SCIENCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4145, 3 July 1874, Page 3

SCIENCE.

WRITTXG BY JIACUI-VEl'-Y. Judging from a recent American announcement, writing by machinery already promises to become as much an accomplished fact as is sewing by the same means. The letters are, of course, printed in ordinary type, which, even supposing there is no actual saving of time to the writer, is likely to result in a considerable saving to the reader of the manuscript. It is claimed for the new invention, which is of about the size of an ordinary sewingmachine, that it is capable of writing one hundred words per minute, and that to write sixty words per minute is a matter of no difficulty whatever. But, further than this, the manuscript may be manifold, so that twenty can be produced at the same time. It is this rendering the machine a manifold writer which apparently constitutes its novelty, similar contrivances to produce single copies being nothing new. —“ CEdipus,” in Melbourne Leader.

ATOMIC MATTER. Believers in spiritualism and the ability of Katie King to move solid bodies through walls and other material substances, and those who are decided opponents of spiritualism, would do well to read Mr. Deacon's article on “Atomic matter and luminiferous ether,” appearing in the current number of the Quarterly Journal of Science, where the relative qualities ascribed to matter and to ether are set side by side in parallel columns. By which it will be seen that ether approaches far more nearly to the crude idea of a solid than does any form of the most compact material substances. Ether is described to be continuous, but the atoms of matter do not touch each other. Yet in our passage through it the ether appears to offer no resistance, whilst the friction of the impalpable air, a form of matter greatly attenuated, is able to ignite fuze, and vaporise meteorites in a few seconds. The marvels of the “energetic circles” or even the stories of the “ Arabian Nights” seem commonplace enough compared ■with natural wonders such as those alluded to.— lbid. THE CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO RACE, Sir r ßartle Erere is the author of the following :—This brings us to the much-vexed question as to the capacity of the negro race for any real improvement, such as might justify a hope that within a reasonable period they might take their place among the civilised races of the earth. The most extreme views prevail on this subject, and some writers of great weight have lent their authority to the belief, which is more fairly and lucidly expressed in a great mass of public literature and popular feeling or prejudice, that it is no use whatever attempting to civilise the negro—that the utmost we can do is to give him a kind of superficial varnish of civilisation, and that any attempt to raise him to the same level of civilisation as the nations of Europe, or even the more civilised portions of India, China, and Japan, is simply labor wasted. The following are, briefly, the reasons why I do not at all agree in this view First, it is very inconsistent with the general principles of some of its most decided advocates. I have observed that the men who are most sceptical as to the capabilities of the negro race are very apt to have the most implicit faith in what is generally known aa the doctrine of development. I should prefer resting my argument on historical proof. We arc often asked, if the negro be capable of civilisation, how is it that we have as yet no highly civilised negro nations ? But what are the facts ? We may any day find, if we take the trouble to look for them, negroes who are not only well informed in all the acquired knowledge of an English education, but who in their moral qualities would take a high rank among educated English gentlemen. We are told this is all the effect of isolation from negro influences, and subjection to the influences of civilised education. This is not only true, but seems to me to supply the key for explaining both the long exclusion of the negro races from civilisation, and the means by which their civilisation in future is to be accomplished. Let us remark, in passing, that it is not only in Europe, but wherever the negro has been transported to a civilised community, that the same result is observable. For many ages past negro slaves have f ormed a part of the paraphernalia of every great chief or sovereign in India and its neighbourhood. Except in the possession of a high standard of physical qualities, beauty, strength, See., for which they have been selected, these slaves, as a general rule, differ in nothing from the slaves transported to our sugar colonics ; and they are generally found to have developed the same good qualities which are almost universally accorded to them by those who have experience. They are capable of devoted personal attachment, and of a dog-like fidelity and courage. These are the general characteristics of the race, and by no means confined to isolated specimens. It will bo found, I think, that almost all who have had much experience of the negro, and who are apt to express the least favorable view of his capabilities for civilisation, makes an exception in favor of particular individuals. The harshest of these judges ■ generally tell you they have^

known one—only one—really honest, faithful, or brave negro; but though he may be only one, there he is, bearing testimony to the exceptional power of at least some of the race to respond to civilising influences. Nor can I recall a single instance of anyone who has had wide-spread experience among negroes who has not homo at least this testimony to their capabilities. But, it may be asked, why, if this be the case, has the race as a body, stood still 1 First, I think we must allow a great deal for their long-continued isolation. Nor has the canker of the slave-trade up to the present moment, entirely ceased to eat into the very vitals of the African races. But supposing that the foreign slave-trade could bo effectually checked, what obstacles would remain to the civilisation of Africa, apart from the difficulty of educating whole races, each of them counted by millions. First, I would put slavery—the power of one man to sell another, irrespective of the wants, wishes, or rights of the person sold. It may seem superfluous to speak of the evils of slavery in retarding civilisation, but there are not wanting many educated men among us who will still argue that, whatever may be the case in other countries, slavery is a natural and necessary evil in Africa, and that, in fact, no other state of society is compatible with the characteristics of the race. Let me once for all state my entire disbelief of their being any foundation for this assertion. In the first place, there are not wanting in Africa, even in its present degraded state, examples quite large enough and: striking enough to prove that a free community of African Negroes is quite as possible as similar communities in this or any other continent. I do not now refer to the communities founded by Western nations, such as Liberia, or our own West Indian colonies. They all have more or less the traces of their foreign origin, but we find in every part of the continent particular races where the great body of laborers is quite as free from the worst characteristics of slavery, as the tribes of our own country were in the days of our earlier civilisation.