THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8189, 24 July 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1906.

The movement towards federation iu South Africa appears to bo making alow progress, but some very important steps have already been taken. The establishment of a Customs Union, to commence with, gives all the States one bond of common interest, and iu railway policy, again, there ia a good understanding among the oolonial Governments. The native trouble, too, is drawing the white men together for their common defence, and responsible Ministers have lately urged the necessity for a thorough understanding between the Governments, so that, if necessary, united action may be takeu promptly. Several Natal politicians are now urging the amalgamation of their colony with the Orange Kiver Colony, partly to reduoe the coat of

administration, but chiefly as a step towards South African federation. The London Standard, which discusses the question at some length, questions whether such a policy is practicable, and. whether the Dutch majority of the latter colony will care to be "watered" the British element in the former, or whether, on the other hand, the ultra-loyalists of Natal will view with satisfaction so great an infusion of disaffected Dutch into their councils. Moreover, by interposing k the barrier of toe Drakeusberg, Nature appears to have proclaimed such a union to be artificial. On the other hand, it is urged that Natal would gain the support of a large body of men well versed in native warfare, and the Orange River Colony would gain a voice in the control of a second railway giving direct access to the sea. The Standard's disposition is to advocate the inclusion of the Transvaal in this partial federation. "Such a union," remarks the London journal, "would have the great advantage of opening up wider- issues, and preventing the orystaMisation of .parties round the industrial interests of Johannesburg, on the one hand, and the pastoral interests of the oountry population in the Transvaal on the other. Wa do not, for the moment, say that any union is practicable or desirable; but we do say that the statesmen of Natal would be well advised to keep the larger soheme in mind."

Although there is a general impression that tobaoco smoke is a germicide, this property has not been assigned hitherto to any one particular constituent of the smoke. The author of a note on the subject in The Lancet gives reason for believing that among other germicidal constituents the smoke contains formaldehyde. He says: Some simple experiments whioh we have recently made would seem to confirm the observation that one of the prinoipal constituents accounting for the germicidal properties of the tobaoco smoke is the powerful antiseptic formaldehyde. The amount present is more than just appreciable,, for if water through which a few puffa of tobaooo smoke have been passed is tested for formaldehyde the result is strikingly positive. The quantity of formaldehyde in tobacco smoke would appear to depend on the quality and kind of tobacco smoked. Thus the cigar appears to yield more formaldehyde than the pipe, an 3 the pips more than the cigarette. Possibly the peculiarly irritating property of the smoke issuing from the glowing end of a cigarette or cigar or from the bowl of a pipe is due to formaldehyde. It has more than once been stated that tobacco-smokers enjoy an immunity from certain diseases; and the frequent presence of a powerful antiseptic in the mouth, nasal passages, and sometimes the lungs (as in the case of those who foolishly inhale tobacco smoke) would to some extent justify the statement. When it is considered that in the nose a vast number of microbes are hourly deposited, it is conceivable that these may be effectively-destroyed by the frequent passage of tobaooo smoke through that organ. In the same way the organisms exposed to tobacco smuke in the rAouth would succumb. Formaldehyde is one of the most powerful disinfectants we possess, one part in 10,000 parts of wator serving to destroy all miorobes, while such a dilute solution has practically no poisonous action on the hnman organism. All the same it is mo9t undesirable that this fact should stimulate the practise of smokiug tobacco to absurd excess, for tobaooo poisoning is a greater reality than .many persons think, aad to employ tobaooo in abusive quantities for the sake of destroying, microbes might amount possibly to killing the seeds of one disease only to contract another.