POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



283 



dangerous or unfit for food. Nevertheless, 

 he adds, the possibility of a constant or in- 

 termittent contamination of the oyster beds 

 ought to be carefully inquired into. 



American Women in Science. The an- 

 nual meeting of the National Science Club 

 for Women was held in Washington, January 

 2d, 3d, and 4th, in the new reading room of 

 the club in the Lenman Building. The elec- 

 tion of officers resulted in the choice of Mrs. 

 Rosa Smith Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind., 

 as president; Mrs. Almena B. Williams as 

 vice-president ; Miss Isabel Lenman as treas- 

 urer; Mrs. Laura Osborn Talbot as general 

 secretary ; Mrs. Edward Good fellow as re- 

 cording secretary, and Mrs. Horatio King, 

 Mrs. Mark Harrington, Mrs. Herschell Main, 

 Mrs. Anna Lowell Woodberry, all of Wash- 

 ington, and Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, of 

 Rochester, N. Y., as members of the Execu- 

 tive Committee. The address of the retir- 

 ing president, Mrs. A. D. Davidson, who had 

 served for three successive terms, was 

 mainly upon geological forces in Europe. 

 General meetings were held on Thursday, 

 January 3d, at the Hall of the National 

 Museum, where a lecture was delivered by 

 Mrs. Olive Thome Miller on The Birds our 

 Brothers, and papers were read constituting 

 a rich programme of scientific essays by 

 members from all parts of the country. On 

 Friday, the 4th, the Council met at the Len- 

 man Science Rooms, and adjourned till 

 January, 1896. These rooms will henceforth 

 be open to women who come to Washington 

 for scientific study and investigation, who 

 will be admitted on cards from members. 

 The library needs gifts of books and pam- 

 phlets in science. 



The Koreans. While the Koreans gen- 

 erally display Mongolian characteristics, 

 features are often met with in them almost 

 European in refinement and Caucasian in 

 cast, indicating a mixture of race among 

 them. As described by Mr. H. S. Saunder- 

 son, they are tall, finely built, with features 

 approaching more nearly to the European 

 cast of countenance than those of the Chinese 

 or Japanese. Their hair is black, sometimes 

 shading to brown ; is worn by the men tied 

 up into upright columns on the tops of their 

 heads, and by the women parted m the 



middle and made into chignons. Both sexes 

 have small hands, which they are careful to 

 keep clean and soft, and small feet. Their 

 complexions are not so dark as those of the 

 Chinese, nor so yellow. Their foreheads are 

 high, and their voices are low and well 

 modulated. They are genial when treated 

 according to their notion, ready to laugh at a 

 good joke, and to throw themselves into the 

 fun of the moment. They are very proud, 

 but treat foreigners politely while they despise 

 them. Their policy of isolation is the result 

 of long and hard wars with the Chinese and 

 Japanese, and was adopted in the first place 

 to make the country difficult of access to 

 hostile forces. According to Mr. Saunder- 

 son, its effects have been detrimental to the 

 national character. Their dress is strictly 

 regulated. They pay great attention to the 

 cleanliness of their outer robes. "No one 

 who respects himself will ever appear in a 

 dirty coat. Consequently, the women's chief 

 occupation consists of washing the raiment 

 of their lords and masters, and far into the 

 night can be heard the tapping of the sticks 

 with which the wet clothes are beaten 

 a most destructive process. As the clothes 

 are but roughly tacked together and are 

 glued at the seams with rice paste, they 

 come to pieces every time they are washed, 

 and have to be reglued when dry. The 

 starch used consists of a mixture of rice 

 paste and honey, and it gives the surface a 

 peculiarly beautiful gloss." This regard for 

 cleanliness does not extend to the under- 

 clothing or the body, which, according to Mr. 

 Saunderson, are shamefully neglected. In 

 summer basket-work frames are worn on the 

 arms, back, and chest, under the robes, in 

 order to keep the latter clean and dry, and 

 also for the sake of coolness. 



The Pamirs. The term Pamirs, as ap- 

 plied to a particular region in central Asia, 

 was defined by the Hon. George Curzon in a 

 recent address before the Royal Geograph- 

 ical Society. It does not mean a vast table- 

 land, as some suppose, or a " series of bare 

 and storm-swept downs," as others have con- 

 ceived, or a steppe; but, as is illustrated in 

 the region itself, a mountainous valley of 

 glacial formation, differing from the adjacent 

 or other mountain valleys only in its superior 

 altitude and in the greater degree to which 



