144 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



History of the American Indians, as having 

 eight strings. The fourth is shown in the 

 Metropolitan Museum, as from Brazil. It 

 has four strings, with a reed and jar. These 

 instruments may be borrowed, but the possi- 

 bility of their being native and original is 

 sufficient to justify investigation. 



The most important action taken by the 

 council and committees of the British Asso- 

 ciation during the past year was in the direc- 

 tion of impressing upon the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment the necessity of establishing a 

 national laboratory of physical research and 

 a bureau of ethnology for Greater Britain. It 

 was felt that the nation does not contribute 

 to physical research to the extent that the 

 benefits derived from the inventions of stu- 

 dents of physics warrant, and negotiations 

 are in progress in regard to the matter. The 

 proposed establishment of a bureau of eth- 

 nology is expected to be of use to officers 

 performing administrative work, and to mis- 

 sionaries seeking preliminary knowledge of 

 the characteristics of the peoples among 

 whom they are to labor. 



The considerable proportion of young 

 men attending the Toronto meeting of the 

 British Association was remarked in the 

 Globe of that city. 



It is regarded as probable by Dr. D. G. 

 Brinton that some valuable writings of earlier 

 students of Mayan antiquities may still exist 

 in the old libraries of Spain or Italy or in 

 private collections of ancient convents. There 

 have already been some accidental findings, 

 as that of Landa's manuscript by Brasseur 

 de Bourbourg, that of another work by Senor 

 Marimon, and that of the Codex Pereseanus 

 by De Rosny in a waste basket. But if one 

 knows what to look for, the probabilities of 

 success will be greater. Dr. Brinton, there- 

 fore, in his papar mentions authors and titles 

 of works that we know were written previous 

 to the present century on the rites, customs, 

 religions, and antiquity of Mayas, the pres- 

 ent whereabouts of which are unknown. The 

 list proves that the early missionaries did 

 not always neglect the pagan rites and his- 

 tories, and that if we had their manuscripts 

 complete, our knowledge of Mayan antiqui- 

 ties would be greatly enlarged. 



While the pionesr work of exploration 

 has been to a great extent accomplished in 

 Africa, and the lines have been run in all 

 directions, Mr. Scott Keltie speaks of the 

 broad meshes between these lines as still 

 needing to be filled in ; and one or two 

 regions yet remain that afford scope for the 

 adventurous pioneer. One region of con- 

 siderable extent, still practically unknown, 

 is south of Abyssinia, and west and north- 

 west of Lake Rudolf, on to the upper Nile. 

 Another extensive area is in the western 

 Sahara. All over the continent are regions 

 that will repay special investigation. Even 

 in northern Africa, an English traveler, Mr. 



Cowper, has found, not far from the Tripoli 

 coast, miles of magnificent ruins, and much 

 to correct on our maps ; and but little is 

 known of the interior of Morocco and the 

 Atlas Mountains. 



Committees were appointed at the recent 

 Detroit meeting of the American Association 

 to secure uniform nomenclature in the scien- 

 tific terms used in commerce ; and to consider 

 means for extending the influence of the as- 

 sociation into the secondary schools. 



The vice-president's address of Prof. 

 William Ramsay before the Section of Chem- 

 istry in the British Association was devoted 

 to an exposition of his reasons, founded on 

 the atomic relations and behavior of argon 

 and helium, for supposing the existence of 

 another gas not as yet discovered. 



The saguaro cactus of Arizona was de- 

 scribed by Mr. Henry G. Hubbard to the So- 

 ciety of Economic Entomologists at Detroit 

 as containing a woodlike fiber, allowing it 

 to resist the most violent winds as solidly as 

 an oak tree. The plants are sometimes sixty 

 feet high, and are of great economic impor- 

 tance, serving in the desert for timber. The 

 Indians use the fiber for roofing, laths, etc., 

 in building their huts. 



The Essex Field Club, England, has been 

 considering methods for protecting the native 

 fauna and flora from the destruction and even 

 extermination with which some species are 

 threatened ; and at a recent meeting unani- 

 mously adopted a resolution to all lovers of 

 Nature to avoid the danger — ( 1 ) by abstaining 

 from wholesale collecting, from collecting for 

 merely individual purposes, from needless 

 rooting up of specimens, from attempting to 

 cultivate wild specimens of refractory spe- 

 cies, and from purchasing such wild speci- 

 mens from dealers; and (2) by endeavoring 

 to persuade others, especially school childreu, 

 cottage gardeners, and dwellers in large 

 towns, to similar abstention. The need of 

 these precautions is as great in the United 

 States as in England. 



A note in Nature from Kumagusu Mina- 

 kata gives a curious Japanese method of ob- 

 taining information ^regarding the future. 

 " Noma Sanvanoshin narrated that the des- 

 tiny of a belligerent could well be foretold by 

 means of the ' Tanishi ' (common black land 

 snails, gathered for food in muddy rice fields). 

 If two groups consisting each of three of 

 these shellfish be placed in opposite corners 

 of a tray, the three animals representing the 

 future conquerors would advance, while the 

 others which are doomed to defeat would 

 withdraw. This method was approved by 

 repeated experiments during the siege of 

 Osaka (1615)." 



The Hon. Ralph Abercromby, author of 

 some excellent works on meteorology, died at 

 Sydney, New South Wales, June 21st, fifty- 

 four years of age. 



