Transatlantic record. To do this Canadian liners, like all other steamers, must have an ocean port of call, and that port must be Sydney. Sydney is open to navigation all the year round, and there is no ice of any consequence in the neighbourhood-all that makes its way there comes from the St. Lawrence and is only small sheet ice; there is no Arctic ice, for Newfoundland wards off the ice-floes from Davis Straits and Greenland, whilst the block in the Strait of Belle Isle prevents it entering the Gulf. A glance at the map shows the geographical importance of Sydney, Cape Breton. From Liverpool to Quebec is a distance of 2,665 knots; from Liverpool to Sydney is 2,282 knots: there is thus an absolute saving of 383 knots. But the saving of 383 knots does not adequately express the advantages of the Sydney route, for it is on these 383 knots that all the dangers and delays of the voyage are encountered along a fog-bound sea and a route thickly dotted with icebergs, which not only offer obstacles to navigation, but so deflect the sound as to make it almost impossible to locate a vessel in the fog.

The Sydney route will give Canadian steamers an advantage over the New York steamers. From Liverpool to New York is 3,055 knots, whereas from Liverpool to Sydney is only 2,282 knots: thus a saving of 773 knots can be effected. But here again the advantage and saving in time that the Sydney route would have over the New York route cannot be adequately expressed by the difference in distance between the two-viz. 773 knots; for, in the first place, a vessel leaving Sydney is out on the open ocean at once, and can immediately run at her maximum speed of, say, 22 knots per hour; whereas a vessel approaching or leaving New York has to considerably reduce her speed, and between Sandy Hook and New York the speed is not infrequently reduced to eight knots per hour, whilst off Long Island the route lies parallel to a rocky and dangerous coast. In the second place, every increase of distance by sea means a proportionately increased liability to delay; so that, though the distance of 773 knots, reckoning 22 knots per hour, might be covered in 35 hours 8 minutes, there is the liability that there might be fog or other obstacles to navigation over that period; hence the advantage of the Sydney route over the New York route could really be estimated at much more than 35 hours 8 minutes. To place the advantages of the Sydney route at 35 hours 8 minutes is an exceedingly low figure, for it is estimating the speed of travel over the 773 knots at only 22 knots per hour, whereas 23 knots per hour is the average speed of the latest vessels running to New York.

But not only can passengers and mails be landed on Canadian soil in less time than on American, but they can also be transported to the great industrial and commercial centres of Canada more rapidly than from New York. Sydney is as good or in some cases a better centre from which to radiate Canadian traffic than New York-e.g. :

(The times quoted from New York are by the fast mail trains; the times quoted from Sydney are by the ordinary trains. It is only reasonable to infer that if mail boats were run to Sydney fast mail trains would also be started and the journey vastly accelerated.)

Now calculating the amount of time saved in travelling viâ Sydney rather than New York as 35 hours-which is a very low estimate a saving can be effected of the following times on mails and passengers travelling via Sydney to

It is at once seen, then, that in each case enumerated an absolute saving of time can be effected. To the number of hours saved in each case above mentioned at least three hours might be added as the time saved in getting from the wharf to the Grand Central Station, New York; for at Sydney the train would be alongside the wharf and the passengers go on board without any delay.

To bring the great industrial and commercial centres of Canada nearer to the Mother-Country and Europe is thus seen to be a physical and geographical possibility; but it yet remains to be seen whether it will be financially practicable. Will it pay?

Now the proposal here made is not to remove the 'terminus, of the Canadian Transatlantic traffic from Montreal to Sydney-it is merely to substitute an ocean port of call for a river port of call.' Hence, there would be the same volume of freight to carry between Canada and England as formerly. But not only could the volume of trade be maintained, or perhaps augmented-for in the next few years the resources of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton will be enormously developed-but certain new sources of revenue are likely to be obtained and savings effected.

In the first place, vessels will coal at Sydney, where coal is cheap and abundant, and can be obtained for 3 dollars per ton. A vessel calling at Montreal now must either take sufficient coal out with her for the return journey, or else the coal must be brought from Sydney; consequently, to the 3 dollars payable at Sydney must be added cost of freight.

Again, it cannot be long before there is a readjustment of the

rates of insurance to Sydney: it certainly seems ridiculous that the rate of insurance between England and Sydney should be the same as between England and Montreal, where the passage is fraught with countless hidden dangers.

Further, additional sources of revenue may be expected to accrue. It is only likely that a considerable passenger traffic will be developed to Sydney, for at the present time the majority of visitors to Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, and other Canadian cities travel viâ New York; they endeavour to economise time. The unlucky victim of mal de mer will not hesitate to select a route which will save him 35 hours of misery and torment.

Again, this fast line of steamers would receive additional postal subvention; for at the present time, owing to the greater rapidity of the route viâ New York, a very large proportion of Canadian mails travel viâ New York. When Canada has a fast fleet of steamers, the sum now paid to New York liners for carriage of mails between England and Canada will be transferred to the Canadian line; and it is hardly too much to anticipate that mails from the northern parts of the United States will be carried viâ Sydney.

Again, the Admiralty at the present time subsidise the Cunard and White Star Lines to the extent of over 20,000l. per annum, that they may retain the services of certain vessels as fast cruisers in time of war. Now, if a Canadian line can guarantee the requisite 22 or 23 knots per hour, it will not be long before the Admiralty will subsidise it to the same extent.

There thus seems to be every chance that such a system of rapid Transatlantic transport as is indicated above could be made a commercial success. When once a line of steamers has been started, there is every probability that the shareholders would be able to receive the normal rate of interest on their investments. The British Government has subsidised the P. & O. Line to the extent of about a million and a quarter, and it has declared its willingness to aid the Canadian Government in forwarding a scheme of rapid transit. As far back as 1887 the Canadian Government decided to subsidise a line of fast steamers, conditional on their guaranteeing 20 knots per hour. The undertaking was a failure; shipowners cannot guarantee a speed of 20 knots nor a passage of a definite number of days through the Straits of Belle Isle and up the St. Lawrence; but with Sydney instead of Rimouski as their port of call they could guarantee to land passengers and mails in a less time than they are landed at New York, and as far as Sydney could guarantee a rate of speed equal to that of any of the New York liners.

The question of a fast line of steamers between England and Canada is of paramount importance; the future of Canada depends

upon it. Until such a line has been brought into existence Canada can never develop its resources or compete successfully with the United States for the markets of England and Europe; at present the United States possess an economic advantage over Canada in that they are nearer the markets of England and Europe. Above all, the question is one of Imperial importance and not of mere local or commercial moment: if the colonies, and Canada in particular, are to be made to feel that they are parts of the British Empire, every endeavour must be made to minimise the distance that separates the Mother Country from her colonies.

EDWIN C. BURGIS.

SIR JAMES PAGET AND LOUIS PASTEUR

AMONG recent publications are two books of special interest to the scientific world, The Memoirs and Letters of Sir James Paget, and The Life of Pasteur.

Both of these men were born in surroundings more picturesque than scientific, and at a time when the father of the one (Pasteur) had recently surrendered the sword with which he had fought under Napoleon Bonaparte, and the father of the other had joined as captain a Volunteer corps in defence of his country and 'towards the downfall of the French tyrant.'

From amidst the commerce of Yarmouth and associations with Nelson, the battle of the Nile, and much that was warlike, emerged the man of peace, superb intellect, and high philosophy, James Paget, whose destiny was to raise the standard of medical and surgical teaching to a higher level, and to command the respect and admiration of men from the earliest beginning to the end of his professional

career.

Taking into consideration the latent power of the man, the evident goodness of the student, his perseverance, and great qualities, it is painful to think how his progress was barred by red tape, and how little was done to help him over early difficulties, and put him in the place for which he was so well fitted by Nature. For years he was left to struggle along with a mind too lofty to dwell on the disappointments ever arising in his path, and too deeply in earnest with his work to take heed of the discomforts and privations to which he was subjected. The most part of his life was spent at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and no doubt he owed much of his ultimate success to this connection; but 'Bart.'s' in those days was very different to the 'Bart.'s' of the present, and it does not require much stretch of imagination to perceive on which side lay the heavier obligations.

By the time he was twenty-four years of age he had passed first in all his examinations, and was deeply interested in Cobbald's discovery of the Trichina spiralis. Having acquired the habit of close observation in his botanical pursuits, he pressed Cobbald's researches a little further, and was the first to find the minute worm in its