It was

burnt there. He was glad to hear from one speaker that a 10-inch shaft had been successfully welded in London. He had not heard of it before. Colonel Cunningham asked what was the total length of rails welded into one piece. The example Colonel Cunningham gave of the difficulty of welding long lengths into one piece was the very kind of example that he excluded when he spoke of tram-rails that were buried in the earth being distinct from the main line rails, which were exposed to the full blaze of the sun and the cold of the night alternately. The diurnal change of temperature did not occur in a rail which was buried seven inches in the ground; the stresses set up to make a movement and buckling were nothing like so great and often. Further, rails buried in the ground, which had the strength of concrete or wood paving to hold them there, were relatively much more strongly held than when let into stone curbs lying on bricks put together with London mortar; the circumstances were entirely different. known that in those cases the expansion of the straight length gave rise to trouble. He could not give an actual answer to Colonel Cunningham's question, but he could give what was equivalent to an answer- it did not matter whether it was a mile or a thousand miles, for this reason. If there was a straight length of tram-rail buried in the ground, there were numerous crossbars and the shoes described all carefully concreted into the ground. The actual amount of adhesion between the rail and the ground was so great that when expansion occurred on a very great length of rail all except what must be called the free end was locked to the ground and could not move. Up to within the last 30 or 50 yards the forces were sufficient to prevent the rail moving. The free end at each end was subject to expansion, but not very much, but all between was absolutely held to the ground; and unless it broke, it would not, in any way, suffer from expansion and contraction. That also was an answer to the question about the main lines. Main lines were exposed to the sun, where the day heat might be very great, as a fact a rail could not be touched when the sun was on it. Further the rail was only held by chairs and sleepers; and the adhesion between the rail and the ground was much less in that case than in a tram-rail with its concrete and paving; so that there were enormously greater forces set up from change of temperature, and enormously less power of controlling those forces because of the very feeble adhesion of the rails and sleepers to a gravel bed as compared with the concrete of the street paving. Main lines exposed to the air had not been welded. He had been asked whether it was possible to get welding done in London. He referred the speaker to Mr. Masterman, of Victoria-street, the London representative of Dr. Goldschmidt. Mr. Trotter asked what oxide of iron was used. At one time he believed that ordinary brown oxide of iron was used, but that brown thermit was not now sent

from Germany. The whole of the thermit was made in Germany. The English patent-law was a beautiful, system. A foreigner made an article under the protection of English patent-law, not because he could make it cheaper or better, but because of the · protection of the patent-law; and thermit was made in Germany, under the protection of the patent-law, to the advantage of the German. The German deserved the advantage, because he saw the value of the invention when nobody in England would see it; but he would rather the English patentlaw did not allow him to do it, but compelled him to send intelligent people over to this country to manufacture and to teach us all that we could learn from them, and also that we might go on making good Germans into good Englishmen. As far as he knew any oxide of iron would do; from looking at it he judged that forge scale would do perfectly well. What Dr. Goldschmidt actually used he took very good care that nobody should know.

On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Boys.

Miscellaneous.

LEAD ARCHITECTURE.*

The direct purpose of the scholarly and inspiring paper on "Lead Architecture" recently read by Mr. Starkie Gardner before the Royal Institute of British Architects was to advocate the larger use of lead, not only in the decoration, but in the construction of buildings, both private and public; but it also, indirectly, suggests reference to the salient statistical facts of the present position of the production and manufacture of lead in this country, which are full of cautions for all those who are anxious to cast a right and true vote on the great fiscal question now before this country; and to these figures I would desire, very briefly to call attention; for they deserve the most searching and deliberate consideration.

It is not necessary to go into any ancient, or mediæval, or modern history to show our continuous pre-eminence from time to time when, according to Pliny [vii., 56, (57)], "Plumbumt ex Cassiteride primus aportavit Midacritus" [i.e., the Phoenician "Melkart "] down to the XIXth century in the export of lead and leaden wares. Nearly all the older French churches and palaces were covered in with British lead; and Louis XIV. used "32,000,000

This article by Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I.E., is reprinted from The Builder.

+ Plumbum here means "lead," or includes lead, Plin distinguishing tin ore as "p: caudidum" and tin in bars as stagnum,"-after IVth century A.D. "stannum" [xxxiv.. 16, (47)], the Kassiteros of Homer, Assyrian Kazasatira, Accadian Kasdura, and Sanskrit Kastira. Compare "Casiter St." Bodmin!

For some time previous to this decline the production was not equal to our consumption of lead; but its diminution is not to be traced to any exhaustion of our lead mines, and is to be attributed for the most part to the comparative cheapness with which lead was, and still is, worked in other countriesSpain, United States of America, New South Wales, South Australia, etc.; the total imports of lead ore, pig lead, and sheet lead into the United Kingdom from other countries having amounted in 1902 to 327,244 tons, as against our output, as shown above, of 24,606 tons. In the same year our exports of foreign lead ore, pig lead, and sheet lead amounted to 23,142 tons; and of British lead ore, pig lead, sheet lead, and lead piping and lead tubes-some of which articles were, I presume, manufactured of foreign lead-to 34,987 tons; thus leaving an immense residue for home consumption. The fall in the price of lead is shown in the following

1873

1883

1893

1902

:

figures :£ s. d.

23 6 0 per ton. 12 18 O

Now, although our mines are not exhausted, the production of them could not have been raised to the stupendous proportions of the importations of foreign lead; and without the cheapening of lead caused by these foreign importations there would have been no possibility of the extended and in every way highly advantageous use of lead that has been followed in this country during the last thirty years, and no possibility of its yet wider application in architecture as proposed by Mr Starkie Gardner; or, in other words, of the restoration of lead to its proper place in the architecture of this country, where lead was intimately associated with the whole scheme of our domestic and social life long before the building of our dwellings had been developed into the master art (as it is for every country) of all its truly national and idiosyncratic arts. Man does not live on bread alone; and it must not be overlooked, in the consideration of the question now before the voters of this country, that the revival of the arts of this country during the reign of Queen-Empress Victoria was profoundly influenced by "Free Trade" and free popular intercourse with the Continent, and the free immigration into this country of "undesirable aliens."

Of course, to restore prosperity to our actual lead mines in Cornwall, Flint, Cardigan, Derbyshire,

Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, etc. (the Isle of Man has suffered nothing from the competition of the foreigners), there would be nothing like raising the price of lead again, by means of a duty on imported lead, to £20 a ton; and by the lead we then took of the foreigner the whole nation would benefit to the extent of the duty paid on it. But is the inevitable decay in the spiritual life of the country which would follow on the adoption of anything like a general "protective" tariff to count for nothing? I am advancing no plea, but simply emphasising one of the several cautions forced on me by the reading of Mr. Starkie Gardner's illuminating paper.

As to its its immediate object, I would fain be permitted to add that lead readily conducts heat and cold; a fact which made "the leads of Venice "-the prisons in the roof of the Ducal Palace of St. Markproverbial throughout Europe by reason of their frightful heat during the months of summer. But lead might well be used for winter gardens, orangeries, riverside residences subject to flooding, bridges, fountains, and statues of the indicative class, such as the archer at one time placed in front of, or over the entrance to military barracks—whence such phrases as [Othello I., 1] “lead to the Sagittary.”

CANTOR LECTURES.

Monday evenings, at 8 o'clock

J. LEWKOWITSCH, PhD., M.A., F.I.C., "Oils and Fats-their Uses and Applications." Four Lectures.

LECTURE IV.-FEBRUARY 15.-Modern Processes of Saponification-Candle Industry-Soap Industry - Manufacture of Glycerine-Recovery of Glycerine from Soap Lyes.

CHARLES T. JACOBI, "Modern Book Printng." Two Lectures.

LECTURE I.-FEBRUARY 22.-Printing Types.-Some account of those used by the early and subsequent Printers-Founts specially designed for the Some good private Presses of the present day Types that may be obtained in the open Market, well adapted for the different classes of Book Printing-The choice of a suitable Type.

Pathological, 20, Hanover-square, W., 8 p.m.
Photographic, 66, Russell-square, W.C., 8 p.m.
Lantern Meeting.

Zoological, 3, Hanover-square, W., 8 p.m. 1. Mr.
Cyril Crossland, "The Marine Fauna of Zanzibar
and British East Africa.-Polychata, Part III"
2. Mr. Cyril Crossland, "The Polychata of the
Maldive Archipelago from the Collections made
by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner in 1899."
3. Sir
Charles Eliot, "Some Nudibranchs from Zanzibar
and East Africa.-No. IV. Doridida Crypto-
branchiata."

Colonial Inst., Northumberland avenue, W.C.,
4 p.m. Annual Meeting.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street, Adelphi, W.C., 8 pm. Mr. A. R. Sennett,

"Garden Cities in their Relation to Industries
and Agriculture."

Meteorological, 25, Great George-street, S.W., 71
p.m. 1. Mr. Edward Mawley, "Report on the
Phenological Observations for 1903." 2. Mr. W.
H. Dines, "Observations by means of Kites at
Crinan in the Summer of 1903."
Chemical, Burlington-house, W., 5 pm.

1. Mr. R. J. Friswell, "Observations on some Continuous Intramolecular and at first Reversible Changes extending over prolonged Periods of Time." 2. Mr. A. McKenzie, "The Esterification of rMandelic Acid by Menthol and Borneol." Microscopical, 20, Hanover-square, 8 p.m.

1. Mr.

E. M. Nelson, "The Vertical Illuminator, and the Influence of the Antipoint on the Microscopic Image shown Graphically. 2. Mr. Keith Lucas, "A Microscope with Geometric Slides." 3. Mr. C. L. Curties will Exhibit Specimens of Marine Objects, mounted by Mr. H. J. Waddington. United Service Institution, Whitehall, S.W., 3 p.m. Colone E. W. Cotter, "Coast Defence from an Imper.al Point of View."

British Archæological Association, 32, Sackville-
street, W., 8 p.m.

Silk Association (at the HOUSE OF THE SOCIETY OF
ARTS), John-street, Adelphi, W.C., 3 p.m. Annual
Meeting.

THURSDAY, FEB. 18...Royal, Burlington-house, W., 4 p.m.
Antiquaries, Burlington-house, W., 8 p.m.
Linnean, Burlington-house, W., 8 p.m.
1. Mr.
R. H. Biffen, ""Mendel's Laws, as Illustrated by
Wheat Hybrids." 2. Mr. W. Bateson," Heredity
and Variation, as seen in Primula Siueusis.”
3. Mr. L. A. Boodle, "Formation of Secondary
Wood in Psilotum."

Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., 5 p.m. Mr. A. D. Hall, "Recent Research in Agriculture." (Lecture III.)

Optical, 20, Hanover-square, W., 8 p.m. Paper by Mr. L. D. Chalmers.

Historical, Clifford's Inn Hall, Fleet-street, E.C., 5 p.m. Annual Meeting.

Numismatic, 22, Albemarle-street, W., 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEB 19...Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., 9 p.m. Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, "Condensation Nuclei."

Architectural Association, 9, Conduit-street, W

7 p.m. Mr. W. H. White, "Corner Houses." Quekett Microscopical Club, 20, Hanover-square, W.C., 8 p.m.

Geological, Burlington house, W., 3 p.m. Annual
Meeting.

SATURDAY, FEB. 20... Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., 3 p.m. Lord Rayleigh, "The Life and Work of Stokes." (Lecture I.)

COLONIAL SECTION.

Tuesday afternoon, February 9th, 1904; The Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE, M.P., D.C.L., LL.D., in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN said the subject upon which Sir John Cockburn had undertaken to speak was of the highest possible interest. The author of the paper had filled posts of high distinction and importance in the colony to which he belonged, and had subsequently been its Agent-General in England, and was, therefore, conversant, not only with the condition of Australia, and with Colonial problems generally, but was also able to look upon them from the point of view of an English statesman. Sir John Cockburn belonged to the class, unfortunately too small, of those who brought to the study of problems in politics and practical

Further details of the Society's meetings

will be found at the end of this number.

CANTOR LECTURES.

DR. J. LEWKOWITSCH delivered the fourth and last lecture of his course on "Oils and Fats" on Monday evening, 15th inst.

A vote of thanks to Dr. J. Lewkowitsch for his valuable course of lectures was carried on the motion of the Chairinan.

The lectures will be published in the Journal during the summer recess.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE JOURNAL.

With this number of the Journal is issued a Supplement, containing Tables A to D of Mr. Sennett's paper on " Garden Cities," relating specially to Beet Cultivation in England.

COVERS FOR JOURNAL.

For the convenience of members wishing to bind their volumes of the Journal, cloth covers will be supplied, post free, for 1s. 6d. each, on application to the Secretary.

fessional training; and the very subject which he had chosen for his paper indicated that, as a former student of medicine and of science, he was able to look at those social and political problems from the scientific point of view, and to see how much of analogy there was between the life processes which went on in living organizations within the field of biology proper and the life processes which went on in political organizations and institutions. This analogy had floated before the minds of political thinkers for many generations past; but as of late years science had been studied so much more exactly, and its methods had been perfected, it (the analogy) had become more interesting and instructive than formerly. Federations were a form of political organisation of the greatest significance. He read the other day in the work of one of our wisest and most learned writers upon politics, the late Mr. Henry Sidgwick, the remark that federal schemes of government were likely, for the future, to play an increasingly important part in the evolution of free institutions. Till the middle of the last century the only federation in the world was that of the United States of North America, itself only dating from 1788. Since then four new ones had been created, first the Swiss Confederation-because the old Swiss League was not turned into a regular federation until the middle of last century-then the Canadian federation; then the German Empire, which, although a monarchy, was also a federation; and last of all, there came the federation of Australia. We had, therefore, now at hand far more ample materials for investigating what might be called the natural history of federal Governments, the sources of their strength, and the maladies to which they were liable than were in the possession of any earlier generation of mankind.

This was the subject which (as he understood) Sir John Cockburn proposed to treat, and which he would treat with the double advantage of first-hand knowledge of the phenomena attending the creation of confederation in Australia, and the skill of a scientific observer who had been accustomed to apply scientific methods during the whole of his life. Though neither the audience nor he had yet heard the paper, he would venture to say two things in regard to one of the topics which he understood the paper dealt with, viz., the possibilities of attaching the Colonies to the Mother Country, by a permanent tie, of a quasi federal scheme of government. His first remark was that the object was one upon which there was no difference of opinion in Great Britain. Every political party, indeed every section of a party, desired that the connection between the United Kingdom and her Colonies should, in every successive generation, grow stronger, closer, and more durable. All English men were proud of the growing sentiment of attachment they discerned in the Colonies, and all felt that the sense of interest in the Colonies which had never quite failed in England, had, within the lifetime of the present generation, become much warmer than formerly it was. There was a time when it was supposed that the Colonies would naturally drop away, and the familiar metaphor of the fruit dropping off the tree when it was ripe was used, as metaphors often were, to convey an entirely false prediction. Those days of comparative indifference had happily now passed away, and they all desired to do everything they could to make the connection closer and more durable. The other observation he desired to make, was that they must be careful in such a matter to be guided mainly and primarily by the views and wishes of the Colonies themselves. Twenty years ago he was one of the first members of the Imperial Federation League; and there was borne in upon him, in the course of the discussions of its Committee, as to the means of devising a constitution to unite the United Kingdom and the Colonies (and it had been borne in upon him since in conversing with many Colonial statesmen upon the subject), that they must allow the colonists to have the first and chief voice in settling matters of the kind; and however warm their desires might be for endeavouring to draw closer the ties which united them with us, we must beware of doing anything which could disturb the well-founded security in which the Colonies had hitherto rested, that there was no intention on the part of the Mother Country to circumscribe their self-government, no desire to impose upon these great communities anything which would check or disturb the political and social development of each of them on its own lines, in the way it found best for itself. That was the view he had gathered from what every Colonial statesman had told him; and, therefore, while feeling hopeful with regard to the future, and while believing that the process of discussion would, by degrees, work out some method or device by which the Colonies would

be brought to a better defined constitutional relation, he thought they must not make any hasty attempts to change the present state of things. The United Kingdom and the Colonies were as a matter of fact in perfectly close and good touch with one another. They knew that we did not desire to interfere with their self-government; and they, on the other hand, showed themselves more and more willing to be helpful to the Mother Country as opportunity might offer for them to do so. It was probable that they might contribute more largely than they had yet done to imperial defence. Therefore, it was not to be supposed that there existed any urgent need for the creation of a new governmental system. Under our present system we were working smoothly and happily. When any opportunity presented itself by which a means could be devised of giving us at home a fuller means of ascertaining their sentiments upon any current question of imperial interest, of associating them with us in the work of imperial defence, and in all other matters which the Mother Country and the Colonies had in common, by all means let such an opportunity be promptly used. Much must depend upon the course which events take. The secret of success was in seizing opportunities as they came. If the minds of statesmen are steadily bent upon this excellent and admirable aim, if they endeavour to find a place which colonial opinion will approve, the opportunities that are pretty sure to arise might be so handled as to promote the consolidation of the British Empire, and, therewith, the peace of the world. As he was, to his great regret, obliged to leave before the end of the reading of the paper, he would take this opportunity of expressing the pleasure they all felt that a man so eminent as Sir John Cockburn, and possessing so exceptional an experience, was good enough to come and state his views upon a question which had scientific interest as well as practical importance.

[During the reading of the paper the chair was vacated by Mr. Bryce, when his place was taken by Sir Westby B. Perceval, K.C.M.G.]

The paper read was

THE BIOLOGY OF FEDERATION. BY THE HON. SIR JOHN ALEXANDER COCKBURN, K.C.M.G.

When about fifty years ago English statesmen were, by all means in their power, facilitating and inducing the separation of the Colonies from the Mother Country, little did they think that as instruments in the hands of evolution they were doing just the reverse of what they intended, and instead of officiating, as they thought, at the euthanasia of the Colonial Empire, they were in reality providing for the