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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Negritos into the Sakai and the Samang. 

 The Sakai are a people of moderate stature 

 and large bones, fairer in complexion than 

 the Malays, with long, wavy hair standing 

 straight out from their heads. The Samang 

 are small and dark, with black, frizzy hair 

 close to their heads, like that of the negro 

 races. Some writers have inferred, from 

 comparison of languages, that there are con- 

 necting links between the Negritos of various 

 tribes and the Malays, and believe that the 

 former show traces of Melanesian blood. 



Massage in Ancient Times. Massage has 

 apparently been practiced from the very ear- 

 liest times. A Chinese manuscript of three 

 thousand years before the Christian era con- 

 tains an account of operations very similar 

 to those which go under that name at the 

 present time friction, kneading, manipulat- 

 ing, and rolling. A form of massage was 

 the common accompaniment of the bath with 

 the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and was 

 used as a luxury, a means of hastening tedi- 

 ous convalescence, and of making the limbs 

 supple and enduring. Hippocrates com- 

 mended it ; Esculapius believed in it ; Cicero 

 affirmed that he owed as much of his health 

 to his anointer as he did to his physician ; 

 Julius Cassar had himself pinched all over 

 every day for neuralgia ; and Pliny enjoyed 

 great benefit from it. Celsus advised rub- 

 bing to be applied to the whole body ; and 

 the works of Plato abound in references to 

 the use of friction. Peter Henrik Ling is 

 said to have based the Swedish movement- 

 cure on the Chinese Kong-Fan manuscript. 

 Lepage relates that the Chinese massage was 

 a particular practice borrowed from the In- 

 dians, and that it was by such means that 

 the Brahmans effected their miraculous cures. 

 The method is common among the Polyne- 

 sians, and something like it was found among 

 the Australians. 



Decay of India Rubber. Mr. W. Thom- 

 son says, in a paper on the vulcanization 

 and decay of India rubber, that copper salts 

 have an injurious effect on India rubber, 

 and, as that metal is sometimes used in 

 dyeing blacks and other colors, cloth so dyed 

 is liable to decompose and harden the rubber 

 put into it. Metallic copper placed in con- 

 tact with thin sheets of India rubber brings 



about oxidation and hardening of its sub- 

 stance, although no appreciable quantity of 

 copper enters the India rubber ; but metal- 

 lic zinc and silver have no injurious effect 

 on the rubber. The author had found that 

 if oil containing a certain amount of copper, 

 which it often does, gets on the clothe the 

 action of the bleaching agents on the cop- 

 per damages the cloth. There is an acid in 

 ordinary linseed oil that rots cloth. The 

 smell of India rubber is one of the character- 

 istics of its decomposition. When a piece 

 of blotting-paper is placed over decaying 

 rubber, it becomes colored by some of the 

 emanations, as does not occur with good 

 rubber. There is therefore no doubt that 

 certain volatile substances are emitted during 

 the oxidation that produces the hardening 

 of India rubber. Rubber can be kept best 

 under water or glycerin, or in coal-gas. It 

 remained good when placed in a vacuum and 

 exposed to sunlight for twelve months. All 

 oils, except castor oil, have a detrimental ef- 

 fect on India rubber. 



Cancer and Nervous Disease. In an ar- 

 ticle in the Nineteenth Century, Mr. Her- 

 bert Snow shows that mortality from cancer 

 in the United Kingdom is increasing at an 

 accelerating rate, and that the disease is of 

 nervous origin. According to the Registrar- 

 General's returns, the aggregate mortality 

 from this disease in England and Wales has 

 grown, during the twenty-five years 1864- 

 1888, from 8,1 11 to 1*7,506 a year. In proof 

 that the increase in mortality can not be 

 adequately accounted for by the growth of 

 population, the tables are again invoked to 

 show that the mortality from cancer per 

 million persons living has risen during the 

 same period from 385 to 610. The increase, 

 year by year, has been very regular. Re- 

 turns of a like character from Ireland and 

 Scotland tell the same story. Dr. Fordyce 

 Barker is quoted as having shown that the 

 number of deaths per million in New York 

 rose from 400 in 18*75 to 530 in 1885. 

 Cancer may be and often is initiated by 

 direct mechanical injury or irritation ; " but 

 in by far the larger proportion of those va- 

 rieties of cancer which furnish the bulk of 

 the mortality statistics no such mechanical 

 exciting cause can be detected." Moreover, 

 as no additional liability to local injury or 



