March 25, 1886] 



NATURE 



487 



consequence being that the molecules cannot possibly fit to- 

 gether into a compact mass, as, for example, the rhombohedra 

 of calcite do ; for ice really resembles compact snow. 



George Henslow 



Sunrise-Glows 



On the morning of the 7th inst. a curious form of sunrise-glow 

 was observed on Ben Nevis. The sky at the time was covered 

 by a uniform thin sheet of stratus-cloud lying just a little above 

 the hill-tops all round. About 7 a.m., shortly after sunrise, the 

 sun was shining downwards through this cloud, and the valleys 

 to the eastward of Ben Nevis were filled with a " glow " exactly 

 similar in colour and general appearance to the upper glow so 

 often observed before sunrise and after sunset. The tempera- 

 ture at the time was very low — 9°.2 F. — and at 7.16 a portion 

 of a vertical halo passing through the sun's disk was seen. This 

 " under-glow " would seem therefore to have been due to the 

 presence in the air of ice-crystals, rather than of dust, whether 

 cosmic or otherwise. R. T. Omond 



Ben Nevis Observatory, March 8 



A Horrified Cat 



Last week, in connection with a study of Carnivora, I 

 obtained a cat from an acquaintance at a distance, and carefully 

 dissected it in a room above our stable. When I had finished, 

 the cat was, as may be supposed, hardly to be recognised. I 

 cleaned the scalpels, placed them in the case, and took them to 

 the house. No sooner had I put them down than I observed 

 our own cat go and sniff all around the case with a peculiar look 

 of intense wonder. I took the instruments away, and thought 

 no more about it ; but a short time after I returned to the remains 

 of the dissected cat in order to prepare the skeleton, when I saw 

 our cat standing at a distance of about a foot from the dissection, 

 and presenting an appearance of most helpless terror. She was 

 trembling from head to foot, and in such a condition of evident 

 horror that my presence had no effect upon her. After some 

 moments she noticed me, and then darted away with a scared 

 look such as I have never before seen. She did not return to the 

 house that day — a thing quite unusual ; but on the next day she 

 returned and entered the house with a fearful caution, as though 

 realising the probability that she herself might become a victim 

 to science, and her whole conduct has changed. 



This suggests that the country custom of using dead birds, 

 weasels, &c., as a scare to the like is not entirely unreasonable, 

 and it would be interesting to know whether others have noticed 

 similar effects. E. J. D ungate 



Horton Kirby, Dartford, March 23 



Nocturnal Hymenopterse of the Genus Bomhus 



As no one has replied to Mr. Doria's letter in Nature for 

 Februaiy 25 (p. 392), I may say, in response to his inquiry, that 

 I have heard in England a number of bees on a species of Tilia, 

 at dusk, when it was probably much darker than the "very 

 bright moonlight " referred to by Mr. Doria. It was too dark 

 to watch them, but their "hum" was very audible, and on my 

 diagging down a bough of the tree I saw one bee fly away. In 

 Herman Miiller's "Fertilisation of Flowers," English transla- 

 tion, p. 67, it is stated that a social wasp [Apoica pallida) in 

 Brazil seeks honey ^^ only by night" sitting still in its nest by 

 day. 



Query. Might not the " very bright moonlight," and not 

 habit, be the cause of the bees appearing at night, as described 

 by Mr. Doria ? I should hardly think a bee could discern 

 between moonlight and twilight. I have several times seen 

 bees rapidly on the wing, and apparently making for home in 

 the lu'Hit^ht. JNO.'C. Wilson 



Fairfield, near Manchester, March 13 



A LINGUISTIC REVOLUTION'^ 



JAPAN, in modern days, is the land of revolution and 

 of change. The systems and habits of centuries are 

 rapidly disappearing ; the old order is being dissolved by 

 contact with the West, and every year produces some 



of the Aim and Method of the Komajic Kai" 

 ition of J.ip.in). (Tokio, 1885.) 



reform which brings the country more and more into line 

 with Europe and America. There may sometimes be 

 haste, but there is no rest, in Japanese movements ; there 

 is little swerving to the right or left, and now for about 

 sixteen years the country has been, on the whole, steadily 

 moving along towards one goal, viz. equality with Western 

 nations, politically, socially, and intellectually. But of 

 all the wonderful changes which the present generation 

 has witnessed in that coimtry, perhaps not one has been 

 so strange or widely beneficial as that the commencement 

 of which is described in the pamphlet before us. And 

 as the first who will profit by it, should it prove ultimately 

 successful, will be the rising generation which has to study 

 Western science in all its branches, it deserves special 

 description in these columns. 



It will be known to inany of our readers that the 

 Japanese language, which, in its genius and structure, is 

 wholly different from that of China, is nevertheless written 

 by means of the Chinese ideographic or pictorial signs, 

 aided by two alphabets or syllabaries, themselves based on 

 Chinese characters. The object of the new movement, 

 shortly stated, is to sweep away these signs altogether, so 

 far as Japan is concerned, and to use Roman letters only 

 in writing the language. The Association, which has 

 been formed to carry out, as far as a private body can, 

 this reform, has issued the present pamphlet by the 

 advice of Her Majesty's Minister in Tokio, with the view 

 of making known abroad a movement "which its authors 

 believe to be an important step in the intellectual progress 

 of their country." We cannot do better than follow this 

 official stateiTient of the evils of the present system, which 

 is an incubus on the intellect of the nation, and which 

 adds incalculably to the mental toil, more especially of 

 its scientific youth, at the most important stage of their 

 lives. It may be well, however, to say at the outset that 

 the reform is no mere craze of a few misguided enthu- 

 siasts. The Society numbers amongst its most active 

 and sympathetic members not only Japanese scholars of 

 eminence who have studied their own as well as Western 

 languages, but also Europeans and Americans who have 

 devoted their lives to the study of the Japanese language 

 and literature, and Western diplomatists who are most 

 unlikely to participate in any visionary movement of this 

 nature. When men drawn from these \-arious classes, 

 with the best means of studying the question on the spot, 

 join together with the object of carrying the reform into 

 practice, we, who ha^-e not the same opportunities of 

 becoming acquainted with the local circumstances, may 

 be excused from discussing its practicability any further. 

 We may take that for granted, or we should not find the 

 names supporting the reform that we do. Another point 

 to be noticed is, that hitherto the Government has 

 officially held aloof from the Association, preferring, no 

 doubt, to allow private effort to prepare the soil before- 

 hand. To return, however, to the pamphlet issued by the 

 Society. 



The object of the Roinajie Kai, it states in the first sen- 

 tence, is to introduce the use of Roman letters, instead of 

 Chinese ideographs, for writing the Japanese language ; 

 when a language can be adequately represented to the 

 eye by twenty-two signs indicating sounds, why (it asks) 

 waste time and effort by continuing to represent it by 

 many thousands of symbols pictorially representing ob- 

 jects and ideas ? It is a labour of years to learn to write 

 the Japanese language as at present written, viz. with 

 Chinese characters supplemented by syllabaries invented 

 by Japanese scholars a thousand years ago. The number 

 of Chinese characters is not their only disadvantage. 

 Upon their introduction (we here employ for the most 

 part the exact words of the pamphlet) into Japan, it was 

 early found impossible to restrict the employment of 

 them to the expression of purely Japanese words of cor- 

 responding signification. The Chinese sounds, or, rather, 

 a more or less inaccurate approximation to the Chinese 



