POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



279 



movements in each second. Such were the 

 transmissions outward. And all those were 

 conditional on consciousness of the position 

 of each hand and each finger before it was 

 moved, and, while moving it, of the sound 

 and the force of each touch. Therefore there 

 were three conscious sensations for every 

 note. There were seventy-two transmissions 

 per second, one hundred and forty-four to 

 and fro, and those with constant change of 

 quality. And then, added to that, all the 

 time the memory was remembering each note 

 in its due time and place, and was exer- 

 cised in the comparison of it with others 

 that came before. So that it would be fair 

 to say that there were not less than two 

 hundred transmissions of nerve force to and 

 from the brain outward and inward every 

 second, and during the whole of that time 

 judgment was being exercised as to whether 

 the music was bring played better or worse 

 than before, and the mind was conscious of 

 some of the emotions which the music was 

 intended to inspire. 



Ancient Chaldean and Modern Measnres. 



According to Prof. Harkness, in his presi- 

 dential address to the Philosophical Society 

 of Washington, the ancient Chaldeans used, 

 primarily, the decimal system of notation, 

 and also the duodecimal in the division of 

 the year and of the day into hours, and the 

 sexagesimal in the division of the circle and 

 of the hour and minute. The last two sys- 

 tems were also applied to weights and meas- 

 ures, and impressed upon them by the scien- 

 tific authority of those ancient sages. " Now 

 observe," says the author, " how the scien- 

 tific thought of to - day repeats the scientific 

 thought of four thousand years ago. These 

 old Chaldeans took from the human body 

 what they regarded as a suitable unit of 

 length, and for their unit of mass they adopt- 

 ed a cube of water bearing simple relations 

 to their unit of length. Four thousand 

 years later, when these simple relations had 

 been forgotten and impaired, some of the 

 most eminent scientists of the last century 

 again undertook the task of constructing a 

 system of weights and measures. With them 

 the duodecimal and sexagesimal systems were 

 Out of favor, while the decimal system was 

 highly fashionable, and for that reason they 

 subdivided their units decimally ; but they 



reverted to the old Chaldean device for ob- 

 taining simple relations between their units 

 of length and mass, and to that fact alone 

 the French metric system owes its survival. 

 Every one now knows that the metre is not 

 the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the 

 earth's meridian, and in mathematical phys- 

 ics, where the numbers are so complicated 

 that they can only be dealt with by the aid 

 of logarithms, and the constant it, an utterly 

 irrational quantity, crops up in almost every 

 integral, mere decimal subdivision of the units 

 counts for very little. But in some depart- 

 ments of science, as, for example, chemistry, 

 a simple relation between the unit of length 

 (which determines volume), the unit of mass, 

 and the unit of specific gravity, is of prime 

 importance ; and wherever that is the case 

 the metric system will be used. To engineers 

 such relations are of small moment, and, con- 

 sequently, among English - speaking engi- 

 neers, the metric system is making no prog- 

 ress, while, on the other hand, the chemists 

 have eagerly adopted it. As the English 

 yard and pound are the direct descendants 

 of the Chaldean-Babylonian natural cubit 

 and mina, it is not surprising that the yard 

 should be only 0*48 of an inch shorter than 

 the double cubit, and the avoirdupois pound 

 only 665 grains lighter than the Babylonian 

 commercial mina; but, considering the ori- 

 gin of the metric system, it is rather curious 

 that the metre is only 1"97 inches shorter 

 than the Chaldean double royal cubit, and 

 the kilogramme only 102 grains heavier than 

 the Babylonian royal mina. Thus, without 

 much exaggeration, we may regard the pres- 

 ent English and French fundamental units 

 of length and mass as representing respect- 

 ively the commercial and royal units of 

 length and mass of the Chaldeans of four 

 thousand years ago." 



Monnt Roraima. Mount Roraima, that 

 sharply perpendicular elevation in Guiana 

 which so long defied attempts to reach its 

 summit, has been ascended twice since it 

 was first conquered by Mr. Im Thurn in 1884 

 by Mr. F. Dressel and Mr. Cromer, in Oc- 

 tober and November, 1886. While Mr. Im 

 Thurn's ascent took place at the beginning 

 of the rainy season, Mr. Dressel's was in the 

 dry season, and their respective observations 

 were marked by corresponding differences. 



