POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



859 



down suspended matter, is greater in a large 

 body of water than in a small one. It will 

 be better, however, to err on the side of too 

 large an amount, for even then the amount 

 o,f alum added will be insufficient to impart 

 any detrimental properties to the water. 

 The water, after precipitation has taken 

 place, is perfectly clear and sparkling, and 

 has acquired neither taste nor smell. For 

 use in the dye-house no possible objection 

 can be made to it. 



The Story of India-Ink. India-ink is 

 of comparatively late introduction in Eu- 

 rope. It was a rarity in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, and a record exists 

 of a stick of it being preserved along 

 with some " giants' teeth " mammoth 

 bones as a curiosity, in the Museo Mos- 

 carda, in 1672. The Chinese, however, as- 

 sign a great antiquity to its use in their 

 country, and name, as the inventor of it, 

 Tien-tchen, who nourished between 2697 

 and 2597 b. c. About two hundred and 

 fifty years b. c, balls were made of lamp- 

 black from fir-wood, lacquer, and size. A 

 poet of that day, singing of this precious 

 material of his art, mentions with especial 

 praise the ink that was made of the firs 

 from the hill-side of Lou-Chan, in the prov- 

 ince of Kiang si. This province was cele- 

 brated for the fine quality of its ink, 

 which was at one time made under the 

 supervision of an hereditary government 

 officer as overseer. A number of sticks of 

 the ink were sent every year to the em- 

 peror as a tribute. There were illustrious 

 names among the Chinese ink-makers. The 

 most famous of them was Li-ting-Kouei, 

 who not only made his sticks of a quality 

 which has become proverbial, like that of 

 the Stradivarius violins, but molded them 

 into a variety of quaint and artistic forms, 

 and received a special honor from the 

 emperor. During the long history of the 

 Chinese-ink, a great variety of processes 

 have been employed in its manufacture, 

 and nearly every kind of combustible has 

 been used for the production of the lamp- 

 black. That resulting from the combustion 

 of petroleum is said to make a more brill- 

 iant and blacker ink than that made from 

 fir-wood. The size by which the particles 

 of the lampblack are held together is fre- 



quently of animal origin, being made from 

 the bones of the stag, rhinoceros, and ox, 

 and from various kinds of fishes. The 

 Chinese instruments of writing have been 

 assigned supernatural guardians, whose 

 places of precedence are settled by strict 

 rules of etiquette. The "Prefect of the 

 Black Perfume " is the official style of the 

 ink-deity, and he is of higher rank than the 

 divinities of the pencil and the paper. It is 

 said that, a very long time ago, this divinity 

 appeared to the Emperor Iliuan-Tsong while 

 he was writing, and announced to him that 

 henceforth, when a man of true learning or 

 genius should write, the twelve deities of 

 ink should make their appearance to testify 

 to the reality of his powers. It is said 

 that the twelve deities of ink have never 

 appeared since. 



Periodicity of Cyclones. Mr. Charles 

 Meldrum, in continuation of his observations 

 relative to his theory of the periodicity of 

 cyclones, which he believes to occur in cy- 

 cles corresponding with the eleven - year 

 cycle of sun-spots, has published the results 

 of the meteorological observations which he 

 has systematically compiled from the log- 

 books of vessels traversing the Indian Ocean 

 for the nine years 1876-84. The obser- 

 vations averaged forty-six for every twen- 

 ty-four hours included in the review. By 

 the aid of these records nine cyclone-charts 

 have been prepared, one for each of the 

 years, and these, together with the twenty 

 that had previously been prepared for the 

 years 1856-'75, show, as far as has yet been 

 ascertained, the tracks of the cyclones of 

 the Indian Ocean south of the equator in 

 each of the years 1856- , 84. The tracks for 

 the years 1848-'55 are nearly ready. With 

 respect to the period 1876-84, the areas of 

 cyclones and the distances traversed have 

 not yet been determined, but, upon the 

 whole, the number and duration of the 

 cyclones decreased to a minimum in 1880, 

 and then increased till, in 1884, they were 

 more than double what they were in 1880. 

 From the accompanying track -charts for the 

 eleven years, 1856, 1857, 1860, 1861, 1867, 

 1868, 1871, 1872, 1879, 1880, and 1884, it 

 appears that the number and duration of the 

 cyclones of 1S56 and 1857 were much less 

 than those of the cyclones of 1860 and 1861 ; 



