240 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



[Skpt. 8, 1882. 



vM?nt less than in Scotland, and r>3 per cent loss than in 

 Irelxnd, and so tht- amounts of deposits in the savings 

 Uaiiks is 30 p^r cent more in England and Wales than it 

 is in Scotland, and 7.> per cent more than in Ireland. 

 Prosperity moves hand in hand with virtue ; misery with 

 oppression and crime. The bulk of criminals are gene- 

 rally found to l>e illiterate, and drunkenness is both a direct 

 and indirect cause of crime. Family dissensions are found 

 to contribute a large qtio'a to crime, and an ever active 

 • ause is the existence of the criminal classes." 



In a letter to the Timt>», " Some of the Victims" write : 

 — " As many of your readers will now be visiting localities 

 where i-aluable pebbles are said to abound, it is as well to 

 wani them Ix^fore having them cut that much deception is 

 practised. We have been spending a month at a well- 

 known watering-place in Wales, and while there picked up 

 stones on the l>each, said by the principal lapidary in the 

 tow» to be l)eautiful amethysts, topazes, and crystals. Some 

 iif those selectetl by him we had cut as specimens, others 

 we had mounted. Upon showing the uncut pebbles to an 

 ••niinent geologist he pronounced them to be pieces of quartz, 

 and told us that the lapidaries substitute real stones im- 

 ported from (ierniany in lieu of those they receive from 

 the visitors, }lf -says it is possible to find coloured crystals 

 in the rocks of the neighliourhood and on the beach, but 

 they would l>e quite transparent when divided, which was 

 not the case with those we found." 



As Ei'iHTY Pound H.^ilstosf:. — Considerable excite- 

 ment was caused in our city last Tuesday evening by the 

 announcement that a hailstone weighing eighty pounds had 

 fallen six miles west of Salina, near the railroad track. An 

 inquiry into the matter revealed the following facts : — A 

 party of railroad section men were at work Tuesday after- 

 noon several miles west of town, when the hailstorm camo 

 upon them. Mr. Martin Eilwood, the foreman of the 

 party, relates that near where they were at work hailstones 

 of the weight of four or five pounds were falling, and that 

 returning towards Salina the stones increased in size, until 

 his party discovered a huge mass of ice weighing, as near 

 as h<> could judg", in the neighbourhood of eighty pounds. 

 At this placp the party found the ground covered witli hail 

 as if a wintrv- storm had passed over the land. IJesides 

 securing the mammoth chunk of ice, Mr. Eilwood secured 

 a hailstone something over a foot long, three or four inches 

 in diameter, and shaped like a cigar. The.se " specimens " 

 Treri- placed upon a hand car and brought to Salina. Mr. 

 W. J, Ilajler, the North .Santa Fe, merchant, became the 

 po^'i'^ssor of the larger piece, and saved it from dissolving 

 by placing it in sawdust at his store. Crowds of people 

 went down to see it, and many were the theories concern- 

 ing the mysterious visitor. At evening its dimensions 

 were 20 X 10 X 2 inches. — S'lfirm (KarisaK) Jonrnnl. 



Hkakim; tiik Aritoi(.\ iiv Telkpiioxf. — An observer 

 of the recent aurora at Mont Clair, N, .J,, Aug. 1, writ<« 

 that on connecting tlie two jwles of his t<'lepliono, one with 

 •he wat/T-pipe lewling to ciKtern near his dwelling, and one 

 ■with the gas-pip*" If-a/Jing all over town, he heard the elec- 

 tTical crackle going on, substantially the same as is heard 

 when the samo connection is made during thunderstorms. 

 Iff, however, reports that the auroral crackle was more 

 'Iflicat'- in iH xound than the thunderstorm crackle, and 

 Uiat W-side the crackle there were at intervals, of perhaps 

 half a-second each, separate short taps on the telephone 

 iif>phra((m that gave a slight ringing sound. 



IsirouT.VNT OniEN-T.M, M.\MsciurTS. — The trustees of 

 the British Museum have acquired a most important collec- 

 tion of Oriental manuscripts, consisting of 138 volumes, 

 more or less fragmentary, containing (1) Arabic commen- 

 taries of the Bible, with the Hebrew text written by 

 Karaite .Tews ; (2) liturgies and hymns both of the Karaites 

 and the Rabbinic Jews ; (;?) Karaite polemical treat&es ; 

 and (4) grammatical, lexicographical, and philosophical 

 treatises. Among the commentaries with the Hebrew 

 text are some of the highest importance. They rank 

 among the oldest Araliic m.inu'^cripts hitherto known. 

 Three are dated a,ii, ;i48=A.i). !>.")!), a.ii, 395 = A.n, 1001, 

 and A.II, 437 = A.D, 104r), The Briti.sh Museum has hitherto 

 possessed only one single manuscript of this kind, dated 

 A.I1. 398 = .^i). 1007. Besides being of so early a date, 

 these manuscripts show the cause of the law laid down in 

 the Talmud, " that the sacred Scriptures must not be 

 written in any than the square H(>l.rew characters." They 

 demonstrate! for the first time that the Jews were in the 

 habit of writing the Scriptures in other characters. Another 

 point of extreme interest to the Oriental student is the fact 

 that, though the commentaries are written in Arabic, they 

 contain large quotations from Anan's commentaries in 

 Aramaic, thus proving beyond doubt that Anan, the 

 founder of the Karaites, wrote in Aramaic— the language 

 sp k'cn in Palestine in tlie tin.e of Christ. 



BuRiKD Cities in Gdkf.ch — Dr. Schliemann is carrying 

 on new e.\c:iMiMon8 atJIissariik, with the assistunci^ of two 

 eminent tJerman erchit(!cts. No fewer than l.'iO workmen 

 are daily employed in laying bare the foundation of the 

 ancient cities. Two perfectly distinct cities have lately 

 been discovered in the burnt stratum, the lower ono resting 

 on the largo walls which have hitherto by mistiike been 

 attributed to the second city. Hissarlik now turns out to 

 have been the Acropolis of this lower burnt city, this being 

 proved by the walls and the pottery, as well as by two 

 vast brick buildings, one of -them 4.) ft broad by 100 ft 

 long, tlie other 23 ft broad by less than 100 ft long. 

 These buildings seem to have been temples, a separate 

 gatewa)', Hanked by enormous towers, leading up to them. 

 There are, besides, three or four large buildings, apparently 

 dwelling-houses, but no smaller buildings. The city walls 

 now stand out very imposing. They rest on a substiucture 

 of large blocks, 33 ft high, afterwards superseded by great 

 brick walls. All the treasures formerly found by Dr. 

 Schliemann are now ascribed to the first burnt city. Dr. 

 .Schliemann has found in the temples copper nails of a very 

 peculiar i-hnpe, weighing from 1,000 to 1,190 grammes. 

 The second burnt city, being the third city from the rock, 

 and hitherto identified with the Homeric Troy, turns out 

 to have had but very .small houses, and no lower town at 

 alL Dr. Schliemann will <oiitiiiui- his excavations till the 

 beginning of August 



TIIK BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



By the Editop.. 



AS I write the British Association inenting is drawing 

 to a close. The final meeting of the (Icneral Com- 

 mittee lias l)een lield, mutual congratulations and lauda- 

 tions have been exchanged, and the sum of .£1,2HG raised 

 on this occasion has been appropriated (all l)ut a small 

 balance for outside expenses) in grants "for scientific pur- 

 poses." liritish Association science is dispo.sed to rest and 

 Ik! satisfied (for the present) ; .Southami)ton, if not alto- 

 gether satisfied, has liad quite enough of science, and is 



