Niger; and the same principle of the coming interest of European civilization must serve to furnish the basis for settling the other questions which concern the political relations of European governinents with uncivilized countries. what nation would not injure itself if it of the Belgians' Association, which consought to exclude every other from the sists in this to organize the basin of promotion of civilization? Can we even the Congo politically, and to open it to rationally speak of antagonism in fields European civilization. Every people in that are not yet opened up, that are, so to Europe will share in the advantages of say, not yet existing for us, and which the new African State in the measure in can only promise to be of any use and im- which its special capacities and culture fit portance even for England when English it to do so. Germans, French, English, or German or other European labor has Portuguese will acquire in the new Congo opened them up for European needs and State the importance which they can win commodities? Can we speak of rivalry by their trade, their labor and capital, in countries like Africa, America, or Aus- their colonization and cultivation of the tralia and the islands of the South Sea, land itself. The river Congo throughout when the whole resources of Europe will its whole basin will, as a matter of internot for any visible time be equal to de- national law, bear no specifically national velop them to the extent of which they character, but will be English, German, are capable? Only unreason can propa- or French, just as far as private labor will gate such ill-grounded opinions without make it so. We expect to see this prinreflecting how even the flattest absurdities | ciple applied to the remaining tasks of the can stir up, though it may be for a short Conference also. What has been done time only, popular excitements which for the Congo cannot be refused to the might cause serious disturbances to the political and economic relations of whole States. It is desirable that such disturb ances of public opinion should be opposed in time both in England and in Germany. All the more so because this subject is now before the most competent tribunal The German has hitherto been willingly possible. For one of the chief aims of received as a fellow-laborer in all English the Conference summoned at the instance colonies, and we have rejoiced at the freof Germany for the settlement of the quent recognition in the English press of Congo question is the timely prevention the capacity and industry of German colof any possible rivalries in the field of onists. Relationship in language, characcolonization by fixing on all sides the ter, force, and endurance renders a union interests and rights of each power. The of Englishmen and Germans in some colonization question is not in principle sense easier than a union of either with of a national, but of an international char- | Latin or Slavonic races. It would thereacter, so far as it deals with presuppositions of international law. And it would give high satisfaction to the representatives of the colonial movement in Germany, if the friendly powers succeeded in finding fixed rules for the now very important colonial work of nations. What we in Germany wish is security for our private business operations in uncivilized lands, a security which neither our government, so far as it is able, nor any for eign power, can deny to us on principle. We therefore expect from the Congo Conference now sitting, a practical settlement of the questions of the occupation, protectorate, and annexation of uncivilized lands and of the rights to great rivers. The principle on which that Conference has been based is that of complete equality of right among the leading nations of Europe and America with respect to those countries and peoples that have not yet come under European civilization. The Conference has shown itself disposed to recognize the task proposed by the King fore be all the more foolish to encourage groundless and aimless jealousies between the two German races in a field where the labor of the one can only support that of the other. The noble and useful task of civilizing savage countries and peoples cannot possibly be the occasion of jealousy, but only of competition. And as England has never thought of excluding German laborers or merchants from her ports, mines, or coffee plantations in Asia or Africa, so now she will not try to hinder Germany from acquiring colonies of her own. Besides, it seems to me that the expectations entertained outside of Germany of immediate practical results from the present movement are often extravagant. We in Germany have as yet neither the means nor the intention of undertaking a great colonial crusade. Our aims are more modest. But we do desire, not only in a private but also in a political form, justice and protection in foreign lands for whatever we may acquire by our own labor, capital, or intelligence. This desire is too just to awaken anxiety in most important article of commerce, being any country of Europe. BARON VON der BruggEN. From The Lancet. COCA AND COCAINE. used for barter or exchange in place of money among the South American Indians. He also describes their use of coca as being threefold. (1) It was chewed and mixed with the powder of calcined shells of oysters and other shellfish; this paste after being allowed to ferment was formed into boluses or troches, and dried; during long journeys these boluses were sucked, and under their influence hunger and thirst were alleviated and bodily strength was sustained. (2) When eaten for producing pleasure or intoxication the coca was chewed by itself; and (3) it was mixed with tobacco and smoked. Among others the following travellers have written on coca: Pöppig, Weddell, and Markham; of pharmacologists, Quincy, Perei THE alkaloid cocaine was produced by Niemann in 1860 from the leaves of the Erythroxylon coca. Professor Schroff was probably the first to mention the fact of its anæsthetizing effect on the mucous membrane of the tongue. The credit of rescuing cocaine from the oblivion into which it had fallen, and of giving it a practical application, unquestionably belongs to Koller. The next occasion of its public appearance was at the Ophthal-ra, and Hanbury do not mention it, nor mological Society, where Messrs. Benson, Marcus Gunn, and Nettleship_spoke of its use in ophthalmic surgery. Since that time cocaine has by a bound leaped into professional favor. The great excellences of cocaine consist in the limitation of its action to the tissues to which it is applied. No doubt other symptoms at a distance do result from the external application of the anesthetic, but they are for the most part insignificant and by no means dangerous. In some measure cocaine may be compared with curare. The one agent paralyzes the termination of the sensory nerves, whilst the other paralyzes the termination of the motor nerves. Aconite would seem to act in a manner the very reverse of cocaine. The contemplation of a few facts of this kind leads one to think of the ultima thule of anæsthetics as likely to be not one of the least splendid triumphs of science. No doubt much remains to be worked at before the full value is given to this latest addition to our armamentaria, and before a full explanation of the mode of action of the drug in the one particular respect for which it is in so great demand can be given. Coca leaves are the produce of Erythroxylon coca, Lamarck, a shrub cultivated on the slopes of the Cordilleras of Bolivia, Peru, and Columbia. The Spanish conquerors of western South America became well acquainted with the use of coca by the aboriginal Indians. Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician, published at Seville, in 1565, a history of medicinal simples brought from the New World, in which he gives a description, obtained from the commentaries of Pedro Cieça and others, of coca leaves, their mode of collection and drying, and states they were their has it been official till the last French ta'en, Long hunger and long labor can sustain ; Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join'd. The coca shrub grows to a height of from four to eight feet, and resembles our blackthorn in appearance. It has small, white, short-stalked, drooping flowers, in clusters upon the branches in places where the leaves have fallen. The leaves are closely placed, alternate, about two inches long, oval oblong, entire at the margin; sometimes they are acute but usually blunt and emarginate, with a small apiculus in the notch at the apex, rather thin but opaque, smooth with a prominent midrib, and on each side a curved line running from the base to the apex, showing its mode of vernation. When fresh the upper surface is bright, dark-green in color, the lower is paler and strongly marked with veins. The carefully dried leaves have the odor of tea, but if dried less perfectly they have a bouquet of their own which is very un pleasant in the breath of those who chew it. They have a somewhat aromatic and bitter taste, and are more active when freshly dried. By permission we have tasted a fresh leaf in the Botanic Gardens, and the benumbing effect on the tongue -dulling its sensibility—was apparently much greater than that of a number of dried leaves. The plants are raised from seeds, and the cultivation, at an elevation of from two to seven thousand feet above the sea level, is carried on with great care, as described by Dr. Weddell, who supposes the name coca to be derived from an Indian term signifying the tree or plant. Its original habitat is doubtful. It has been acclimatized in Ceylon. Botanical specimens were first sent by Joseph de Jussieu to his brother in 1750; these Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu referred to the genus Erythroxylon, and finally they served as types for Lamarck to give the plant his designation Erythroxylon coca in his Encyclopédie. The coca shrub yields three or four crops of leaves annually, from the age of eighteen months to forty years. The produce has been estimated at from thirty to forty million pounds yearly. Its value on the spot varies from amounts equal to from one to five shillings per pound English. The most productive plantations, or cocals, are in the province of La Paz, in Bolivia, but our principal imports come from Lima. Coca was used in the religious rites of the Incas; it was by them treated with great reverence, and by their conquerors with some superstition. A council of bishops at Lima in 1569 condemned its use, and stated that the belief entertained by the Indians that the habit of chewing coca gave them strength was an illusion of the devil. By the Indians working as miners or at other occupations, coca is still chewed with a paste made of the ashes of certain plants or with lime. They become more or less slaves to the habit; opinions differ as to the ill effects of this chewing on them. On Europeans who became accustomed to, but had not been addicted to, its use from youth, Dr. Weddell noticed that it did sometimes produce evil consequences, and that in some a peculiar aber ration of the intellectual faculties occurred, indicated by hallucinations. His view of its action was that it deceived or lulled hunger and fatigue. The Indians who accompanied him on his journey chewed coca during the whole day, but at night they filled their stomachs like fasting men. Dr. Mantegezza, of Milan, who practised in South America, further tried and wrote on its marvellous properties, as did Sir Robert Christison. Mr. G. Dowdeswell also tried it, but came to negative conclusions as to its action. Except by the force of advertisements of French specialties made from it, coca has of late received little attention in England; but now, again, the observations of Herr Koller on the local anesthetic action possessed by its alkaloid, cocaine, have brought it to the front. From Sunday at Home. THE JEWS IN CENTRAL ASIA. WE paid our first visit to the central Asian Jews, in Tashkend. At the synagogue in the Russian quarter, I presented my letter as an introduction, and asked whether they had any ancient manuscripts; but so far were they from having antiques that everything appeared almost new. I had rarely before entered a synagogue so clean and gay. The walls had been newly whitewashed and ornamented with native painting, and though there was no service going on, there were several men and boys reading. They manifested the utmost interest in my letter, but had nothing of ecclesiastical interest to show, whereupon I discovered that we had been brought to the new synagogue of the European Jews, most of whom had come to Turkistan as soldiers, and on their discharge had preferred to settle in Tashkend rather than go back to Russia. We drove therefore to Asiatic Tashkend to seek the meeting-place of the Asiatic Jews; and after going as far as the isvost chik, or cabman, could take us by reason of the narrowness and miserable paving of the streets, we took to our feet, and passing through narrow lanes and alleys came into a small yard. On one side was a miserable shed with a lean-to roof of poles wretchedly covered, whilst under and all around sat a crowd of people. It is customary on Friday evening for the Jews to assemble in the synagogue, which in the service is compared to a bridegroom, to welcome the coming in of the Sabbath, beautifully figured as a bride, and on Saturday evening they gather to bid the Sabbath farewell. Whether on the present occasion it was this Sabbath evening service or something of a less formal character, I am not sure; but so surprised did they appear at our sudden visit, and above all, so curious to get a peep at my letter, that, the service being speedily concluded, all crowded around. I was taken, with my interpreter, to an adjacent spot, where within still narrower | insulted, or even beaten by a Mohamme. limits under a straw roof, a number of dan, he could claim no redress. On reach grave and reverend elders were assem- ing Samarkand, the ancient capital of bled, sitting on the ground and praying or Tamerlane, which until a few years ago reading, and intoning. This struck me was in the possession of the emir of as a remarkable sight, by reason of the Bokhara, we found the Jews in large nummagnificent countenances of some of the bers and in a more flourishing condition. old men. With their huge turbans of Nor had we been many hours there before spotless white, and Oriental flowing robes, we made the acquaintance of one of them. they reminded me of the typical Israelites. He was on the official staff of interpreters, The Jews of central Asia, like the Sarts, and General Korolkoff, the acting govshave their heads, except that they leave ernor of the province, would have sent a lock falling in a curl from each temple. him with us for our guide about the town, This patch of hair is left uncut in obedi- only that we had arrived during the Feast ence to the Levitical injunction, "Neither of Tabernacles, when work might not be shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard," done. The Jew therefore explained that which by transference from the beard to he could not drive with us even to Tamerthe hair is fairly intelligible, though it is lane's tomb, which was not far distant not so patent how they evade the other from the palace where we were staying, command, "They shall not make baldness though his conscience was sufficiently upon their head," for this appears to be elastic to allow of his walking there. We the very thing they do. They received accordingly set out, and he told us on the my visit with evident pleasure; and both way how much more strict in keeping showed me their copy of the law, orna- their law are the Asiatic than the Euromented with silver and precious stones, pean Jews. He left us on our return from and permitted me to look into the cup- the famous tomb, and then went off to board containing their books. Their hav- make arrangements with a fellow Israelite, ing no synagogue, together with the pov-one Raphael Moses Kalendaroff, at whose erty and ill-furnished condition of their place of prayer, was explained to a large extent by the fact that almost all the Jews in Tashkend are sojourners only, as also by the oppressions to which they were subject under the khans of Khokand before the Russian occupation. An intelligent Jew came to our house to buy copies of the Old Testament. I took the opportunity to ask him concerning the Jews in central Asia, who, he said, were descended from Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes dispersed over Europe and Asia, whereas the ten tribes he thought were dwelling "beyond China." In Khokand he said there were from two to three hundred Israelites born on the spot, and from three to four hundred sojourners, mostly merchants, dyers, manufacturers, and drug gists. I expressed surprise that they had no regular synagogue, but he explained that until the advent of the Russians, the Jews had been few in number, that they had no right to buy land, and were forbid den by the khans to build a synagogue, that they were in fact under similar restrictions to those from which their brethren in Bokhara still suffered. They could not enter the city mounted, were forbidden to wear a turban, and allowed only a black calico cap for the head, and a piece of string for a girdle; and though they were compelled to pay double taxes, as compared with the natives, yet if a Jew were house we might see how they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. On the afternoon of the same day we found in the court or garden of Moses a cotton tent erected, out of which nothing might be eaten for seven days. Here I presented the lord mayor's letter, and the introduction of a Moscow rabbi, received at once a welcome, and was invited to eat. The ancient law directed (Lev. xxiii. 39-44; Neh. viii. 14-16) that the people should dwell in huts, which is interpreted to mean still that the roof, if not the sides, should be of branches, but these would not be easily obtained in sufficient quantity in Samarkand, and I am under the impression that there not even the roof was so formed. My host, however, had remembered the injunction of the law in providing at least the fruit of goodly trees," if, not "olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and willows of the brook." Perhaps these latter were represented by the leafy decorations over our heads in the form of a large framework, something like a chandelier, from which were hanging apples, quinces, and saffron flowers, whilst on the carpeted floor were spread parched peas, pistachio nuts, grapes, peaches, and apples, as well as mutton and carrot pies, and roasted apricot and plum kernels. Many came in, and kneeling down, sat upon their haunches, but not cross-legged, round the four walls of the tent. Two days later we called on the rabbi, who was still keeping the feast in his tabernacle, where he received us. I was glad to make inquiries of him respecting his people. He said there were twenty-five hundred Israelites dwelling in four hundred houses in Samarkand. A piece of traditional information he gave me was that Samarkand had been destroyed seven times, and that therein had perished twenty-four thousand Kohanim Jews, these having a separate cemetery from the Israelites. Tamerlane was said to have brought from Meshed seven families of Jews, whose descendants were still living at Bokhara and Samarkand. But these stories were very much of the nature of "idle tales," for the rabbi said that the Jews had not been in Samarkand more than a century, and he added that they were from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. With reference to the so-called "lost tribes," he related a well-known Jewish tradition that on the river Sambation (which he located in China, though some others affirm that it is in Africa) are people whom the Chinese call "sons of Abraham," and that Mussulmans profess to the Jews in Sa markand to have seen their brethren in China; though the Samarkand Jews have not so done, and for this wonderful reason, that the aforesaid river Sambation is hot on six days, and cold only on the seventh. On this latter day it would be unlawful for the Jews to cross, but the Mohammedans, not being similarly bound, embrace the opportunity to do so. WOOL IN NEW SOUTH WALES.-The north- against pastoral tenants, as it is said they hold west of the colony offers special advantages possession of a large tract of country, and emfor sheep-rearing, although water is not so ploy but little labor. There is no doubt that plentiful as it might be. But that difficulty is proportionately fewer hands are employed now being gradually overcome, partly by excavating than was formerly the case, owing to improved tanks for holding rain water, and partly by methods of working and management having borings on the artesian-well principle. Those come into vogue. After having been shorn, runs which have no river or creek frontage, or the wool is sorted, the sorter being a rather the back blocks as they are termed, become important personage, who is well paid. There after a drought little better than deserts. But are various qualities, and each must be kept since the construction of tanks has been sys- to itself in order to sell to the best advantage. tematically undertaken a great improvement It is becoming the custom now in some locali has been shown, and this, coupled with the ties to wash the wool, although experts differ benefit derived from boring operations, is ex- as to whether it is desirable to do so or otherpected ultimately to change the opinion hith- wise. Some contend that it is injured, and erto entertained regarding the condition of that certain valuable properties are destroyed these north-west pastoral lands. Water is now in the process; but it would appear to be led to the tanks by means of drains, which ex- nearly the general opinion that such disad tend in some cases for several miles. Sheep- vantages are more than counterbalanced by stations can in ordinary seasons be worked very the removal of dirt, and by the better price cheaply after the capital outlay necessary to which clean wool fetches at the sales. Very provide fences, and station buildings and yards expensive and elaberate machinery is in use at has been made. It is the practice now to sur- some stations for scouring the wool, more parround the run with wire fencing, and subdivide ticularly in localities where there is not a plenit into paddocks, where the sheep roam at will, tiful supply of water. But where there is a and are said to produce an annual increase frontage to a river, and water is practically equal to seventy-nine per cent. of the breeding unlimited, older and more simple methods are ewes, and the lambs thrive rapidly. It is only usual. The process of cleaning is in the first when the work of drafting, branding, or shear- place to soak well the wool in large vats with ing has to be done that the flock are disturbed hot water and soap until the impurities are by the station hands. The shearing season loosened or removed, and then to put it into falls at the latter end of the year, and the pay-perforated zinc boxes sunk in the water. Here ment to the shearer is per score of sheep shorn, good shearers being able to earn high wages; but the labor employed is comparatively small, one gang of shearers travelling from station to station, and doing the work at each. Indeed, this labor question is a standard complaint it is again well soaked and stirred by men with poles, and finally it is taken to the dryingground, where it dries a clean white color. Still, it is to be remarked that the bulk of the wool reaching this country from Australia comes in its greasy state. British Australasian. |