1882.] 



* KNOV/LEDGE 



255 



^*L V AN lUJiSIRATED ^^J^*' 



MAGAZINE OF SqENCE 

 PlainltWorbed -ExactlIdescribed 



LOX^DOX: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER l.->, 



Contexts op No. 46. 



f and Art Gc 



Sir W. Ihom-on on t be Tides 



A Study of Minutf T.i',.. By H j' 

 Slack, F.G.S., F.R.il.S. .;. 



WHS Rsmeses H. the Pharaoh of 

 the Oppression ? Part IX. By 

 Miss A. B. Edward^. ' 



The Amateur Electrician 



The Tree Tc»d (i«.,*ra/«i) . 



The Sea - Bathing Infirmary at 



Margate ;. 26i 



A Poisonous Lizard 26J 



Fishermen's Superstitions 26J 



rtilisinff Smoke from 'Wood 26J 



COBBBSPOXDESCB : To Mr. Proctor. 

 .Waves and Memory. 



26a 



Mathematics 

 261 ! Our Chess Cc 



^ri'rnre anli art 6o£f£ftp. 



The suggested cricket changes continue to form the 

 subject of letters in the Times. " Old Harrovian " sug- 

 gests a limitation of the first innings to one hundred runs, 

 with corresponding limit to second innings if reached.' 

 Another writer mentions an excellent plan adopted at 

 Philadelphia to decide games which otherwise would be 

 drawn, \-iz., by taking the average runs per wicket 

 taken, in unfinished games. He also notes how much 

 time could be saved if cricketers woidd only play up, 

 uistead of lounging through the game as they often 

 do. One writer (Old Kennington Club) thinks the new 

 arrangement suggested in Kxowledge would not do 

 because ten minutes, at least, would intervene be- 

 tween each wicket '. He omits to notice how much time 

 IS lost, as It is, between each wicket. Of course, the plan 

 proposed there might easily be modified, so that the chancres 

 would not occur too often. Twenty overs might be plaved 

 before any change, and followed by as many as would" be 

 necessary to take as many wickets as had fallen durin^ 

 those overs. Other details could readily be altered. But 

 It IS little likely (as was pointed out in the first paper on 

 tilts subject m Knowledge) that any change will be made 

 I ! ; ^•^- ^'''''^^^ '" ^''^ agreeable a lounge to be 

 altered by any arrangement that would ensure a real con- 

 test m every encounter. It is said that nine-tenths of our 

 amateur players prefer drawn games. 



_ The Jews as yet do not seem to have gained that hold 

 in the United .states which they have obtained in most 

 iiuropean countne.?. It appears by the census of lf<SO that 

 m that year there were only 230,984 Jews in the whole of 

 the Lnited States. Hut the emigration from Russia has 

 added some 17,0tiC» to the number, so that the total Jewish 

 ^^n nnA°" "^ *''^ country may be estimated at about 

 -W.OOO. Out of this number Xew York claims 80.518- 

 Pennsylvania, 20,000; Illinois, 12,62.5; California; 

 l^.S.^U; and Ohio, 12,.')Sl_thesc five States thus con- 

 taining more th.an half the Jews of the entire country. 

 „ -%^nJ.^'-l^' ^^'^^ '» Maryland, 8,.-.00 in Massachu- 

 setts, i,oob m Louisiana, 7,380 in Missouri, 5,593 in New 



Jersey, and the rest are scattered over the country from 

 Maine to Oregon. More than two-thirds of all the Jews of 

 the country are congregated in the principal cities. New 

 York has 60,000; San Francisco, 16,000; Brooklyn, 

 14,000; Philadelphia, 13,000; Chicago, 12,000; Balti- 

 more, 10,000; Cincinnati, 8,000; Boston, 7,000; St 

 Louis, 6,500 ; New Orleans, 5,000 : Cleveland, 3,50o'; and 

 Newark, 3,500. This determination of the race to the 



centres of population is also 

 the Jews in Europe. 



noticeable characteristic of 



As illustrating how the prospects of electric lighting are 

 advancing, it may be noted that whereas, on the inquiry 

 before the Select Commission, Dr. Siemens said that it n.-as 

 impossible to sv.pjjh/ electriciti/ for domestic lighting, from, 

 one source, over a greater area than a square quarter of a 

 mile, at New York 5,000 lamps were lighted simultaneously 

 over a district of one square mile, only one source of supply 

 being provided, the electric light running through eighteen 

 miles of mains. In the district there are 1,500 consumers 

 of gas, of whom 1,100 have subscribed for the electricli"ht. 



The statistics of the latest census of France, taken at 

 the end of last year, show some singular results, although 

 they cannot, says the Times, be said to be re-assuring "to 

 those who are interested in the future progress of "the 

 country [at least if we are to assume that the prosperity 

 of a country is proportional to the population per square 

 mile. — Ed.]. The fact that the whole of France has ex- 

 perienced within five years only an increase of 766,260 

 inhabitants, is a disagreeable one to be faced, as repre- 

 senting practically an almost stationary condition of popu- 

 lation ; but it becomes still more unsatisfactory, when v.-e 

 find that this increase, small as it is, has to "be credited 

 almost entirely to five-sevenths of the larger towns, and 

 that the rural population is distinctly retrograding. The 

 census of 1876, which fixed the number of arrondissements 

 at 362, of cantons at 2,868, and of communes at 36,056, 

 showed the population to be 36,905,788. At the present 

 time it stands at 37,672,048. Of the 87 departments, 34 

 (mostly agricultural) show a decrease, the 53 which figure 

 as increasing containing more or less manufacturing or 

 commercial centres, such as Nord, with its iron and 

 coal works and textile factories, in which the in- 

 crease is 83,674 ; Seine (containing Paris), 388,480 ; 

 Rhone (Lyons), 36,339 ; Bouches-du-Rhune (Marseilles), 

 32,649 ; Aude (Carcassonne woollen factories), 27,07/ ; 

 Pas-de-Calais, 25,822; Alpes Maritimes (Nice and 

 Mentone), 23,017. Some of the decreases of departments 

 are very considerable, such as Vaucluse, with the manufac- 

 turing town of Avignon as its centre, which has declined 

 to the amount of 1 1,.")54 out of a total population of 255,703 

 in 1876 ; Marche is still worse, for with its naval stations 

 and ports of Cherbourg and Grenville, it has declined by 

 13,.")33, and Calvados, containing Caen, Bayeu.x, and Hon- 

 tleur, by 10,390. In forty seven of the principal towns, we 

 find assembled one-sixth of the whole of the French popu- 

 lation, which is not a favourable outlook for moral, sani- 

 tary, or physical reasons. Paris lias now a population of 

 2,269,023, or an increase of 280,217 ; Marseilles numbt>rs 

 360,099, with an increase of 41,231 ; Lyons 376,613, with 

 an increase of 33,798 ; at the rate of about 10 per cent, 

 for the last three mentioned. On the other hand, Bordeaux, 

 witha population of 221,3(i5, shows an increase of only 

 6, 1 Gri, which is to be accounted for by the presence of the 

 phylloxera. With the exception of Marseilles, the French 

 ports have not increased much since 1876 ; Nantes, with a 

 population of 124,319, having increased by only 2,072 ; 



