June 7, 1888] 



NATURE 



135 



the presentation is that the Smithsonian Institution shall furnish 

 a fire-proof building for the collection. 



At the last meeting of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, a lengthy paper was read by Mr. P. Ramanathan, the 

 leading Tamil of Colombo, on the ethnology of the Moors of 

 Ceylon. These Moor?, or Moormen, are usually classified in 

 the island as a race by themselves, apart from the Tamils, 

 Singhalese, and other races inhabiting it, but Mr. Ramanathan 

 came to the conclusion that the history, social customs, physical 

 features, and language of the Moors, class them as Tamils who 

 were converted to Mohammedanism in India before their migra- 

 tion to Ceylon. He does not think there is any difference be- 

 tween the two classes of " Ceylon Moors " and "Coast Moors " in 

 race or in the history of their conversion, the difference drawn by 

 he members of these classes between themselves being due to a 

 break in the course of immigration from India caused by the 

 persecution of Mohammedans by the Dutch when the latter had 

 possession of Ceylon. He pointed out that it was impossible 

 that the very large number of Moors now existing in India and 

 Ceylon could be, as is popularly supposed, descendants of the 

 small bands of Arab and Moorish merchants and refugees 

 who visited India in early times. He thought that only ar oat 

 5 per cent, of the existing Moors could owe their origin to 

 these immigrants. The paper, which was a very long and 

 exhaustive one, evidently could not be fully appreciated by those 

 who merely heard it read ; but in the subsequent discussion most 

 of the speakers appeared to think that Mr. Ramanathan's con- 

 clusion was not satisfactorily established. It was argued that in 

 several directions — especially in regard to the shapes of the 

 skulls — the facts were insufficient, and that at best Mr. Rama, 

 nathan's evidence for his thesis was only secondary. The value 

 of the paper as a starting-point for further investigation was 

 generally acknowledged. 



The Comptes rendus of the French Academy of Sciences for 

 May 14, publishes some interesting remarks on the vital statistics 

 of Germany, by M. Ch. Grad, author of a work on the power 

 and resources of the German people. The population of the 

 empire increased from 40,816,000 in 1870 to 46,855,000 in 1885 ; 

 that is, an increase of over 6,000,000 in fifteen years, or at 

 the rate of 1 per cent, per annum. Compared with this the 

 increase in France has been extremely slow, less than 5,000,000 

 for the period of fifty years between 1831 and 1S81 (32,560,000 

 an d 37,321,000 respectively), or at the rate of only 03 per cent, 

 per annum, with a constant tendency to diminish. During the 

 last fifteen years the excess of births over deaths has been seven 

 times greater in Germany than in France. The contrast becomes 

 greater when it is added that, while few Frenchmen emigrate, as 

 many as 4,000,000 Germans have removed to the United States 

 since 1820. In 1880, the population of the empire induced 

 2,86o,oco of Polish speech, 300,000 of French, 150,000 of 

 Danish, 150,000 of Lettish, 137,000 of Wendish, and 34,000 of 

 Checkish or Bohemian. But on the other hand there are at 

 present in Europe over 60,000,000 of Germanic speech, if the 

 8,000,000 Dutch and Flemish speaking inhabitants of the Low 

 Countries be included. Altogether, the Teutonic nationality has 

 doubled in Europe since 1840. But the increase has been almost 

 entirely in the urban population, which advanced from 14,790,000 

 in 1871 to 18,720,000 in 1880, while that of the rural districts 

 remained almost stationary (26,219,000 and 26,513,000 respec- 

 tively). For the whole empire the density of the population is 

 about 86 per square kilometre as compared with 72 in France. 



Some figures with reference to alcoholism and criminality 

 were recently communicated to the French Academy of Medi- 

 cine by M. Marambat. They referred to an examination of 

 3000 condemned persons ; and it appears that 79 per cent, of 

 the vagabonds and mendicants were drunkards, 50 to 57 per 



cent, of assassins and incendiaries, 53 per cent, of persons con- 

 victed of outrages on morals, 71 per cent, of thieves, sharpers, 

 &c. In acts of violence against the person, 88 per cent, were 

 found to be drunkards ; against property, 77 per cent. Among 

 youths under twenty, drunkards were nearly as numerous as 

 among adults, the difference being only 10 per cent. Of these 

 youths, 64 per cent, were addicted to drinking. An examina- 

 tion of the. departments showed the largest number of drunkards 

 from the regions where spirits are most largely consumed. 



A fifth edition of the late Prof. Balfour Stewart's "Ele- 

 mentary Treatise on Heat " (Clarendon Press) has just been 

 issued. Prof. Tait undertook to read the proofs, but found that 

 there was little for him to do. " Prof. Balfour Stewart had him- 

 self," he says, " given imprimatur to all but the last six sheets ; 

 and for these I was furnished with ' copy ' (excepting four pages) 

 fully revised and initialed by him. The book is published, 

 therefore, precisely in the form in which its author intended it 

 to appear." 



The February and May numbers of the Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute are of more than usual interest. 

 Among the contents are the following papers : on an ancient 

 British settlement excavated near Rushmore, Salisbury, by 

 General Pitt-Rivers ; on the stature of the older races of Eng- 

 land, as estimated from the long bones, by Dr. John Beddoe ; 

 the Lower Congo, a sociological study, by Mr. R. C. Phillips ; 

 the origin and primitive seat of the Aryans, by Canon Isaac 

 Taylor ; the Maori and the Moa, by Mr. E. Tregear ; on the 

 shell money of New Britain, by the Rev. Benjamin Danks ; on 

 tattooing, by Miss A. W. Buckland ; on the evolution of a 

 characteristic pattern on the shafts of arrows from the Solomon 

 Islands, by Mr. Henry Balfour ; on the occurrence of stone 

 mortars in the ancient (Pliocene ?) river-gravels of Butte County, 

 California, by Mr. Sydney B. J. Skertchly ; and the address 

 delivered by Mr. F. Galton, as President, at the anniversary 

 meeting of the Institute. 



Messrs. John Wiley and Sons, the American publishers, 

 have in preparation a translation of Rosenbusch's " Microscopi- 

 cal Physiography of Minerals and Rocks," by Joseph P. 

 Iddings, of the United States Geological Survey. 



Last week we referred to the edition of Barlow's Tables of 

 Reciprocals issued by Taylor and Walton in 1840. The work 

 has also been issued by E. and F. N. Spon. With reference to 

 our note on this subject, Mr. V. B. Spragueand Mr. George King 

 call attention to the "Table of the Reciprocals of Numbers 

 from I to 100,000, with their differences, by which the recipro- 

 cals of numbers maybe obtained up to 10,000,000, by Lieut.- 

 Colonel W. H. Oakes, A. I. A. London: Charles and Edwin 

 Lay ton, 150 Fleet Street, 1865." This table gives to seven 

 significant figures the reciprocals of all numbers from 10,000 up 

 to 99,999 ; and by means of the proportional parts the recipro- 

 cals of all numbers up to 10,000,000 may be obtained. Mr. 

 Sprague points out that reciprocals can also be obtained with 

 great facility by the use of Thomas's arithmometer ; and this, he 

 thinks, is the most convenient method when the number contains 

 eight digits, and it is desired that the reciprocal should contain the 

 same, or a larger number, of significant figures. 



A Russian translation of Prof. Everett's " Units and 

 Physical Constants" has just been published at St. Petersburg. 

 This is the fifth language into which the work has been translated, 

 the other four being Dutch, French, Polish, and German. The 

 German edition was long delayed by the compiling of additional 

 experimental data, and only made its appearance a month ago. 



The New York State Museum of Natural History has issued 

 a useful Bulletin (No. 3) on "Building-Stone in the State of 

 New York." The author is Mr. John C. Smock. 



