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MACi^ZlNE OF SCIENCE ^ 



PUmLYlfORDED -EXACTI^ESCRIB ED | 



LOXDOX: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER i9, 1882. 



Contents op No. 48. 



Science and Art Gossip 297 



Monkshocd. Bj Grant Allen 2S9 



Venus Xearing Transit [lUutlraled) . 



Bt the Editor 290 



Was Rameses II. the Pharaoh of 



the Oppression ? Part X. By 



Miss AmeUa B. Edwards 291 



The Rain-Band 293 



High Tides - i9» 



Who Discovered the Division in 



Saturn's Ring? (///urfr.ife,/). By 



W.Noble 2)4 | Our Chess Column 



The Eodoivmenl of : 



The Stars for October illhittrated) . 3Iap 



A School-book on Heat 295 



Bible EngUsh 296 



Metachromatism, or Colour Change. 298 

 CoaaESPOST>ENCB : — Consumption 

 from Stavs — The Tuberculous 



Lizard— Alcohol, &c 299 



Answers to Correspondenta 300 



^titmt mxh 9irt Bo^^i^. 



School of Telegr.4.phy. — On !Monday, October 2, Mr. 

 W. Lynd, a gentleman of several years' experience, will 

 open a school of telegraphy for young ladies and gentlemen 

 at Fair Bank, 13, Oaklands-grove, Uxbridge-road, W. 

 Instruction is to be given in the various telegraphic 

 systems used in the Postal Telegraph service, the apparatus 

 for the purpose being made after the Post-OfBce pattern. 

 WTiile a course of instruction at this school will give an 

 initial advantage to those of its pupils who join the per- 

 manent start' of the service, by far the greater gain will, we 

 imagine, accrue to those who desire employment at the 

 numerous sul>offices, which constitute a considerable portion 

 of the postal system, and are destined, at the present rate 

 of progress, to still further increase in number and im- 

 portance. 



Crystal Palace Exuibitiox. — The amount subscribed 

 by gas companies towards the expenses of the special com- 

 mittee of the Gas Institute in connection with the forth- 

 coming exhibition at the Crystal Palace now reaches about 

 £4,000. 



In addition to the prizes already announced to be 

 awarded at the forthcoming exhibition at the Aquarium, a 

 £.50 prize is to be awarded for the best electro-motor for 

 stationary work, or for tram car work, (a) absorbing h h.p., 

 (b) absorbing 2i h p., (r) absorbing 5 h.p. The etlective 

 value of the receptor as economical for the transmission of 

 power will be the chief point of contest — that is to say, if 

 1 h.p. is put in by strap indication at one end, the strap 

 indication of the work done at the other end will be 

 measured, and the comparison thus made. 



Edison r. Swan. — At the meeting of the Swan United 

 Electric Light Company held last week, the chairman stated, 

 with reference to the threatened litigation between Edison's 

 Company and theii-s, that there could be no doubt as to the 

 separate character of the inventions, and that he thought it 

 not unlikely that the companies would join forces rather 

 than fight each other. 



Mineral Productions in Europe. — The French 

 Minister of Public Works has just issued the annual 



statistics of mineral industry. We extract therefrom the 

 figures below showing the mineral production of the prin- 

 cipal countries in 1880. The total amount is 380,657,000 

 tons, representing a value of about £2-50,759,467. France, 

 23,257,657 tons; England, 171,061,476 tons; Germany, 

 59,680,754 tons; Belgium, 17,172,749 tons; Austria, 

 14,216,282 tons; Hungary, 2,281,373 tons; Italy, 1,107,624 

 tons ; Spain, 2,584,361 tons. These amounts include com- 

 bustible minerals, iron, lead, copper, zinc, sulphur, tin, 

 manganese, antimony, marine salt, and rock salt. 



The following table, which has been prepared by the 

 French Ministry of Public Works, gives the railway mile- 

 age of the various countries of Europe and the United 

 States up to the end of last year, with the number of miles 

 constructed in that year, and the population per mile : 



Germany 



Great Britain 



France 



finssia 14,745 



Atistria-Hungarj- . 11,880 



Italy 5.450 



Spain 



Sweden & Norway 



Total. Built in IS 



21,313 331 



18,157 164 



17,134 895 



Switzerland . 

 Holland .... 

 Denmark . . . . 

 Rotunania.... 



Turkey 



Portugal .... 

 Greece 



4,616 



2,561 



1,557 



1,426 



1,053 



916 



866 



757 



6 



Population 

 per Mile 

 2,154- 

 1,93». 

 2,170 



3 5,586 



262 3,200 



109 5,321 



176 3,492 



273 1,408 



48 2,203 



22 ],83l 



83 2,835 



25 1,919 



56 5,860 



— 2,891 



8 5,870 



— 28,000 



Total 107,306 2,455 3,168 



United States 104,813 9,358 502 



It appears from this that the United States mileage was 

 only 2,493 less than the total of all Europe, and at the . 

 present time it exceeds it, as the former country has built 

 about 6,000 miles this year, whereas Europe has not ex- 

 ceeded 1,500. The diflerence in the number of persons per 

 mile in the two cases is also very great, Europe taking six 

 times as many persons to support a mile of railway as 

 the States, and can only be accounted for by the fact that 

 American railways are constructed much cheaper than the 

 European ones. 



AccoRDiKG to the census reports, the popu'ation of the 

 United States in 1880 was 50,155,783, of whom 36,843,291 

 were whites native born, and (),679,943 were whites 

 foreign bom ; the coloured population being 6,632,549- 

 Of foreign born whites, 2,772,169 were natives of the 

 United Kingdom, 1,966,742 Germans, 717,084 British- 

 Americans, 194,337 Norwegians, 181,729 Swedes, 106,971 

 French, 104,541 Chinese. 



"The Americans," says Mr. G. Phillips Bevan, "who 

 were to a certain extent influenced by the representations 

 of that colossal scoundrel Kearney, in California, were not- 

 a little surprised when the figures of tlie census revealed 

 the presence of the Chinese in very much smaller numbei-s 

 than were stated and believed. So vague, indeed, was thi' 

 previous knowledge, that even our Consul in San Francisco 

 reported that in 1876 there were over 150,000 Chinese in 

 the States, which numbers, during the agitation of the 

 next year, were conveniently increased to 200,000 in 

 California alone. The census tables of 1880 showed that 

 the whole number of Chinese in the States was orly 

 105,717; and although, from climatic and labour reasons, 

 the percentage in a few of the States was rather large, the 

 total proportion of 105,717 Chinese to the 51,000,000 

 inhabitants of the United States was so absurd, that the 

 Chinese bugbear collapsed at onco, to the shame of many 

 who had taken part in the agitation." 



