64 



ASIA. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA. 



The disposition of the Chinese Government 

 toward foreign nations remained wavering and 

 doubtful. Among the mass of the people the 

 hatred of every thing foreign seemed far from 

 being on the decline, and the degradation, of 

 Prince Kung, the chief representative of a 

 friendly foreign policy, was looked upon as a 

 victory of the anti-foreign party. An expedi- 

 tion of Japan against the pirates of Formosa, 

 an island which China claims as a dependency, 

 for a time interrupted the friendly relations be- 

 tween the two great eastern Asiatic countries, 

 and even threatened a war. Toward the close 

 of the year the difficulty was, however, peace- 

 ably adjusted. (See CHINA.) 



Japan, on the contrary, continues to advance 

 resolutely on the road of progress. Several in- 

 surrectionary movements were promptly put 

 down, and the outrages committed by the pi- 

 rates of Formosa against shipwrecked Japan- 

 ese led to an expedition of Japan against For- 

 mosa, which, notwithstanding the protest of 

 the Chinese Government, proved an entire 

 success. The results of the first census were 

 published by the government, and great reforms 

 were introduced into the department of Public 

 Instruction. (See JAPAN.) 



British India, as was expected at the close of 

 the year 1873, was again visited by an exten- 

 sive famine, and for several months the num- 

 ber of persons assisted by the government was 

 estimated at 3,000,000. The energetic and 

 timely preparations made by the government 

 carried the population of the suffering districts 

 safely through the great ordeal, and about Oc- 

 tober this famine was declared to be at an end. 

 Toward the close of the year, a resolution was 

 issued by the Viceroy in council, announcing 

 that a campaign against the Duffla had become 

 unavoidable for the rescue of captives carried 

 off by this tribe from British territory. (See 

 BRITISH INDIA.) 



Persia is agitated by severe conflicts between 

 the liberal lay party, represented by Mirza 

 Hussein, and the ecclesiastical party of the 

 Mohammedan priests ; and the vacillation of the 

 Shah makes it doubtful whether the reform 

 party will command sufficient influence to im- 

 prove the wretched condition of the country. 

 New difficulties sprang up between Persia and 

 Turkey, which were, however, peaceably .ad- 

 justed. (See PERSIA.) 



The war of the Dutch against the sultanate 

 of Acheen, on the island of Sumatra, was con- 

 tinued throughout the year 1874. Though not 

 a complete failure like the first expedition in 

 1873, it was marked by slow progress and se- 

 vere losses. The Dutch announced their inten- 

 tion to annex Acheen to their dominions, and 

 to extend their rule over the entire island of 

 Sumatra. (See NETHERLANDS.) 



The complications between France and the 

 Emperor of Anam, arising out of the bloody 

 persecutions of the native Christians in the 

 latter country, were terminated by a new 

 treaty, which promised to the Christians of 



Anam entire religious liberty, and conceded to 

 France a greater influence than she had ever 

 had before. (See FRANCE.) 



The grand project of a Central Asian railway, 

 which, if realized, could not fail to exercise 

 an extraordinary influence upon the destiny of 

 the interior of Asia, is declared by M. Victor 

 de Lesseps to be feasible. With respect to the 

 material obstacles in carrying a railway over 

 the mountains, De Lesseps is of opinion that 

 neither the Karokaram Passes nor the Bolan 

 Pass need terrify modern engineers. The 

 Karokaram Mountains are much higher than 

 any yet surmounted, but the gradients are much 

 easier than others that have been successfully 

 crossed by railways. There are several alter- 

 native routes. The traffic expected would, in 

 his opinion, suffice to pay interest on the capital 

 required for the construction of the railway. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND 

 PROGRESS. Minute Structure of the Solar 

 Photosphere. Prof. S. P. Langley, of the Al- 

 leghany Observatory, communicates to the 

 American Journal of Science the results of his 

 repeated and careful examinations of the sun's 

 surface., In exceptionally favorable atmos- 

 pheric conditions the so-called "rice-grains" 

 of the photosphere have been resolved into 

 very minute points of light, which Prof. Lang- 

 ley calls granules. These intensely bright, 

 circular bodies, which are less than three- 

 tenths of a second in diameter, are irregularly 

 distributed, and tend evidently to collect in 

 clusters. They constitute the properly lumi- 

 nous area, or, in other words, are the chief 

 source of solar light. Those results of Mr. 

 Langley's telescopic studies which seem to 

 have escaped the notice of other observers, 

 are thus briefly recapitulated : 



The ultimate visible constituents of the solar 

 photosphere being, not the rice-grains, but 

 smaller bodies which compose them, and the 

 size of these latter being valuable at not over 

 0".3 : from a comparison of the total area 

 covered by them with that of the whole sun, 

 we are entitled to say that the greater part of 

 the solar light comes from an area of not over 

 one-fifth of its visible surface, and which may 

 be indefinitely less. 



We must then greatly increase our received 

 estimates of the intensity of the action to which 

 solar light (and presumptively its heat and 

 actinism) are due, on whatever theory we form 

 them. (There is a presumption from observa- 

 tion that there is a drift of all the photosphere 

 in a direction approximately parallel to its 

 equator, while the evidence as to this point is 

 not yet conclusive.) 



In the penumbras there are not only numer- 

 ous small cyclones, and even right- and left- 

 handed whirls in the same spot, but probably 

 currents ascending nearly vertically, while the 

 action of superposed approximately horizontal 

 currents is so general that they must be con- 

 sidered a prominent feature in our study of 

 solar meteorology. 



