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In Beha1f of the Centigrade Thermometer To the Editor of the Scientific American; Seeing an article in your February 5th edition entitled “ Shall We Abolish the Fahrenheit Thermometer? “ and feeling inclined to comment on this subject, I beg to say that in my opinion this is indeed a step in the right direction, and though I disagree with Mr. Johnson in that there is no connection between the metric system and the centigrade thermometer, the ease with which calculations may be made on the centigrade basis should make its adoption a desired change. This brings us back to the much discussed subject of changing our entire system from the English to the metric, and while it is generally agreed that the metric has so many advantages over the English as to make its use a great simplification, the transition looms large, and is considered impracticable or even impossible. Therefore, would not such simple steps as the thermometer constitute a movement which would educate us up to the point where we can look upon the revolution with a little less fear. Personally, I may be somewhat prejudiced in favor of the metric system as I am an engineer and have spent a number of years in Mexico, where it is the legal standard, consequently am nearly as familiar with the meter and kilo as with the foot and pound. C. M. BARRON. 23 South William St., New York city. A Plan/ for Military Preparedne To the Editor of the Scientific American : The great fault to be found with all plans of the administration party is their lack of thorough effectiveness. This remark is not dictated by any political bias, but is used to classify our popular propositions. We do not wish to identify ourselves with “ German Militarism,” either in principle or practice, but a few members of the German General Staff introduced into our councils just now for the sole purpose of indicating the defects of the civilian ideas which dominate our viewpoint would be of great service. Suggestions emanating from our trained army and navy circles are of course necessarily thorough and reliable, but knowing the nature and temper of our Congress, these suggestions may be suspected of falling short of the actual convictions of the military authorities from whom they emanate. Utilizing the viewpoint established by my own thorough military education, followed by service as Com- mandante in four of the military institutions on the Atlantic seaboard, I beg to submit some of my personal conclusions. They may be of value in influencing, at least, the general concensus of opinion. The term “ Large” when applied to a standing army (or navy) is purely relative in character. Two hundred and fifty thousand men for Nicaragua or Cuba would be an enormous standing army, but when the term is applied to a country of vast proportions and 104,000,000 people (the wealthiest aggregate population on earth) it loses its significance. “ Two hundred and fifty thousand troops “ distributed along the four cardinal points of our great republic, utilizing one point as a central location would be proportionately a very small standing army. Besides the usual uSes of such a standing army, 50 per cent of its officers could be used for detached engineering and educational service in times of peace. With large industrial developments impending such an army can be depended upon to control the periodical recrudescence of inevitable industrial anarchy proportioned always to the magnitude and activity of such enterprises, in a country of enormous population and wealth, inexhaustible resources and temperamental energy. Important as is the rOle of this small army, the part to be played by our navy is incomparably greater. We are immune from invasion by any first-class power and practically released from the necessity of a continuous line of fortifications if we possess an effective navy. What do we mean by an “ effective navy “ ? Properly understood it is this. Such a navy on the Atlantic station alone, as will equal any other (Great Britain excepted) in armament and speed. Superadded to this the fleet should be measurably superior in numbers and speed to allow for accidental circumstances which might lead to defeat of one or more of its units. Moreover, the Atlantic and Pacific stations should muster a fleet of equal strength for two reasons. First, it is not a remote possibility that some European nation may tempt Japan into an aggressive coalition. Second, the successful “ internal war” now waged by Germany vs. the United States gives us an object lesson of the ease with which the Panama Canal link between the Atlantic and Pacific naval stations may be destroyed. The logical elimination of Great Britain as a possible adversary should be clear to every un-hyphenated, cultured, traveled American. Note that Great Britain desires nothing that we possess, that in virtue of territorial possessions in North America she is practically a copartner in enforcing the Monroe Doctrine and bound as she is to us by ties of race and blood and the common spirit of democracy (in the words of her prime minister), “ A war with the United States, is inconceivable"! Especially is this true after we have condoned the murderous methods of one belligerent in this war the grievance of which is far in excess of anything of which Great Britain is capable. The Education Proposition These state school propositions in the interest of preparedness are open to the objection urged against our adhesion to a qualified militia program. The National Guard is “ good as far as it goes,” of course, unless— as is apt to be the case— it misleads the general public in its ultimate conclusion. To the uninitiated the National Guard uniformed and armed may be a counterfeit of the true effective army. We may multiply military schools which will do good to a limited degree, but will be as far from the ideal as the National Guard from our armed regulars. The action of the nation in 1862 and subsequent legislation (1890), granting land grants from the public domain upon condition that certain state schools introduce military courses, shows the inevitable result, unless the Government assumes absolute eontrol. Over and above all such substitutes for a West Point training, we need United States schools of military and naval technology constantly operating. There should be three tributary to the army and three tributary to the navy, the normal number of graduates alone being not less than 1,000 per annum each. The modern warfare is rightly described as a “ battle between machines.” The nation possessing the largest number of these with a. thorough mastery of mechanical, civil, electricaC and military engineering and commercial chemistry (other things being . equal), will hold the “ winning card.” It is well said “ Chemistry is King! ' .' The Course of Study Under as absolute a direction by the United States Government as West Point itself, although less the- oi' etical and more practical, these institutes should be thrown open to the general public, offering educational possibilities as useful in civil as in military life. A large number of Government scholarships (requiring only conditional service subsequently in the regular army ) could be annually dispensed. A graduate could (except in special contingencies) pass at once into civil life. His name, however, would be held and listed as belonging to a special department of the “ Army or Navy Reserves.” If he should personally prefer a military vocation he should command a commission, if an honor graduate, or a non-commissioned appointment, if a graduate only, on entering the army. Condensed into a course of four years (with appropriate post-graduate courses for specialism provided) the student should acquire not only knowledge of infantry, cavalry, artillery and naval tactics and aeronautics, but an exhaustive practical technical knowledge of the manufacturing of .army munitions and commercial chemistry as well. A practical education of this character is of great value in civil life from which these students are not necessarily withdrawn, as is the case with the graduates of West Point. A light “ side line” course of hygiene and antiseptic and practical surgery could be carried through three years of the course with a post graduate course for those who desire to qualify as army surgeons. To the average young man the opportunities presented by national schools of military and naval scientific technology would present an attraction almost irresistible. The large number of scholarships of course would relieve parents of expense. Beyond their limit, there could be pay entries of a substantial character, which would inevitably relieve the Government of a considerable percentage of actual costs. In the course of the regular curriculum the vast supplies of munitions necessary to the effective equipment of a large army could be economically accumulated by degrees as an incident of educational cost. These institutions (and all depots, etc., of war supplies) should possess a mid-continental location, preferably points contiguous to the Mississippi Valley. Had Germany dominated the military policy of our republic for the last half century, who will contend that she would not have developed the magnificent possibilities of our mid-continental waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. The “ Gore Navigation Bill” now pending in the United States Senate would long since have been an accomplished fact. Up and down this deepened water course the continental commerce of the nations and our battleships would be passing under their own power. The deep water draught of the oceangoing vessels could be diminished by detachable caissons. Its Great Value The educational preparation of a plan as above described would be of immense value to our republic. This education is now provided by no existing instrumentality under national control. Even West Point does not provide it. A man might spend his entire life in the regular departments of the army and navy and possess it only in a very limited degree. There will be a large number of young men, moreover, who will fail to “ graduate “ but who will nevertheless acquire during the period between their enlistment as members of the fourth class and the period in which they drop out, much that will be of value to them in the service of the nation. And a thought of supreme importance in the minds of many will be that the commercial life of our nation will be steadily enriched by a constant inflow of elements, trained and developed in body and brain and technically skilled in useful arts. Germany has possessed these elements (in the military sense) in consequence of her burdensome and enormous military system; and scientifically and technically by her numerous schools and universities, utilized liberally by her young men and inspired by the Government at a nominal cost! We do not desire to use Germany' s methods, but we do covet her results, her exhaustive knowledge of scientific warfare, adapted to commercial uses in our peaceful civil life. We have the money— we have the brains— let us use them! (Rev.) Wm. M. Walton, Archdeacon of Arkansas, Protestant Episcopal Church. Concg Leprosy To the Editor of the Scientific American : Thinking that perhaps I can throw a little light on the subject of the controversy between “ Uno “ and Mr. Monroe Woolley, concerning the contagiousness of leprosy, I beg to submit the following: About the year 1890 I took a contract to erect some buildings, dormitories, schoolhouse and residence for the Sisters in charge of the young girl lepers in the leper settlement on Molokai, H. 1. Among the girls housed in these dormitories, after they were built, were three daughters of a white man named Cross, a carriage builder of Honolulu, and his wife, who was a leper. I was well acquainted with Mr. Cross. This couple had four daughters after the mother had broken out with the leprosy; the first was taken from the mother at birth and never developed leprosy, though she was 18 years of age at the time mentioned. The other three daughters were nursed by the mother and all developed leprosy. Mr. Cross, though living in the closest companionship with his leper wife for twenty years, never developed the disease. In the early days of leper segregation in the Hawaiian Islands, the Board of Health permitted non-leper relatives of lepers to accompany their sick relatives to the settlement upon the conditions that they were never to return and that they must make their own living. I employed a number of them on my work who had been there for many years and who had not contracted the disease. These people were called kokuis. Dr. Strong, the resident physician, formerly the surgeon of the Spreckles steamship “ Australia,” told me that many of these kokuis came to him and begged him to inoculate them with the leprosy in order that they might be qualified to draw rations from the Board of Health. A convicted murderer was sentenced to be hanged and, in order to assist in determining one phase of this question, he was given the option of life imprisonment and inoculation with the virus of leprosy. He chose the alternative and was duly inoculated and in five years developed the disease. I built a jail for his accommodation in the settlement at Kaulapapa. Father Damien developed leprosy, but I have indubitable evidence that he did not do so by fair means; Father Damien' s one burning ambition was to die a martyr to leprosy and become a saint in the calendar of the Roman Church. I was in the settlement at the time of his death. I was personally well acquainted with him and with his successor, .Father Conrady. While I was in the settlement an Englishman, whose name I cannot recall, came there bringing an old- fashioned ten-gallon kerosene case full of “ gurgon oil,' ? which he claimed would cure leprosy. He deposited the case on the porch of my house and I had quite a long conversation with him on the subject. I was satisfied, however, that the regimen he prescribed was so rigorous that no Hawaiian would undertake it if he knew it would cure him. My men and myself were on the job about four months and mingled with the lepers with considerable freedom, though always avoiding personal contact with them, and I do not think there was a moment when any of us thought there was any danger of us contracting the disease. I am taking my data from memory and am not quite certain of them. They could be determined by the date of the death of Father Damien, which is, of course, history. Dayton, Ohio. J. R. FRASER.
