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 io see this prioreflecting 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 Niger; and the same principle of the political and economic relations of whole coming interest of European civilization States. It is desirable that such disturb. must serve to furnish the basis for settling ances of public opinion should be opposed the other questioos which concern the in time both in England and in Germany. political relations of European goveroAll the more so because this subject is inents with uncivilized couniries. 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 ihe Conference summoned at the instance colonies, and we have rejoiced at the fre. of 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 col. of any possible rivalries in the field of onists. Relationship in language, characcolonizaiion by fixing on all sides the ter, force, and endurance renders a union interests and rights of each power. The of English men 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 there. acter, so far as it deals with presupposi. fore be all the more foolish to encourage tions of international law. And it would groundless and aimless jealousies between give high satisfaction to the representa- the two German races in a field where the lives of the colonial movement in Ger. labor of the one can only support that of many, if the friendly powers succeeded in the other. The noble and useful task of finding fixed rules for the now very im. civilizing savage countries and peoples portant colonial work of nations. What cannot possibly be the occasion of jealwe in Germany wish is security for our ousy, but only of competition. And as private business operations in uncivilized England has never thought of excluding lands, a security which neither our gov. Gerinan laborers or merchants from her ernment, so far as it is able, nor any for. ports, mioes, or coffee plantations in Asia eign power, can deny to us on principle. or Africa, so now she will not try to hin. We therefore expect from the Congo Con- der Germany from acquiring colonies of ference now sitting, a practical settlement her own. Besides, it seems to me that of the questions of the occupation, pro- the expectations entertained outside of tectorate, and annexation of uncivilized Germany of immediate practical results lands and of the rights to great rivers. from the present movement are often ex.

The principle on which ihat Conference travagant. We in Germany have as yet has been based is that of complete equal. neither the means nor the intention of unity of right among the leading nations of dertaking a great colonial crusade. Our Europe and America with respect to those aims are more modest. But we do desire, countries and peoples that have not yet not only in a private but also in a political come under European civilization. The form, justice and protection in foreign Conference has shown itself disposed to lands for whatever we may acquire by our recognize the task proposed by the King owo labor, capital, or intelligence. This

ans.

desire is too just to awaken anxiety in most important article of commerce, being any country of Europe.

used for barter or exchange in place of BARON VON DER BRUGGEN. money among the South American Indi.

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 From The Lancet.

paste after being allowed to serment was COCA AND COCAINE.

formed into boluses or troches, and dried ; The alkaloid cocaine was produced by during long journeys these boluses were Niemann in 1860 from the leaves of the sucked, and under their influence hunger Erythroxylon coca. Professor Schroff and thirst were alleviated and bodily was probably the first to mention the fact strength was sustained. (2) When eaten of its anæsthetizing effect on the mucous for producing pleasure or intoxication the membrane of the tongue. The credit of coca was chewed by itself; and (3) it was rescuing cocaine from the oblivion into mixed with tobacco and smoked. Among which it bad fallen, and of giving it a others the following travellers have writpractical application, unquestionably be ten on coca: Pöppig, Weddell, and Mark longs to Koller. The next occasion of ham; of pharmacologists, Quincy, Pereiits public appearance was at the Ophthal. ra, and Hanbury do not mention it

, nor mological Society, where Messrs. Benson, has it been official till the last French Marcus Gunn, and Nettleship spoke of Codex and United States Pharmacopeia. its use in ophthalmic surgery: Since that As a theme for the poet, Milton, who time cocaine has by a bound leaped into drew many of his similes from tropical professional favor. The great excellences plants and scenery, appears not to have of cocaine consist in the limitation of its known of it, as he does not mention it. action to the tissues to which it is applied. Cowley, later, thus writes : No doubt other symptoms at a distance Our Varicocha first his Coca sent, do result from the external application of Endow'd with leaves of wondrous nourishment, the anæsthetic, but they are for the most whose juice suck'd in, and to the stomach part insignificant and by no means dan. gerous. In some measure cocaine may Long hunger and long labor can sustain ; be compared with curare. The one agent From which our faint and weary bodies find paralyzes the termination of the sensory More succor, more they cheer the drooping nerves, whilst the other paralyzes the ter.

mind, mination of the motor nerves. Aconite Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join'd. would seem to act in a manner the very The Quitoita with this provision stor'd,

Three leaves supply for six days' march afford; reverse of cocaine.. The contemplation can pass the vast and cloudy Andes o’er. of a few facts of this kind leads one to think of the ultimız thule of anæsthetics The coca shrub grows to a height of as likely to be not one of the least splen. from four to eight feet, and resembles our did iriumphs of science. No doubt much blackthorn in appearance. It has small, remains io be worked at before the full white, short-stalked, drooping Aowers, in value is given to this latest addition to clusters upon the branches in places our armamentaria, and before a full expla. where the leaves have fallen. The leaves nation of the mode of action of the drug are closely placed, alternate, about two in the one particular respect for which it inches long, oval oblong, entire at the is in so great demand can be given. Coca margin; sometimes they are acute but leaves are the produce of Erythroxylon usually blunt and emarginate, with a coca, Lamarck, a shrub cultivated on the small apiculus in the notch at the apex, slopes of the Cordilleras of Bolivia, Peru, rather thin but opaque, smooth with a and Columbia. The Spanish conquerors prominent midrib, and on each side a of western South America became well curved line running from the base to the acquainted with the use of coca by the apex, showing its mode of vernation. aboriginal Indians. Nicolas Monardes, a W'hea fresh the upper surface is bright, Spanish physician, published at Seville, dark-green in color, the lower is paler and in 1565, a history of medicinal simples strongly marked with veins. The care. brought from the New World, in which fully dried leaves have the odor of tea, he gives a description, obtained from the but' if dried less perfectly they have a commentaries of Pedro Cieca and others, bouquet of their own which is very un. of coca leaves, their mode of collection pleasant in the breath of those who chew and drying, aod states they were their | it. They have a somewhat aromatic and

ta'en,

bitter taste, and are more active when I also tried it, but came to negative conclu. freshly dried. By permission we have sions as to its action. Except by the tasted a fresh leaf in the Botanic Gardens, force of advertisements of French special. and the benumbing effect on the tongue ties made from it, coca has of late received – dulling its sensibility – was apparently little attention in England; but now, again, much greater than that of a number of the observations of Herr Koller on the dried leaves. The plants are raised from local anæsthetic action possessed by its seeds, and the cultivation, at an elevation alkaloid, cocaine, have brought it to the of from two to seven thousand feet above front. the sea level, is carried on with great care, as described by Dr. Weddell, who sup. poses the name coca to be derived from an lodian term signifying the tree or plant. Its original habitat is doubtful. It has

From Sunday at Home. been acclimatized in Ceylon. Botanical

THE JEWS IN CENTRAL ASIA. specimens were first sent by Joseph de We paid our first visit to the central Jussieu to his brother in 1750; these Asian Jews, in Tashkend. At the syna. Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu referred to gogue in the Russian quarter, I presented the genus Erythroxylon, and finally they my letter as an introduction, and asked served as types for Lamarck to give the whether they had any ancient manu. plant his designation Erythroxylon coca scripts; but so far were they from having in his Encyclopédie. The coca shrub antiques that everything appeared almost yields three or four crops of leaves an. new. I had rarely before entered a syna. nually, from the age of eighteen months gogue so clean and gay. The walls had to forty years. The produce has been been newly whitewashed and ornamented estimated at from thirty to sorty million with native painting, and though there was pounds yearly. Its value on the spot no service going on, there were several varies from amounts equal to from one to men and boys reading. They manifested five shillings per pound English. The the utmost interest in my leiter, but had most productive plantations, or cocals, are nothing of ecclesiastical interest to show, in the province of La Paz, in Bolivia, but whereupon I discovered that we had been our principal imports come from Lima. brought to the new synagogue of the Eu. Coca was used in the religious rites of the ropean Jews, most of whom had come to Incas; it was by them treated with great Türkistan as soldiers, and on their dis. reverence, and by their conquerors with charge had preferred to settle in Tash. some superstition. A council of bishops kend rather than go back to Russia. We at Lima in 1569 condemned its use, and drove therefore to Asiatic Tashkend to stated that the belief entertained by the seek the meeting place of the Asiatic .. Indians that the habit of chewing coca Jews; and after going as far as the isvost. gave them strength was an illusion of the chik, or cabman, could take us by reason devil. By the Indians working as miners of the narrowoess and miserable paving or at other occupations, coca is still chewed of the streets, we took to our feet, and with a paste made of the ashes of certain passing through narrow lanes and alleys plants or with lime. They become more came into a small yard. On one side was or less slaves to the habit; opinions differ a miserable shed with a lean-to roof of as to the ill effects of this chewing on poles wretchedly covered, whilst under them. On Europeans who became accus. and all around sat a crowd of people. It tomed to, but had not been addicted to, its is customary on Friday evening for the use from youth, Dr. Weddell noticed that Jews to assemble in the synagogue, which it did sometimes produce evil conse. in the service is compared to a bridequences, and that in some a peculiar aber. groom, to welcome the coming in of the ration of the intellectual faculties occurred, Sabbath, beautifully figured as a bride, indicated by hallucinations. His view of and on Saturday evening they gather to its action was that it deceived or lulled bid the Sabbath farewell. Whether on hunger and fatigue. The Indians who the present occasion it was this Sabbath accompanied himn on his journey chewed evening service or something of a less coca during the whole day, but at night formal character, I am not sure; but so they filled their stomachs like fasting men. surprised did they appear at our sudden Dr. Mantegezza, of Milan, who practised visit, and above all, so curious to get a in South Ainerica, further tried and wrote peep at my letter, that, the service being on its marvellous properties, as did Sir speedily concluded, all crowded around. Robert Christison. Mr. G. Dowdeswell. 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 meo. With their huge turbans of Nor had we been many hours there before spotless white, and Orientalitlowing 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 terople. 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 Tamer. the 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 ihe 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 house we might see how they kept the place of prayer, was explained to a large Feast of Tabernacles. On the afternoon extent by the fact that almost all the Jews of the same day we found in the court or in Tashkend are sojourners only, as also garden of Moses a cotton teot erected, by the oppressions to which they were out of which nothing might be eaten for subject under the khans of Khokand be seven days. Here I presented the lord fore the Russian occupation. Ao intelli. mayor's letter, and the introduction of a gent Jew came to our house to buy copies Moscow rabbi, received at once a wel. of the Old Testament. I took the oppor-come, and was invited to eat. The ancient tunity to ask him concerning the Jews in law directed (Lev. xxiii. 39-44; Neh. viii. central Asia, who, he said, were descended 14-16) that the people should dwell in from Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes buts, which is interpreted to mean still dispersed over Europe and Asia, whereas that the roof, if not the sides, should be of the ten tribes he thought were dwelling branches, but these would not be easily " beyond China." In Khokaod he said obtained in sufficient quantity in Sainar. there were from two to three hundred kand, and I am under the impression that Israelites born on the spot, and from three there not even the roof was so formed. to four hundred sojourners, mostly mer. My liost, however, bad remembered the chanis, dyers, manufacturers, and drug. injunction of the law in providing at least gists. I expressed surprise that they had “ihe fruit of goodly trees,” if, not “olive no regular synagogue, but he explained branches, and pine branches, and myrtle that until the advent of the Russians, the branches, and palm branches, and willows Jews had been few in number, that they of the brook.” Perhaps these latter were had no right to buy land, and were forbid. represented by the leafy decorations over den by the khans to build a synagogue, our heads in the form of a large framethat they were in fact under similar restric. work, something like a chandelier, from lions to those from which their brethren in which were hanging apples, quinces, and Bokhara still suffered. They could not saffron flowers, whilst on the carpeted enter the city mounted, were forbidden to floor were spread parched peas, pistachio wear a turban, and allowed only a black nuts, grapes, peaches, and apples, as well calico cap for the head, and a piece of as mutton aod carrot pies, and roasted string for a girdle ; aod though they were apricot and plum kernels. Many came compelled to pay double taxes, as com in, and kneeling down, sat upon their pared with the natives, yet if a Jew were haunches, but not cross-legged, round the four walls of the tent. Two days later we more than a century, and he added that called on the rabbi, who was still keeping they were from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, the feast in his tabernacle, where he re- and the half tribe of Manasseh. With ceived us. I was glad to make inquiries reference to the so-called “ lost tribes," he of him respecting his people. He said related a well-known Jewish tradition that there were i wenty.five hundred Israelites on the river Sambation (which he located dwelliog in four hundred houses in Samar. in China, though some others affirm that kand. A piece of traditional information it is in Africa) are people whom the Chi. he gave me was that Samarkand had been nese call “sons of Abraham," and that destroyed seven times, and that therein Mussulmans profess to the Jews in Sa. had perished twenty-four thousand Koha. markand to have seen their brethren in nim Jews, these having a separate ceme. China; though the Samarkand Jews have

the Israelites. merlane was not so done, and for this wonderful reason, said to have brought from Meshed seven that the aforesaid river Sambation is hot families of Jews, whose descendants were on six days, and cold only on the seventh. still living at Bokhara and Samarkand. On this látter day it would be unlawful for But these stories were very much of the the Jews to cross, but the Mohammedans, nature of "idle tales,” for the rabbi said not being similarly bound, embrace the that the Jews had not been in Samarkaod l opportunity to do so.

tery fro

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 em. for 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 ihan 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 other. pected 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 car 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 par. round the run with wire fencing, and subdivide ticularly in localities where there is not a plen. it 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, it is again well soaked and stirred by men with good shearers being able to earn high wages; poles, and finally it is taken to the drying. but the labor employed is comparatively sınall, ground, where it dries a clean white color. one gang of shearers travelling from station to Still, it is to be remarked that the bulk of the station, and doing the work at each. Indeed, wool reaching this country from Australia this labor question is a standard complaint comes in its greasy state.

British Australasian.