturee rolling over and over " for hours, and sometimes for,days, with but, short interruptions," although "sensibility and volition may remain, and there are frequent efforts to resist the tendency to turn or roll." It is childish to punish * carter for goading on his wearied horse, and sot to punish such experiments as these,

Lord Derby made a really amusing speech at Liverpool in answering to the toast of his health as Honorary Colonel of the Regiment of the Ist Lancashire Volunteers. He said he had made so many speeches in oue position or another, that he would much rather have been silent In answer to the toast of the Houseof Lords, ho had "credited that venerable and placid assembly with all the qualities which it possesses, aud some which it ought to possess ;" on political occasions he had often been embarrased between the difficulty of not being enthusiastic enough to please the audience, and being too enthusiastic to please the impartial critics of the next day ; but this timo, though anxious to be silent, he felt really equal to his position as honorary colonel of the Ist Lancashire Volunteers. Whatever his services were worth, they could hardly be worth less than what they cost him, his duties being confined to appearing one day in the year in St George's Hall, paying a perfectly deservod compliment on the energy of the officers and the discipline of the men, and distributing the prizes. As Lord Plunkett said, when he heard .'of a friend's accepting a sinecure, Lord Derby could well say of himself.— v Well, he is equal to it.' though ho did not expect to be able to inspire his regiment with the zeal of the Prussian officer, who lamented the war of 1870, " because it was such a sad interruption of the regiment's drill." Lord Derby often speaks like this he will become the wit of tho party, and Mr Disraeli's humor will pale its ineffectual finis. But who could be humorous iv an empty House of Lords ?

Some time since a cumber of learned societies, anxious for another Arctic expedition, requested Mr Gladstone to recsivo a deputation, selected to set forth the desirability of that step. They have now been informed (tbe " Daily Telegraph' says) that the Government sees no reason to alter tbe decision arrived at during the present year, not to undertake any further expedition until the Challenger has completed her voyage. It is held that voyages of survey are more likely to benefit commerce and promote international intercourse than voyages of discovery; and that, as many maritime surveys are still incomplete, any additional charge incurred should be applied to them. , The "Russian Invalide" publishes an official report describing the position occupied by tbe Russian troops in the annexed territory on the right bank of the Oxus. A provisional camp has been established in tha garden of the Divanbegi Mat-Niasa, nine versts from the ford across the river at Ehanki, and four versts from Shurachan, The position is excellent, both from an economical aud sanitary point of view; The ground is hilly, and, so far as could be ascertained, the climate is very healthy; there is abundant vegetation, although upwards of a thousand poplars had to be cut down for the erection of barracks. To the north of the new fort of Petro • Alexandrovak is the Djurt-Kul canal, and to the south of it tho Bosjab Canal. The country round the for* tress, from Sbruoban to the river, is thickly peopled. There is a sedentary aud nomad population. The former, with a few of the nomads, have their settlements along tho banks of the canal which branch out from the Oxus. These settlements are continued along the banks of the river as far as Sengjab, behind Rachmet-bl-bazar. The sedentary population is supposed to consist of about' 360 > families. Another advantage of this position occupied by the Russians is that in places them within easy reach of Khiva, and is close to the important commercial centres of Khanki and New Urgentch. A regular communication will be maintained daring seven or eight months of the year between Fort Petro-Alexandrovsk and the Syr-Darya by means of the roads which lead in various directions from the Oxus to Kasalinak and Perovsk. These roads present no great' difficulties; many members of the expedition performed the whole of the journey from the Oxus to Easalinsk on horseback, and that during the hottest time of the year. From the opening Of the navigation at Kasalinsk, until its close, when the equinoctial gales on the Sea of Aral begin, the communi» cation With Fort Petro*Alexandrovsk will probably be by water. The work of removing the dykes in the Uikud Dayra, which has been begun under the orders of General yon Eaufmann, will probably not be com. pleted till next year. If the result prove successful, the Aral flotilla will he able to pass through the Ulkun Darya into tho Oxus, apd thence proceed to Ehanki and other places on the river. It appears from the researches made by Lieutenant Colonel Baron Eaulbars, of the General Staff, that there is also another way by which the Aral steamers could reach the Oxus—i.e., from the bay of Tutchebas, or Urs-Singyr, at the south-east-ern end of the Sea of Aral, into the Yangisu, and thence by the Kuk and the Euvandjermo into the Oxue. The Baron has performed the whole journey in a boat, and declares that it is quite practicable for small steamers, —