are being gradually sold-generally in small plots averaging sixteen acres; and the sugar factories have älso been disposed of to a corporation for a sum of 850,000l. The proceeds are applied to the reduction of the debts which were secured upon them to the amount of 18,000,000l. This indebtedness has already been reduced to 7,000,000l.

The tolls formerly payable for the navigation of the Nile and the canals have been almost entirely abolished. They had been imposed with a view of diverting the transport traffic to the government railways. The number of cargo-boats has greatly increased, and they act as feeders to the railways.

The various government administrations, comprising railways, telegraphs, posts, lighthouses, ports, and hallmarking, bring in a total revenue of 2,740,000l., and involve an expense of 1,506,000l., leaving a net profit of 1,234,000l., which will shortly be at the disposal of the Egyptian Government. The farming of the fisheries, which had existed from remote antiquity, has been suppressed, and a simple boat-tax substituted, which sits lightly on this large industry. Post-office savings banks have been established; and the Grand Mufti has pronounced an opinion that the participation in profits which the investors enjoy is not contrary to the religious laws against usury. It is hoped that this measure will bring a large amount of hoarded money into circulation. In the last five years the imports of gold have exceeded the exports by more than 12,000,000l.; and this vast sum is withheld from circulation owing mainly to religious scruples as to receiving interest.

This long review of beneficent administration might be considerably extended; but sufficient has been said to prove beyond any cavil that the prosperity of Egypt and the Egyptians has increased by leaps and bounds since the period of British occupation, in spite of much harassing opposition. To those who have witnessed the extravagance, the waste, the oppression, and the corruption of the days of Ismail; who have watched the dawn and the development of wise, prudent, honest, and equitable administration; and who have returned to see the extraordinary metamorphosis which the country, the

cities, the towns, and the villages have undergone in the last twenty years, there can be but one conclusion-that the British have performed their task well.

After giving every credit to the brave soldiers, the able administrators, the skilful engineers, and the other men of energy and resource who have co-operated with him as Lord Cromer throughout has liberally and generously done-the broad fact remains that, for more than a quarter of a century, he has been the moving spirit, the central figure in this admirable transformation. That no changes in our system of party government should have impaired in any way the confidence reposed in him by the successive occupants of the position of Foreign Secretary is a fact which reflects equal credit on the judgment of our statesmen and on the capacity and tact of the pilot who has steered with such uniform success through so many storms, and who has chosen to abide by his post and carry on the great work which none but he could have performed so well, rather than accept the higher positions which were offered to him and the easier duties which they entailed.

The motto of the Barings is 'Probitate et Labore.' Surely no words can more appropriately describe the long career of devotion to the public service which has earned for the Earl of Cromer the honours and dignities he enjoys. But the public is not fully aware of the magnitude of the debt which they owe to the man who by his far-sightedness, discrimination, and unerring judgment, by his imperturbable serenity and moderation, and by his resolution and persistence, has surmounted the innumerable difficulties that stood in the path along which he has guided the destinies of Egypt from misgovernment and bankruptcy to order and prosperity.

This work of many years has now been happily crowned by the entente cordiale brought about by His Majesty and Lord Lansdowne with the French Republic. We have reason to hope that this auspicious agreement will furnish a new point of departure for a still more prosperous future, and for the removal of the anomalies and disabilities which still survive.

Art. X.-FATIGUE.

1. Fatigue. By A. Mosso, Professor of Physiology in the University of Turin. Translated by Margaret Drummond, M.A., and W. B. Drummond, M.B. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1904.

2. Weariness. The Rede Lecture, delivered in the University of Cambridge, 1893. By Professor Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., 'Nineteenth Century,' September 1893. 3. Remarks on Replies by Teachers to Questions respecting Mental Fatigue. By Francis Galton, F.R.S. Journal of the Anthropological Institute,' vol. xvIII, 1889. FATIGUE is a phase of life to which few are strangers. That which the word denotes is an experience only too familiar to most persons, but in varied character and degree. It is a feature of perfect health, and yet is a link with disease, since it is produced with undue readiness in morbid states, and in some it constitutes a conspicuous symptom. Not only is it varied in its manifestation, but it has many-sided relations; and some of these involve considerable scientific interest. As a result of activity in the normal state, it is a part of physiology, the study of the living body in health; and as such it has been recently made the subject of much research, which has resulted in discoveries of considerable importance. It is a difficult subject for investigation, for reasons which will presently be mentioned; and it is curious that the study it has received has been chiefly at the hands of Italians. That nation has shared conspicuously the impulse to scientific research that has recently affected all civilised peoples, and has extended even to the state that is now so prominent in the eyes of the world-Japan. Italy has grand traditions to inspire her; and the degree in which she excelled in the study of life three centuries ago may have inspired the noteworthy work in physiology which her sons have lately achieved.

Contagion is not confined to disease; it is manifested also in tendencies of thought and work. The special study that has been given by Italians to the subject of fatigue seems chiefly due to the fact that one of their best known physiologists, Professor Mosso, has made it for many years a favourite subject of investigation. He has

published the results of his work in many papers, and has condensed them in a small volume designed for popular consumption, which has been translated into English. But fatigue is largely a feeling, a fact of sensation; and our meagre knowledge of the processes which underlie its sensory phenomena was admirably described by Sir Michael Foster in his Rede Lecture on Weariness, given before the University of Cambridge. This lecture is a remarkable example of the use of simple, apt language to describe recondite scientific facts.

It is curious that a fact of life so keenly and generally felt as is fatigue should have received systematic study only in recent years. The cause of its neglect becomes perceptible when we discern how little even the latest research can teach us of the nature of weariness, how little science can add to that which every one knows by experience. We may find an inkling of this in the words we use to designate the condition. The word 'fatigue' and all its synonyms, ' tiredness,' weariness,' 'exhaustion,' and the like, are positive terms. They are designations of the definite sensation which attends over-exertion. Yet, when we think of fatigue and exhaustion, we think of the inability for further exertion which accompanies the sensation quite as much as of the sensation itself. There are thus two sides to our perception of fatigue-a positive side, the sensation of weariness, and a negative side, the diminished power of exertion. Each is prominent in our thoughts. When we speak of being tired,' we mean, generally, that we cannot go on with the effort; yet only the definite sensation finds expression in our words. 'Exhaustion' is the nearest approach to a distinctly negative term we use, but this is really positive. The fact is, indeed, an illustration of the way in which all sensations dominate our thoughts and the words which convey them. Our feelings are the most definite realities to our consciousness; they govern our language and often exert a strong influence on more than our words.

Unfortunately for science, feeling or sensation for the most part eludes our grasp. The actual sensory functions of the nerves can be tested-the sensitiveness of the skin to touch or pain, of the auditory nerve to hearing, of the eye to light and colour; but the multitudinous sensations of which the brain may be conscious elude the

methods of scientific research even in its latest elaboration. They cannot be described in words, for our feelings altogether transcend the capacities of language; and only similes can be used, which mislead rather than inform. To this class of uncomprehended sensations belong those which are caused by over-exertion. The 'feelings' of fatigue constitute an obstacle to exertion often insuperable, but their purely subjective nature makes their scientific investigation almost impossible. That which is only felt cannot be recorded, and eludes the precise observation that is necessary for accurate study.

Hence the only aspect of fatigue which is open to research is its negative nature, the diminished power which results from over-exertion. The fact that strength is lessened by continued effort, even in moderate degree, is a matter of familiar observation. Animal life sometimes affords us striking examples; and one pertinent instance is the utter exhaustion of migratory birds when they have had to fly against an adverse wind. Birds vary much in their power of long flight; and the distance travelled by swallows and swifts is less marvellous than that covered by birds such as quails, which seem to have no great strength of wing, and yet are migratory. On reaching land they are often scarcely able to move; and many fail, simply from exhaustion, to reach the shore. Carrier pigeons, which have flown long distances, present the same symptoms of exhaustion; and the effect of overwork has been found by Mosso to be shown in them by increased temperature, and even by an altered colour of the muscles which move the wings.

But such observations are not definite enough for modern science. The influence of muscular exertion can be observed, measured, and recorded with precision. The aid which mechanics have given to the study of life is remarkable. It is not a jest, but a sober fact, to say that the science of physiology has been revolutionised by a revolving cylinder. Moved by clockwork at varying speeds, this simple apparatus has opened up a range of precise observation which has almost transformed the investigation of vital phenomena. To those who know anything of physiological science, the use of such an apparatus is so familiar that they have perhaps never thought of what physiology would be without it. But, if