The famous University of Toulouse in France, founded in the thirteenth century, has been greatly injured by fire. Two thousand students helped to fight the flames, but the library of the university, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, was completely destroyed, also the building of the school of medicine and pharmacy. The actual loss of the buildings is estimated to be at least $1,000,000; but the loss from the destruction of rare works of art, books, medicine, antiquities, and medical instruments will be several times as great. Professors declare that many of the medical works can never be replaced.
A writer in the "Homiletic Review" for October quotes a former "first reader" of the First Church of Christ Scientist, to the effect that Christian Science is "losing ground in America, and is being replaced by the Emmanuel movement," a statement which we doubt. He further says, "To meet this [the decline] they are preparing a grand finale in the pretended ascension of Mrs. Eddy to heaven, her death being concealed till her body has disappeared, when they will declare she has ascended to heaven." We also doubt this; for as in the view of Christian Science the body is no matter, what matters the body?
Priceless Radium.—Radium is worth only the sum of $100,000 per gram. A gram is equal to less than one thirtieth of a troy ounce. There are only a few grams in existence, extracted from pitchblende by a long, slow, wearisome, expensive process, covering two years. Sir William Ramsay, the distinguished scientist, has discovered a process by which radium can be extracted from uranium in a period of three months, and uranium and the rare polonium have been found in a pitchblende in Cornwall, England. Already a radium bank has been established in London. Men are only beginning to touch the wonders of God’s creation.
The Secret Service Division of the Department of Justice is laying plans for a country-wide net to enmesh men and women engaged in "white slave" traffic. State officers and district attorneys have been asked to render aid in a simultaneous investigation to be made in the large cities, where it is thought the guiding minds of this nefarious business are to be found.
The balloon America II, which ascended from St. Louis, was located nine days after in the wilds of Northern Quebec. Its daring pilots, Allen R. Hawley and Augustus Post, when found by Canadian trappers, were alive and well, tho they had a marvelous escape from death. They made a record flight of 1,355 miles, winning the Bennet international trophy cup.
As a climax to the power movement started by the government of Ontario through the hydro-electric commission five years ago, Niagara Falls now supplies electric current and light to towns within its power zone. The scheme of transmission is said to be the largest in the world, and electric power is transmitted at the highest voltage known, 110,000 volts, which enables near-by towns to be provided with power at an ordinary rate.
Among the Guggenheims trust products are white lead, linseed oil, and zinc white. In this country the prices are, white lead, 6 cents a pound; zinc white, 5¾ cents a pound; linseed oil, 94 cents to $1.04 a gallon. In Germany they sell respectively at 3¾ cents; 4 1/3 cents; and 70 cents. The protective tariff does not favor American buyers, evidently, but the house of Guggenheims.
A translation of the book of Genesis and the Gospel of Mark has been made into the language of the Navajo Indians by the American Bible Society. This version of the Scriptures will help in the education of these Indians and in the formation of a Navajo literature. There are said to be about 25,000 Navajoes in the United States.
It is a sign of the times in Italy that one of the largest publishing houses in that country is sending out a large edition of Dr. Lea’s monumental "History of the Inquisition," which has now been translated into Italian.
The latest use of aluminum is the manufacture of slate-pencils. It is claimed that the metal will mark on slate, will not break, needs no pointing, and will last a long time. A German company is now engaged in this manufacture.
The Asiatic Exclusion League report an exodus of 3,253 Japanese from the United States during the fiscal year ending last June. Hindu laborers on the Pacific Coast are expressing their intention of returning to their home land of their own accord, complaining that they can not get employment now as easily as formerly and that the railroads are no longer anxious to employ them.
John Barry Ryan, son of Thomas F. Ryan, the New York multimillionaire, has offered the War and Navy Department one thousand military aeroplanes to be held in reserve for the service of the Government in time of need. All he asks is the support of the two departments, which was heartily given.
The Bible societies of eight different nations report the sale of 11,378,854 Bibles. More Bibles were sold last year than any other hundred books of the world combined. The Oxford Press turns out twenty thousand Bibles a week. The American Bible Society published and distributed last season 2,153,028 copies of the Bible.
Fifty passengers and sailors were drowned when the British steamship Wally was wrecked near the lighthouse at Arazolles, off Para, Brazil. A similar disaster occurred in the wreck of a steamer on Shoal Bay, nine miles from St. Johns, Newfoundland, in which nineteen men of the crew were lost.
Six gigantic search-lights will aid the batteries guarding San Francisco harbor. This pattern promises to revolutionize the methods of night defense. In the first experiments, officers on a vessel seven miles out report they could easily read fine print from the glare of the distant lights.
The following towns in Washington,—Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Port Townsend, Irondale, and Port Angeles,—are to be connected by a monorail railroad, according to articles of incorporation offered for filing with the secretary of state.
In an Eastern city recently three men devoured nine hundred and fifty-four clams at a single sitting. Gorging, gluttony! The report adds, "Cannibalism seems to be on the increase." Does this mean that the clams were human, or the eaters were clams?
Thirty thousand pounds of dynamite has been used to blow up a solid mountain of slate clay near Fleming, California. When the dust and powder cleared away a crumbling and caving mass of broken clay, covering an area of a quarter of a square mile, was exposed to view.
At a recent convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, a special committee was appointed to call other Christian churches into a conference to decide whether all faiths shall not be amalgamated.
It is reported that seventy persons were either killed or drowned by an explosion on board the Haytian gunboat Liberte, off Port de Paix, October 26. They sailed with ninety on board.
After an illness of several weeks, David Bennett Hill, former governor of New York State and former United States senator, died recently at his home in Albany, New York.
Coinage of gold in the United States will be suspended for an indefinite period, if plans now forming in the treasury department are adopted. The object is to curtail expenses.
The United States Navy will have ten new torpedo-boat destroyers in commission by the first of next month, but some difficulty is experienced in finding crews for the ships.
The Government board of trustees of the postal savings banks has decided that the banks shall be opened on January 1 instead of December 1.
Edgar Allen Poe has been awarded a place in the Hall of Fame.