NOTES. 



719 



ing the figure through the opening of the 

 tracery." Every village larger than a ham- 

 let has its goldsmith and silversmith. In 

 the filigree ornaments made by goldsmiths, 

 the burnished gold retains its proper color, 

 but the other gold is dyed red with tama- 

 rind-juice, a barbaric custom to which the 

 Burmese cling tenaciously. The reason giv- 

 en for it is that no other metal but gold 

 will assume this particular ruddy color when 

 treated with tamarind-juice ; it may in fact 

 be regarded as the hall-mark of Burmese 

 jewelry. The silver - work of Burmah is 

 much esteemed by connoisseurs all over the 

 world ; the artists treat this metal so as to 

 obtain the greatest possible effect that the 

 nature of the material allows. The trade is 

 not a paying one, but the leading artists are 

 devoted to their art, and are quite content if 

 they gain enough to live on, provided that 

 they keep their position at the head of the 

 craft. Many of them are proficient in ni- 

 ello-work, in which the design appears as if 

 drawn in silver outline on a black ground. 



An Earthquake Experience. — A French 

 gentleman residing at Mendoza, in the Ar- 

 gentine Eepublic, gives a graphic descrip- 

 tion in " La Nature " of the earthquake that 

 took place there on the 30th of March, 1885, 

 at about half-past ten in the evening. He 

 was reading and smoking, when one of the 

 sashes of his window opened all at once and 

 immediately closed again with noise. He 

 thought a dog had come in through the win- 

 dow, and bent over to look for the intruder 

 under his desk. The window opened again, 

 and he was obhged to hold on to his desk, 

 while his chair leaned over with him. He 

 straightened himself again, and was thrown 

 to the right. At the same time his jaws 

 came together and he bit off his pipe-stem, 

 while he felt a pain in the pit of his stom- 

 ach, like that of sea-sickness. Then the 

 thought occurred to him that it was an 

 earthquake. Six seconds afterward he 

 heard a noise like that of a distant loco- 

 motive letting off steam, followed by the 

 howling of dogs and the noise of the wind 

 through the plantain-trees. Then he saw 

 the angle of the wall veer slowly to the 

 left, then return to its place, so speedily 

 that he was scared and ran to the door to 

 get out. The door would not open. The 



dogs kept on howling louder than ever. 

 He burst the door open, and, running out, 

 found all the people in the streets, mostly 

 in their night-dresses. Three violent shocks 

 were felt. The writer of the account be- 

 lieves that a fourth shock would have de- 

 stroyed the town. The sky was afterward 

 obscured with fog ; and, for thirty seconds 

 after the last shock, a subterranean noise 

 was heard like the rumbUng of a railroad- 

 train in the distance. 



NOTES. 



Sir W. Temple, in his " Essays of Health 

 and Long Life," recommends, as the strong- 

 est preservative against contagions, a piece 

 of myrrh held in the mouth. It has been 

 asserted that Eastern physicians invariably 

 adopt this protection when attending the 

 sick. 



A MEMORIAL window to the late Sir Will- 

 iam Siemens, erected by his brother engi- 

 neers, was unveiled in Westminster Abbey, 

 November 26, 1885, with addresses by the 

 Dean and Sir F. Bramwell. 



The article by Professor Rood, entitled 

 " The Problem of Photography in Color," 

 published in the last " Monthly," and cred- 

 ited to the "Photographic Bulletin," should 

 have been credited to " Anthony's Photo- 

 graphic Bulletin." 



M. Pages, in the course of his experi- 

 ments in photographing the movements of 

 horses, has been struck by the observation 

 that the foot of the animal, being half the 

 time at rest on the ground, must, during the 

 other half the time, be in much more rapid 

 motion than the animal itself. He estimates 

 that in the gallop the foot reaches a velocity 

 of sixty metres, or about two hundred feet, 

 a second. 



Dr. C. V. RiLET, Entomologist of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and Honorary 

 Curator of Insects in the National Museum, 

 has given to that institution his extensive 

 private collection of North American insects, 

 representing the fruits of his labors in col- 

 lecting and study for many years. 



The Mexican Government is said to be 

 contemplating the establishment of a mete- 

 orological station among the highest mount- 

 ains of the country, at an elevation of nearly 

 twenty thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea. Instruments for its use, as far as pos- 

 sible to go a year without stopping, are 

 being made at Ziirioh, Switzerland. 



" Natcren," of Christiania, Norway, calls 

 attention to notices that have been given of 

 Scandinavian observations in the past, of 



