142 



THE POPVLAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The section of Asia and General Ethnology 

 was formed in January, 1894, and has been 

 enriched with a collection of Oriental games, 

 an important series from the Sultan of 

 Johore, Chinese porcelain images; masks, 

 weapons, etc., from Ceylon; games of all 

 countries, military banners from Corea, and 

 Indo-Greek sculpture, from Afghanistan. 

 The archffiological library has grown in one 

 year from a collection of four hundred to one 

 of eighteen hundred volumes. 



Oriental Silver Work. Silver, according 

 to our consul at Amoy, is to the Eastern 

 Asiatics as gold to us, and is worked up by 

 them into innumerable articles of curio and 

 bric-a-brac. One class of designs consists 

 of miniature reproductions of features of 

 daily life, including articles of household 

 and personal use, the goddess of mercy, the 

 Celestial Porole, the King of the Fishes, 

 the sitting Buddha, the dragon, the flying 

 serpent, the begging priest, and animals of 

 all sorts. The largest of these articles do 

 not exceed two inches in length, and they 

 diminish to dainty little objects no larger 

 than a grain of corn. The work and finish 

 are admirable, and the features and hair of 

 the human beings and the scales of the 

 fislies and crocodiles are reproduced with 

 the highest care and skill. Another class 

 of these objects consists of miniature cord- 

 age. The metal is solid, but the surface is 

 so cleverly wrought out that at first sight each 

 piece seems a rope, cord, or braid. Some of 

 them are as tine as sewing silk, while others 

 are as thick as clotheslines. These silver 

 cords are used for bracelets, anklets, neck- 

 laces, belts, sword hangings, and horses' 

 harness. Though stiff, they are not rigid, 

 and can be bent in any direction. A tliird 

 class of articles includes household orna- 

 ments, such as mati;h boxes, ash cups, joss 

 sticks, bowls, sandalwood urns, plates for 

 opium pipes, button bo.xes, and so on with- 

 out end. A fourth class includes filigree 

 work and tissues made from fine silver ware, 

 all marked by the highest skill and beauty. 

 Articles of this class, brought by Marco 

 Polo to Venice, arc supposed to have sug- 

 gested the Italian filigree industry. A de- 

 sign from Fuchan is a l)0U([uet, over which 

 is loosely wrai)pcd a silken veil. It was so 

 perfectly made that the veil looked as though 



it might blow away at any moment. Through 

 its flimsy folds the flowers and leaves were all 

 visible. Another artistic gem is a little bou- 

 quet in which ferns, lilies of the valley, and 

 other plants are completely represented in 

 metals. 



NOTES. 



Mr. Gerard Fowke calls attention to the 

 fact that, while Ohio has furnished prehis- 

 toric articles and i-elics for hundreds of col- 

 lections at home and in Europe, and still 

 possesses material to furnish specimens ex- 

 ceeding in number those of all collections 

 combined of American archaeology, the State 

 has no adequate collection of its own acces- 

 sible to all the public. The opportunity to 

 form such a collection is now afforded through 

 the new geological building of the State 

 University, where should be established " the 

 nucleus of a museum of Ohio archaeology that 

 would properly represent the great wealth 

 of prehistoric remains within her borders." 

 These remains should be gathered up indus- 

 triously, " for they are being as slowly but as 

 surely blotted out as are the aboriginal con- 

 ditions of life which gave them existence." 



Prof. Riley read a paper in the British 

 Association on Social Insects and Evolution. 

 He gave an account of the dilTerent kinds of 

 individuals in the communities of bees and 

 ants, and pointed out differences which indi- 

 cated a gradation in the degree of their de- 

 velopment. In the colonies of white ants the 

 production of different kinds of individuals 

 was even more under the control of the com- 

 munity. There were also many variations in 

 different species : some had no soldiers ; oth- 

 ers, supplementary and complementary kings 

 and queens, which were capable of repro- 

 duction in their pupal and larval stages. 

 They fed, among other things, on their dead 

 companions, and hence might be destroyed 

 by poisoning a few, who in their turn poi- 

 soned their cannibal fellows. In these and 

 other cases which were adduced the com- 

 petition was between colonies, not between 

 individuals, and, on the whole, the evidence 

 drawn from these insects is in favor of the 

 transmission of acquired characters. 



The name Mashona (in Mashonaland) was 

 explained by a Mr. Drule in the British Asso- 

 ciation as an English corruption of the nick- 

 name Amashuina (baboons) given by the 

 Matabele to the Makalanga. 



Great interest was awakened in the Brit- 

 ish Association by the communication of 

 Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsay on a new 

 gas occurring in the atmosphere. Attention 

 was first called to this substance by the 

 fact that the density of nitrogen obtained 

 from atmospheric air differed by about one 



