POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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expeditions, and has established a station at 

 Sodankyla, in Lapland. Other societies are 

 the Natural History Society (Societus pro 

 faund et fiord fennicd), founded 1821 ; the 

 Society of Finnish Literature, the Finno- 

 Ugrian Society, the Finland Historical Soci- 

 ety, the Finnish Archaeological Society, two 

 geographical societies, a medical society, and 

 a legal society. Among Finlanders distin- 

 guished in science and letters have been 

 LOnnrot, grammarian and collector of the 

 national literature; Ahlqvet, another able 

 grammarian ; Hallstrom, physicist ; the illus- 

 trious astronomer Argeliinder ; the mathe- 

 maticians Lindelof, Schulten, and Mittag- 

 Loffler, the last editor of the international 

 journal Acta Mathematica ; the explorer 

 Nordenskiold, who removed to Sweden in 

 1857 to escape trouble on account of an ad- 

 dress he had made at a students' festival ; 

 the botanist Nylander ; the zoologist Nord- 

 mann ; and the surgeon Estlander. Swedish 

 literature is also distinguished by several 

 Finnish names of great writers ; Finnish 

 literature is very ancient, although it has 

 only recently begun to receive special atten- 

 tion. The later poets and romancers have 

 discussed in the fresh and spontaneous old 

 poetry of the ancient folklore a nearly in- 

 exhaustible mine of rich images and striking 

 epics. Finland has further produced emi- 

 nent artists in various lines. The full story 

 of the achievements of this too little known 

 country of the far north is told in the book 

 La Finlande au XIX siecle, which the writ- 

 ers and artists of the country have combined 

 to make up, published at Helsingfors, in 

 French, in 1894. 



Report on Opium. The opium commis- 

 sion appointed many months ago by the 

 British Government was charged with the 

 investigation of three questions whether 

 opium, when taken in moderation, is injuri- 

 ous ; whether Indian opinion is opposed to 

 its use ; and whether prohibition is a prac- 

 ticable policy. The commission has pub- 

 lished its report, and declares that by a vote 

 of eight to one it answers all the three ques- 

 tions in the negative. The commission finds 

 that an immense number of doctors in In- 

 dia believe opium to be less injurious than 

 alcohol. Witnesses drawn from every grade 

 and class testified that it is an excellent 



remedy against malarial fever ; that it can 

 be and is consumed in moderation all through 

 life; and that its effect upon the constitu- 

 tion in health is practically nil. Among 

 natives the belief in the value of the drug is 

 nearly universal. The practice of opium- 

 eating pervades every class, is considered 

 allowable by every class, and the people are 

 opposed to prohibition. The commission, 

 therefore, though they believe some improve- 

 ment in the restrictive laws may be possible, 

 refuse to suggest any, and advise substan- 

 tially that the present system be left alone. 



Steel Buildings. A steel building, as the 

 words are now used by builders, is a struc- 

 ture supported by a steel frame, which frame 

 should carry all the other materials used in 

 the construction. If the frame is so ar- 

 ranged that it will always hold the building 

 securely in the position and condition in 

 which it was first erected, the other materials 

 used in construction will be required chiefly 

 to perform some other office than that of 

 giving strength and support. As considered 

 by Mr. C. T. Purdy, in his paper on the sub- 

 ject, the most important difference between 

 the old brick and stone buildings and the 

 new steel ones is in the construction of their 

 exterior walls. Brick and stone in the older 

 forms of construction were used first of all 

 to make the building strong. In steel build- 

 ings this use of masonry has nearly disap- 

 peared. It is used instead only to inclose 

 the structure from the outside air and ele- 

 ments, to protect the frame from fire, and to 

 afford opportunity for architectural effects. 

 Thick walls are useless with these frames, 

 and no matter how high the building is, the 

 exterior walls do not need to be heavier at 

 the bottom than at the top. Openings may 

 be made in them in almost any way or of 

 any size. In some respects the larger they 

 are the better, and the wall in any story may 

 be removed without injury to that above or 

 below. This is a great change. The steel 

 frame has worked a great difference in the 

 concentration of loads. Walls tend to dif- 

 fuse and spread the loads which they carry. 

 They act as beam and column at the same 

 time, and it is not always easy to tell what 

 part of the foundation supports a given load 

 in the upper part of the building. With the 

 column construction this indefinite feature 



