5 66 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 9, i! 



high mountains, a species of bamboo grew, which, on 

 account of its uniformity and its structure, being nei- 

 ther too hard nor too soft, was exceedingly suitable for 

 a wind instrument. He cut one down and tried it. Tra- 

 dition says that it gave the same note as his own voice 

 when he was excited by no emotion ; and the rippling of 

 the sources of the great Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, 

 which were in the vicinity, followed in the same tone. At 

 the same time the fabulous bird Fung-Hiang, accom- 

 panied by his mate, flew to the place. Both perched 

 themselves on a neighbouring branch, and commenced a 

 song, in the course of which each of the birds gave six 

 separate notes. These are the notes which are called the 

 six male and six female tones in the scale discovered by 

 Lyng-hm, and which correspond to the ancient doctrine 

 of the male and female principles in Nature. As a matter 

 of course, the deepest of the male notes was the one 

 already discovered by the philosopher himself. He now 

 endeavoured to reproduce the other notes with the help 

 of bamboo pipes, and succeeded. His task was now to 

 lay down fixed rules as to the length of the pipes, so that 

 thenceforth they could be easily constructed everywhere. For 

 this reason, and also because such a scale of notes depends 

 upon slight differences of length, and there were scarcely 

 at this time instruments to divide great lengths, he neces- 

 sarily arrived at the notion of passing from the less to the 

 greater, and of laying down an adequately small natural 

 unit for his measurements. That could be nothing else 

 but a grain of seed ; and now the point was to get seeds 

 of the greatest possible uniformity. He chose a sort of 

 millet, the Sorghum rubrum, the seed of which is of a 

 dark brown colour, and which is said to possess the ad- 

 vantages of greater hardness and uniformity than that of 

 the gray and other kinds. The seed is pointed at the 

 ends, and from one point to the other the length is some- 

 what greater than in the direction at right angles. Lyng- 

 lun now fixed the length of the pipe, which gave the key- 

 note at 81 grains of the seed placed lengthwise in a row. 

 But when the grains were placed breadthwise it took ioo 

 grains to give the same length. Thus the double division 

 of 9 X 9 and io X io was naturally arrived at. According 

 to the dimension in question, it was called a musical or 

 an ordinary foot, the latter being introduced with the 

 decimal subdivision as a measure of length. The breadth 

 of a grain of seed was I fen (a line), io fen = I tsun (an 

 inch), io tsun = i che (a foot), io che = I chang, io 

 chang = i ny. In subsequent times the line was divided 

 into tenths, hundredths, &c. Lyng-lun also laid down 

 rules for the breadth as well as for the length of the 

 pipe, because, although the note is essentially dependent 

 on the length, it is nevertheless necessary for its purity 

 that the pipe should be neither too broad nor too narrow. 

 He therefore fixed the circumference on the inside at nine 

 grains laid lengthwise. With these dimensions, namely, 

 a length of eighty-one grains, and an internal circum- 

 ference of nine, the pipe which gives the keynote contains 

 just 1200 grains, and this volume accordingly was made 

 the unit of dry measure, and was called a yo : 2 yo = 

 i ko, i ko = i cheng, io cheng = i ten, io ten = I hu. 

 So far we see how the units of length and dry measure 

 were connected with the musical keynote. The twelve 

 notes of the scale are all derived from the keynote, and 

 are to a certain extent comprehended in it. Hence if 

 the 1200 grains contained in the pipe are divided among 

 the twelve notes it gives to each a hundred, and the 

 weight of these hundred grains was made by Lyng-lun 

 the unit of weight. This was divided and subdivided on 

 the decimal system until a single grain became the lowest 

 weight of all. At a later period even the coinage became 

 connected with this system, for one of the weights, the 

 leang, corresponding to our ounce, became the weight of 

 metal put into a coin, so that the modern tael, in which 

 mercantile quotations are found every day in the Times, 

 is merely an ounce of silver, and is thus directly con- 



nected with the musical scale. Finally, says Dr. Wagener, 

 it appears from this account that, in China, weights, 

 measures, coinage, and the tuning of musical instruments 

 have been derived quite consistently from a constant unit 

 supplied by Nature herself, and that the essentials of this 

 system are over 4600 years old. 



NOTES 



The Queen has been pleased, through His Grace the Duke 

 of Richmond and Gordon, to intimate a subscription of 25/. to 

 the Scottish Marine Station for Scientific Research, Granton, 

 Edinburgh. 



The Washington International Prime Meridian Conference 

 discussed at length on Monday a resolution for adopting the 

 Greenwich meridian, which several American and British dele- 

 gates advocated. M. Janssen, the French delegate, opposed the 

 motion in a long address, arguing in favour of what he called a 

 "neutral" meridian, and suggesting that the prime meridian 

 should run, either through Behring Straits, or one of the Azores. 

 After some further debate the Conference adjourned subject to 

 the call of the chairman. No opposition to the election of 

 Greenwich was shown excepting by France, but doubts are 

 as to whether the Conference will have any result. 



According to the Standard's Calcutta Correspondent, the 

 Commission under the direction of Dr. Klein, appointed by the 

 Indian Government to examine into the cholera question, is 

 satisfied that Dr. Koch's microbe is no t the cause of the disease. 

 The Commission is still continuing its inquiries, but so confident 

 is Dr. Klein on the microbe question that he swallowed a number 

 of them without any evil results. 



"The Philadelphia meeting of the American Association," 

 states, " is credited with being the most successful up to 



tliis time. The total attendance was 1249. Great Britain con- 

 tributed 303 ; Pennsylvania, 246 ; New York, 161 ; Massa- 

 chusetts, 87 ; District of Columbia, S4 ; New Jersey, 58 ; Ohio, 

 57 ; Connecticut, 32 ; and Virginia, 22. The membership was 

 increased nearly 25 per cent., 515 new members being elected, 

 the number of members up to this meeting being 2033. The 

 number of papers read was larger than ever before, and it is to 

 be hoped that the weeding-out of the trivial matters so often 

 offered was carried to a greater extent than usual. There was a 

 general feeling that there was too much going on. A large por- 

 tion of the physicists were engaged as examiners at the Electrical 

 Exhibition, and were, of course, interested in the meetings of 

 the Electrical Conference. Somewhat less science, and some- 

 what more time to enjoy the junketing, would be more in 

 accordance with the desires of many, if one may judge from the 

 opinions expressed on the way home. A proposition to confine 

 the reading of papers to the mornings would have met with 

 many supporters." 



It would seem that the International Scientific Association, 

 which it was proposed at Philadelphia to organise, has been 

 really founded. Science informs us that it has now a more 

 assured existence, thanks to the fund of twenty thousand dollars 

 which will be established through the liberality of Mrs. 

 Elizabeth 'Ihompson. Of this fund five thousand dollars 

 have already been paid to the Association, and five thousand 

 more will be paid next year on condition of ten thousand being 

 raised from other sources. The income from this fund is to be 

 devoted to research. Not only did Mis. Thompson give liberally 

 to this new Society, but she also gave one thousand dollars to 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to 

 be used in researches on light and heat. Mrs. Thompson takes 

 great interest in the recent marvellous advances in the applica- 

 tion of electricity, and felt a desire to contribute, as far as lay in 



