no great difficulty according to the experts, | something like the position which would and not likely to cost more than two mil- be held by Egypt as regards the Suez lions sterling. The advantages of the scheme need hardly be set forth. In the first place, Glasgow would be a port on the German Ocean as well as on the Atlantic, - the canal will only be thirty-five miles long. Then, ships sailing between America and the Baltic and German ports would find the canal a far quicker route than the circumvention of Scotland or England. Lastly, the Admiralty would be able in an emergency to help a fleet on the west coast by sending reinforcements through the canal from our squadron on the east. For instance, suppose that while we were attempting to blockade a French fleet at Cherbourg, six or seven of their fast ironclads escaped, and steamed off to attack either Dublin or Liverpool, it was not known which. Our forces would immediately have to be concentrated in the Irish Sea, and help sent from the fleets guarding Newcastle and Edinburgh. But if the reinforcements had to steam some five hundred miles round Scotland, aid might come too late. In this way the Forth and Clyde Canal, which could be easily passed by war-ships in a few hours, might prove of great advantage to the nation. Another of the plans for making short-cuts through England is that for connecting Bridgewater Bay with the English Channel by a canal through Somerset and Dorset. The canal, it is said, would get all the steam-coal traffic between Cardiff and London, and could in that way be made a profitable concern. Certainly it would save the Welsh colliers some three hundred miles of steaming. Canal, were Egypt a power of the first rank. The Holstein Canal, too, will almost double the efficiency and fighting-power of the German fleet. While Russian ironclads will be laboring through the Sound, their German antagonists will be able to find a secure and rapid road through the territory of the Fatherland. Curiously enough, Prussia's great rival has it in her power, if she chooses, to make a shipcanal which would enable her to combine her Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets much in the same way. Some two hundred years ago, Colbert, with the insight of true genius, ordered the construction of the famous Languedoc Canal, or, as it is picturesquely and accurately called, the "Canal of the Two Seas." This great work connects the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean partly by utilizing the valley of the Garonne, and partly by an artificial cutting. A project is now on foot for making it large enough and deep enough to accommodate ocean shipping. If this is done, ships trading between the north and the Mediterranean will be able to save the time now spent in the voyage of seven hundred miles round Spain and Portugal; while France will be able to render the blockade of her ports almost an impossibility. While the enemy were making their dispositions for blockading the mouth of the Garonne, the French fleet would be quietly steaming towards Toulouse, and before the attacking squadron had properly settled down to their work, would have joined the Mediterranean squadron at Narbonne. Far less shadowy than these is the Hol- Did space allow, we would gladly enustein Canal, which is actually in course of merate more of the fascinating projects on construction, and which when made will foot for saving ships the trouble of roundjoin the Baltic and North Seas, making ing storm-beaten peninsulas or navigating Denmark and part of Schleswig-Holstein dangerous straits. Unfortunately, we can an island. The canal is planned on a only just allude to a few of these schemes. magnificent scale. It is to be sixty miles M. de Lesseps, for instance, not long ago long, and the water is to have the same obtained in the interest of a French comlevel as the Baltic. The depth will be pany a concession from the king of Siam twenty-eight feet, and the bottom-width authorizing him to construct a canal across eighty-five feet, -dimensions which will the Isthmus of Malacca, which would save enable it to accommodate double the ton-five hundred miles between Europe and nage now accommodated by the Suez Canal. How great will be the importance of this work, both commercially and politically, may be estimated from two facts. It will render it unnecessary any longer to take the dangerous passage round Denmark, a route responsible each year for the destruction of two hundred sailingships; while to Germany it will give the key of the Baltic, and will bestow on her China, and do away with the dangers attending the passage through the Straits of Malacca. America has kept pace with Europe in the formation of these schemes. Besides the Nicaragua Canal, which is to rival the now almost forsaken works at Panama, there is a proposal for cutting off the Peninsula of Florida which is pretty sure to be sooner or later put into operation. Connected with this last is catarrhal affections, of colds and coughs, which the time of year, and the remark. ably unsettled weather we have lately experienced, make readily explicable without any foreign importation? Indeed, is influenza, after all, anything more than a severe form of the fashionable complaint of the season? cannot be fully stated here, but may be gathered by reference to the descriptions of the disease as seen in former outbreaks by physicians of the older generation ; for instance, by Sir Thomas Watson in his classical "Principles of Physic," or the late Dr. Peacock in his article in Quain's Dictionary of Medicine." 66 one for making a water-way to save vessels the necessity of rounding Cape Cod, as also are two others, one for connecting New York and Delaware Bay, and the other for joining Delaware Bay with Chesapeake Bay. By means of these canals, worked in connection with the Florida and Nicaragua undertakings, the Americans hope to get complete control of the com- To answer the last question first, and so merce of South America. No doubt the to put it by, there can be little doubt that canals would do much to place the coast- influenza is a distinct, specific affection, ing trade of the continent in American and not a mere modification of the comhands, but it would not be wise to exag-mon cold. The grounds for this belief gerate their importance. The only great saving of time accomplished would be at Nicaragua. That great work, if it is successfully carried through, will undoubtedly confer enormous benefits on commerce. It will, it must be remembered, have one great advantage over ordinary dug-out canals like that of Suez. A great part of its course will be either by the These symptoms, the history of the disSan Juan River, through the great Nica- ease, and its distribution, all justify us in ragua Lake, or along "basins"-i.e., arti- treating it as a distinct and specific disficial lakes formed by damming up river- ease, which when it is prevalent will rarely valleys. Indeed, there will only be some be mistaken, though, with regard to isotwenty-eight miles of actual canal. This lated and sporadic cases, difficulties of means that out of the one hundred and sev-diagnosis may arise. About its nature, or enty miles from sea to sea, there will be one hundred and forty-two miles of free navigation. Under these circumstances, the delays usually incidental to canals will be very much reduced. Meantime, it is just possible that the Panama Canal may, after all, be finished. In that case, we shall have two canals competing with each other for the traffic of the Pacific Ocean. Who knows, too, that some day they may not both pay their shareholders as good dividends as do the three rival railway companies whose lines run between London and Edinburgh? From Nature. THE EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA. FOR the first time after an immunity of nearly half a century, our country is again threatened with an epidemic of influenza. The accounts we receive of epidemic illness in Russia, in Germany, and last of all in Paris, seem to make its irruption here every week more imminent. The question will, however, naturally be asked by the public, whether there is any real ground, in the history and in what is known of the nature of the disease, for such an apprehension ? Is it a disease really brought from a distance? Is it any thing more than the general prevalence of its affinities with other diseases, it is unnecessary to speculate. It will be sufficient to inquire what its recorded history in the past justifies us in expecting as to its behavior in the future. There are few cases in which history proves so important an element in the scientific conception of a disease as it does in that of influenza. For hardly any disease shows a more marked tendency to occur in epidemicsthat is, in outbreaks strictly limited in point of time. After long intervals of inaction or apparent death, it springs up again. Its chronology is very remarka ble. Though probably occurring in Europe from very early times, it first emerged as a definitely known historical epidemic in the year 1510. Since then, more than one hundred general European epidemics have been recorded, besides nearly as many more limited to certain localities. Many of them have in their origin and progress exhibited the type to which that of the present year seems to conform. We need not go further back than the great epidemic of 1782, first traceable in Russia, though there believed to have been derived from Asia. In St. Petersburg, on January 2, coincidently with a remarkable rise of temperature from 35° F. below freezing to 5o above, forty thousand persons are said to have been simultaneously taken ill. Thence the disease spread over the Continent, where one-half of the in habitants were supposed to have been affected, and reached England in May. It was a remarkable feature in this epidemic that two fleets which left Portsmouth about the same time were attacked by influenza at sea about the same day, though they had no communication with each other or with the shore. which it may spread. And the present epidemic, it must be confessed, appears to have this expansive character. tors as influenza, and of great severity, affecting all classes of society. But in all epidemic and even contagious diseases there are outbreaks which seem to be self-limited from the first, showing no tendency to spread. This has been notably the case with plague and cholera. On the other hand, when an epidemic shows There were many epidemics in the first an expansive and progressive character, it half of this century; and the most impor-is impossible to predict the extent to tant of them showed a similar course and geographical distribution. In 1830 started a formidable epidemic, the origin of which is referred to China, but which at all Many interesting points are suggested events by the end of the year had in- by this historical retrospect. What is the vaded Russia, and broke out in Peters- meaning of the westward spread of influburg in January, 1831. Germany and enza, of cholera, and other diseases? Is France were overrun in the spring, and by it a universal law? To this it must be June it had reached England. Again, two said, that it is by no means the universal years later, in January, 1833, there was an law even with influenza, which has spread outbreak in Russia, which spread to Ger- through other parts of the world in every many and France successively, and on kind of direction, but it does seem to hold April 3, the first cases of influenza were good for Europe, at least in the northern seen in our metropolis; "all London," in parts. The significance of this law, as of Watson's words, "being smitten with it the intermittent appearances of influenza, on that and the following day." On this probably is that this is in Europe not an same fateful day Watson records that a indigenous disease, but one imported from ship approaching the Devonshire coast Asia. Possibly we may some day track was suddenly smitten with influenza, and it to its original home in the East, as the within half an hour forty men were ill. In old plague and the modern cholera have 1836 another epidemic appeared in Rus-been traced. sia; and in January, 1837, Berlin and As regards, however, the European dis. London were almost simultaneously attribution of influenza, it has often been tacked. Ten years later, in 1847, the last great epidemic raged in our own country, and was very severe in November, having been observed in Petersburg in March, and having prevailed very generally all over Europe. Some of these epidemics are believed to have travelled still further westward, to America; but the evidence on this point seems less conclusive. Without entering on further historical details, and without speculating on the nature of the disease, we may conclude that these broad facts are enough to show that a more or less rapid extension from east to west has been the rule in most of the great European epidemics of influenza; and that therefore its successive appearance in Russia, Germany, and France, makes its extension to our own country in the highest degree probable. There are, it is true, certain facts on the other side, but they appear much less cogent. Since our last great visitation, certain epidemics of influenza have been recorded on the Continent which have not reached our shores. One was that of Paris in 1866-67; another at Berlin in 1874-75, of a disease described by the German doc thought to depend upon the prevalence of easterly and north-easterly winds. There are many reasons for thinking that the contagium of this disease is borne through the air by winds rather than by human intercourse. One reason for thinking so is that it does not appear to travel along the lines of human communications, and, as is seen in the infection of ships at sea, is capable of making considerable leaps The mode of transmission, too, would explain the remarkable facts noticed above of the sudden outbreak of the disease in certain places, and its attacking so many people simultaneously, which could hardly be the case if the infection had to be transmitted from one person to another. Another important question, and one certain to be often asked, is suggested by the last- namely, whether influenza is contagious. During former epidemics great care was taken to collect the experience of the profession on this point, and its difficulty is shown by the fact that opinions were much divided. Some thought the disease could be transmitted by direct contagion, while others doubted it. But there was and is a general agreement that this is not the chief way in which the dis ease spreads, either in a single town, or | port it exceedingly prevalent there now. from place to place. We must avoid the fascinating topic of the cause of influenza, or our limits would be speedily outrun. But one simple lesson may be drawn from the facts already mentioned namely, that the disease is not produced by any kind of weather, though that, of all possible causes of disease, is the one most often incriminated in this country. It is true that some of our worst epidemics have occurred in winter, but several have happened in summer; and the disease has been known in all parts of the world, in every variety of climate and atmospheric condition; so that it is certainly not due to a little more or less of heat or cold, moisture or dryness. Its constancy of type, the mode of its transmission, its independence of climatic and seasonal conditions, all suggest that its cause is "specific," that is, having the properties of growth and multiplication which belong to a living thing. Whether the disease affects the lower animals is not absolutely certain, but the human epidemic has often been preceded or accompanied by an epidemic among horses of a very similar disease. It is pretty well known that such a disease is now very prevalent among horses in London. Nearly three weeks ago, one of the railway companies in London had one hundred and twenty horses on the sick list, and the epidemic is still by no means extinguished. To a certain extent this must be taken as prognostic of human influenza. It may be asked if the influenza is really to come, can we form any notion how soon it is likely to appear? On such a point little beyond speculation is possible, for the rate at which the disease travels is extremely variable. Generally, it has taken some weeks, or even months, to traverse Europe, but occasionally much less, as, for instance, in 1833, when it appeared to travel from Berlin to Paris in two days. It is now barely a month since the epidemic became noticeable in Petersburg, where, according to a correspondent of the British Medical Journal, it began on November 15 or 17, though sporadic cases had undoubtedly occurred earlier. In the beginning of December it was already widely spread throughout Russia, and, as it would seem from the published accounts, must have been in Berlin about the same time. In Paris the first admitted and recorded cases occurred about December 10, though doubtless there were cases before that date. Both public and private accounts re In London, notwithstanding the abundance of colds and coughs, and the mysterious rumors which have been afloat, it appears. to the present writer doubtful whether any cases of true influenza have yet occurred. But according to its apparent rate of progress, it might, if coming from Paris, have already arrived here; and it may be breaking out even while these lines are going through the press. But, on the whole, one would be disposed to give the epidemic another week or two. If its distribution depends, as it seems to do, on the winds, it is impossible to prophesy with much plausibility. A steady breeze setting in from one of the affected places might bring us an invasion in a very short time; but the current of air would have to be continuous over the whole district. Light local winds, whatever their direction, would, if the hypothesis be correct, have little effect. On the other hand, a steady frost, with an "anticyclone " period, might effectually keep off the disease. then, there is anything in the views above stated, prophecy belongs rather to the province of the weather-doctors than of the medical doctors. If, Should the prospect seem a grave one, it may be some consolation to remember that an epidemic of influenza rarely lasts more than a few weeks. three to sixin one place; that it is rarely a fatal disease, though affecting large numbers of people; and that the present epidemic seems to have displayed on the Continent a decidedly mild type, which, according to the general rule, it is likely to retain. J. F. P. From The Athenæum. SOME MISSING POEMS OF SIR JOHN BEAUMONT. IN Dr. Grosart's introduction to his edition of the poems of Sir John Beaumont (in the "Fuller Worthies Library," 1869) he notes the curious bibliographical fact connected with the volume of 1629, on which volume our knowledge of nearly all Sir John's poems depends, viz., that one leaf (pp. 181-2) has been cut out of every known copy of that edition, obviously with the purpose of cancelling the poems contained on it. Fortunately a clue has been left for the discovery of the missing poems. In one of the copies in the British Museum the leaf has been so clumsily cut out as to leave the initial letters of prevaile When he discribes this Life unsure and frayle songe OF THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR BLESSED LADY. Whoe is shee that, adorned wth light, most of the lines on one page; and the | And that the preacher's wordes might more The following are the poems which Mann hath no fast defence, noe place of rest But first the fleshe must sincke wth hope to See here the Trophees of that rig'rous hand ffor yt united Elements devids And parts their frendly league to diff'rent In this most dolefull picture wee display Soe cleerely watching in such ready mynde, At whose feete the Queene of night To that Crowne direct thine eye This is shee in whose pure wombe Heaven shee was wch held that fire Shee that did soe clearely shyne See how bright her beames decline Nowe shee sytts wth the sunne. While on the subject of Sir John Beaumont, it may be mentioned that the British Museum lately came into possession of a MS. poem entitled "The Crowne of Thornes." Unfortunately there is strong internal evidence that this is not the missing poem by Sir John Beaumont which bore that title. F. G. KENYON. From Chambers' Journal. SHEEP-SHEARING BY MACHINERY. THE ever-increasing substitution of machinery in place of hand-labor in all branches of industry is too often witnessed to need either comment or enforcement. | Our readers, indeed - so accustomed are the public to novel adaptations of mechanical power- may hardly evince surprise in learning that the labors of the inventor have been successfully applied to furnishing means for shearing sheep by machinWhose harts were ravisht with a sacred Bell ery, and that possibly ere long the wellAnd heav'nly Trumpett when the chamber known hand-shears used for this purpose will have given place to a patent shears eares With pious Counsells and their eyes with fell. |