P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY. 



861 



tain Lugard, Emin Pasha, Dr. Stuhlman, and 

 the late Father Schynse have added to our 

 knowledge. The Italians have been ener- 

 getic in exploring Somaliland, and the 

 French, despite the disaster to M. Crampel, 

 have not abandoned their efforts to reach 

 Lake Tchad from the west. Captain Gall- 

 wey and Mr. Gilbert T. Carter have made 

 important discoveries in Lagos and Benin. 

 Mr. Bent's well-known exploration of Zim- 

 babwe, and Mr. Joseph Thomson's study of 

 Lake Bangweola, which ill-health still pre- 

 vents him from writing up, are the most im- 

 portant pieces of work in South Africa. Sir 

 William MacGregor has been very active in 

 opening up British New Guinea. 



The New Element Masrinni. The prob- 

 able existence of a new element is reported 

 in the Chemiker Zeitung. It occurs in a 

 mineral which was discovered in 1890 by 

 Johnson Pasha in the bed of one of the 

 dried-up old rivers of Upper Egypt a fibrous 

 variety of a mixed aluminum and iron alum 

 containing ferrous, manganous, and cobalt- 

 ous oxides ; in addition to which is a small 

 quantity of the oxide of another element, 

 having properties different from those of 

 any yet known. The supposed element has 

 been named masrium (Ms), from the Arabic 

 name for Egypt, and the mineral masrite. 

 Its atomic weight has been approximately 

 determined at 228, which nearly corresponds 

 with the number (225) for which an element 

 is wanted by the periodic system in the beryl- 

 lium-calcium group. The monoxide has been 

 obtained, and several salts. 



Personality in Animals. We are accus- 

 tomed to take but little account, says Le 

 Monde de la Science et de V Industrie, of the pos- 

 session of a sense of personal responsibility 

 by animals, but if we look carefully into the 

 matter we shall find that it is an important 

 trait among many of them. Many animals 

 know how to impose rules of conduct upon 

 themselves, to assign themselves duties, and 

 to observe them. Their females attend to 

 the wants of their young before securing 

 their own provision of food ; the sentiment 

 of the relations of command and obedience 

 is obvious in social animals, like monkeys, 

 deer, elephants, buffaloes, and birds of pas- 

 sage. The shepherd-dog controls the flock 



that is intrusted to his care with as much 

 authority and self-confidence as his master 

 himself. The imposition of restrictions upon 

 themselves exists among animals to the ex- 

 tent that is necessary for the maintenance of 

 their health. Capacity to adapt its work to 

 the laws of Nature is perceptible in the bird 

 building its nest, as it is in the architect who 

 is constructing a monument. The fox is a 

 skillful constructor of the kind of burrow 

 best adapted to its needs. All these ani- 

 mals exercise a precise action upon their 

 medium for a definite purpose. Dogs seem 

 to have complete consciousness of their ex- 

 istence, and their slightest actions accord 

 with that view. They hunt with as much 

 ardor as men, and seem to take a genuine 

 interest in incidents of the expedition ; they 

 prance with joy when successful, and drop 

 their tails after failure. What right have 

 we to deny them consciousness ? The rudi- 

 ments of what we regard as the real bases 

 of personality certainly exist, in a more or 

 less marked degree, in even the inferior ani- 

 mals. If man is a person and derives rights 

 and duties from the fact, so also, to a certain 

 extent, are the elephant, the dog, and the 

 fox, each in its way. It is easier to talk 

 about the gulf that separates man from the 

 other animals than to measure it. 



Soldering Metals to Glass. According to 

 the Pharmaceutical Record, an alloy of nine- 

 ty-five parts of tin and five parts of copper 

 will connect metals with glass. The alloy is 

 prepared by pouring the copper into the 

 molten tin, stirring with a wooden mixer, 

 and afterward remelting. It adheres strong- 

 ly to clean glass surfaces and has the same 

 rate of expansion as glass. By adding from 

 one half to one per cent of lead or zinc, the 

 alloy may be rendered softer or harder, or 

 more or less easily fusible, as required. It 

 may also be used for coating metals, to which 

 it imparts a silvery appearance. 



Age of the Central American Monu- 

 ments. As a result of his studies of the 

 monuments of Central America and Yucatan, 

 Mr. Alfred P. Mandelay announces in Na- 

 ture the conclusions that the southern ruins, 

 including Palenque, Copan, and Quirigua, 

 are much more ancient than those of Yuca- 

 tan, and were probably in full decay before 



