March 31, 



1892J 



NATURE 



523 



arsenic acids are reduced at low redness with sublimation of 

 annuli of arsenic. When the powder is dropped into a warm 

 solution of iodic acid, iodine is liberated, and if a mixture of 

 amorphous boron and crystallized iodic acid is slightly warmed, 

 it takes fire, and a cloud of iodine vapour is produced. Gaseous 

 hydrofluoric acid attacks amorphous boron at low redness, 

 hydrogen being liberated, and fluoride of boron produced. 

 Hydrochloric acid only reacts at bright redness. 



Steam does not react with boron below a red heat, but the 

 moment incandescence commences at any point the decomposi- 

 tion proceeds with explosive violence, hydrogen being liberated 

 and boric anhydride produced. Carbon monoxide is reduced by 

 boron at 1200", with formation of boric anhydride and deposition 

 of carbon. When amorphous boron is heated to low redness in 

 a current of nitrous oxide, incandescence is produced, and boron 

 nitride and boric anhydride are formed. Nitric oxide, however, 

 does not react wilh boron under these circumstances. 



Metallic oxides are much more readily reduced by boron than 

 by carbon. For instance, when a mixture of copper oxide and 

 amorphous boron is heated in a glass test-tube, the heat produced 

 in the act of reduction is so great that the glass immediately 

 fuses. Oxides of tin, lead, antimony, and bismuth are imme- 

 diately reduced upon slightly warming, and the mass becomes 

 white hot. When peroxide of lead is rubbed in a mortar with 

 amorphous boron, a violent detonation occurs. Oxides of iron 

 and cobalt are reduced at a red heat, but the alkaline earths are 

 not attacked by boron. When caustic potash is fused in contact 

 with amorphous boron, a vigorous reaction occurs, with rapid 

 evolution of hydrogen. 



The great affinity of boron for oxygen may be readily shown 

 by making a gunpowder in which carbon is replaced by boron ; 

 if such a mixture of amorphous boron, sulphur, and nitre is 

 made, it will be found to explode considerably below the lowest 

 red heat. If a few particles of amorphous boron are allowed to 

 fall into fused potassium chlorate, quite a pyrotechnic display is 

 produced. The behaviour of certain fluorides towards amorph- 

 ous boron is interesting. Silver fluoride, for instance, reacts 

 in the cold upon simple contact in a mortar, with incandescence 

 and detonation. Many other fluorides are similarly decomposed 

 on warming. 



Sulphates of potassium and sodium are reduced to sulphides 

 at a low rid heat by amorphous boron with great energy, the 

 mass becoming white hot. Fused nitre, however, only reacts at 

 the temperature at which oxygen commences to be evolved, but 

 fused nitrites of the alkali metals react with violence, and pro- 

 duction of light and heat. Sodium carbonate, moreover, is 

 reduced at the temperature of low redness with vivid incan- 

 descence. The reducing capabilities of boron appear to be even 

 manifested in presence of water, for the powder rapidly de- 

 colorizes a solution of permanganate, and reduces solutions of 

 ferric salts to ferrous. Silver nitrate in solution is reduced with 

 deposition of crystals of metallic silver ; gold chloride also yields 

 an immediate precipitate of finely divided gold, and platinum 

 chloride is likewise reduced with precipitation of platinum upon 

 warming. A. E. TUTTON. 



THE MANCHU RACE. 



T' 



'HE origin of the Manchus — the race to which the reigning 

 dynasty in China belongs — is discussed by a writer in the 

 North China Herald, 0/ Shanghai. He says that the Tungus 

 people are scattered about in Siberia and Manchuria in rather I 

 small communities of several hundreds or thousands each. In j 

 1854 there were about thirty-five or forty thousand persons | 

 altogether in Siberia belonging to this race. Being hunters and ' 

 fishers they find it best to live on the banks of rivers and on the | 

 seaside for fishing, and in wooded hill countries for hunting. \ 

 They are met with, consequently, on the shores of the Baikal, 

 and on the upper waters of the Lena, which rises among the 

 mountains west of that inland sea. These few colonies of this 

 race are under the jurisdiction of Irkutsk. Still farther west 

 there are a tribe or two on the Yenissei. Those on the Lena 

 are near the part where the mammoth and other wild animals 

 formerly had their haunts. The frozen remains of these ancient 

 creatures are found chiefly at the mouth of the Lena, which 

 flows north to the Arctic Sea through about twenty degrees of 

 latitude from the neighbourhood of Baikal. On the east of the 

 Baikal, Nerchinsk and the banks of the Orchon and Onon 

 Rivers are preferred by this people, who are irregularly scattered 



NO. I I 70, VOL. 45] 



among the Buriat tribes in this part of Siberia. In the Amur 

 territory of Russia they occupy parts of the sea coast, and are 

 known as the Crotches and Goldi. It is because the salmon 

 and other fish that they live on are found in abundance that 

 they here build their movable huts. In the Russian Amur 

 province there are about forty thousand of them, representing 

 an ancient race which, as their language, joined with the facts of 

 Chinese history, shows, must have occupied these same terri- 

 tories and prosecuted these occupations for thousands of years. 

 In Kirin province there are, it is likely, a corresponding number, 

 for the trade with China always demands sable skins, otter 

 skins, squirrel skins, beavers, ermines, and fox skins in an ever- 

 increasing quantity. It is this demand for skins that maintains 

 the tribes in the north part of Kirin province residing on the 

 banks of the Usuri and other streams which flow north into the 

 Amur. 



The Tungus tribes to which the Manchus belong first appear 

 in history in the Chow dynasty. They are the Sokdin or Sushen 

 of that age, and they were powerful in the eleventh century 

 before our era. They are mentioned in the preface of the Book 

 of History, so that we have next to classical authority for their 

 existence at that distant period as a powerful state. The 

 historian Tso mentions them in the sixth century, and from the 

 way in which he speaks they were the strongest race in Tartary 

 at the time. But in the third century, after nine hundred years 

 of honour, their star went down, and the age of Turkish 

 ascendency arrived. The Hiung-nu Turks of the Han dynasty 

 had emperors of their own, who at least on one occasion were 

 received in China on terms of equality with the haughty 

 sovereigns of their southern neighbours. They could call them- 

 selves eldest sons of heaven and brothers of the sun and moon, 

 just as the Chinse could, and therefore they did so. But their 

 star also went down. The Turkish race has been used to rule 

 wild tribes for 2000 years. We know that the Hiung-nu 

 were Turks by the words left of their vocabulary which are 

 found recorded in Chinese history. But their power declined, 

 and then the Sushen, or Tungus, rose again to influence, and 

 it was because they lived in the eastern provinces, where the 

 valleys are rich in productive power, and because they had the 

 good sense to profit by Chinese teaching. When China con- 

 quered the Moukden province and Corea, a century before the 

 Christian era, the result was that the habits of life of the Chinese 

 and their moral and intellectual activity spread to the east and 

 north-east. Tungus and Corean tribes came under this new 

 influence, and grew more powerful in proportion to the progress 

 they made in the adoption of a civilized life. The Tungus 

 Ambassadors arrived at Loyang in A.D. 263 and 291 ; and a few 

 years later, when the Tsin Emperor had removed his Court to 

 Nanking, they appeared there. Probably they came from the 

 mouth of the Newchwang River by sea, for we know that the 

 Chinese junk-masters navigated the Gulf of Pechili fully 2000 

 years ago. The troops which subjugated Corea at that time 

 were there in large junks. Meanwhile other branches of the 

 Tungus race had become sufficiently powerful to disturb the 

 quiet of North China. Among them were the Ovvan and 

 Sien Pi. The Sien Pi and the Pliung-nu conquered large 

 portions of Chinese territory. The Tungus people ruled in the 

 province of Peking. The Turks occupied Shansi, and Tibetan 

 tribes took possession of Shensi. Each of these races seized on 

 that part of North China which lay contiguous to their homes in 

 Tartary. This state of things lasted till the latter part of the 

 fifth century, when the Chinese drove the Tartars out. Again, 

 however, at the beginning of the twelfth century a Tungus race 

 conquered North China, and was followed later by a Mongolian 

 dynasty, to which the Chinese of north and south all submitted 

 for a hundred years. 



The Mongols as a race are probably an offshoot from Tungus 

 stock. There are diff"erences, but there is on the whole a great 

 resemblance. The consanguinity that exists between Manchu 

 and Mongol is greater than that which is found to prevail 

 between Mongol and Turk ; and therefore it may be concluded 

 that the Tungus, either in Siberia or in Manchuria or on the 

 Amur, threw oft' a branch which became Mongol. This would 

 be of a very ancient date,' for otherwise the grammars of the 

 Mongol and Manchu would be more alike than they are. 

 Genghis Khan and his tribe started on the conquest of the 

 Asiatic continent from the neighbourhood of the gold mines in 

 Nerchinsk, and the Mongols are not fishermen by preference 

 nor hunters of the sable martin and the beaver. They are 

 rather keepers of sheep and riders of horses and camels. They 



