348 
NATURE 
[August 12, 1886 
Service, read a paper on the races of the Straits Settlements. 
Of the Malays he said it was unlikely that they could be in- 
digenous to the peninsula, but where they came from, whether 
Java, Sumatra, or elsewhere in the Archipelago, is a question 
which has never yet met with a satisfactory answer. Their own 
tradition is that they had a supernatural origin, and that they 
crossed from Sumatra. Up to about 1250 they were pagans, or 
followed some form of Hindoo worship, but about that time 
their conversion to Mohammedanism began. Up to this time, 
Malay, of all the Sumatran languages, had no written character 
of its own, but then Perso-Arabie characters were introduced, 
and many Arabic words found their way into the Malay lan- 
guage. Relics of Hindoo superstitions are still found amongst 
the Malays and Negritos of the peninsula, and the customs even 
now observed, especially in Perak, on certain occasions savour 
strongly of devil-worship. As to the Negritos, Mr. Swetten- 
ham remarked that the most complete collection of the clothing, 
weapons, and ornaments of these people ever yet brought to- 
gether will be found in the Straits Settlements Court of the 
Exhibition. His own observation led him to divide the Negritos 
into two widely different sections—the Sakai and the Semang— 
the former a people of moderate stature and large bones, rather 
fairer in complexion than Malays, with long unkempt wavy hair 
standing straight out from their heads; the latter small and 
dark, with black frizzy hair close to their heads, like that of the 
Negro races. Some writers have found in the comparison of 
languages a connecting link between the Negritos of various 
tribes and Malays, and believe the former to show traces of 
Melanesian blood. The paper contains many interesting obser- 
vations on the manufactures of the Malays, and on the customs 
of these and the Negritos. 
WE have received two excellent memoirs of American men of 
science, recently read before the National Academy. The first 
is by Mr. J. D. Dana, and deals with the life and work of 
Arnold Guyot ; the second, the life of Jeffries Wyman, by Mr. 
A.S. Packard. In each case the work appears to be done 
admirably, and a list of the writings of the subject of the 
memoir is appended. At the beginning of his account of 
Guyot, Mr. Dana notices as a remarkable fact in the history of 
American science, that, forty years since, the same Republic of 
Switzerland lost, and America gained, three men of science who 
became leading men of the country in their several departments 
—Agassiz in zoology, Guyot in physical geography, and Les- 
quereux in paleontological botany. A fourth—De Pourtalés, 
who accompanied Agassiz—also deserves prominent mention, 
for he was the pioneer of deep-sea dredging in America. The 
Society of Natural Sciences of Neuchatel lost all four to the 
United States between 1846 and 1848. The memoir of Wyman 
(the list of whose papers, &c., reaches the number of 1875) con- 
cludes with a very touching portrait from the pen of Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Homes, and an ode by Mr. Russell Lowell. 
Nos. 25 and 26 of Excursions et Reconnaissances, which have 
just reached this country from Saigon, do not contain so much 
matter of general interest as usual. In both M. Landes con- 
tinues his collection of the folk-lore of Annam, under the title 
“*Contes et Légendes Annamites.”” In No. 26 M. Silvestre, an 
official connected with the administration of native affairs, has a 
short paper on the Chao tribe of the Hung-hoa province of 
Tonquin, which is interesting as showing incidentally the vast 
number of various tribes, or tribes under various names, which 
exist in French Indo-China. How far they are related to each 
other and to some earlier race of which they are the fragments 
is one of the ethnological problems of the future. Lieut. 
Campion describes a voyage made in a despatch-vessel to various 
islands lying off the coast of Cochin-China, which have hitherto 
been unvisited by Europeans ; and the indefatigable M. Aymonier 
continues the publication of an encyclopzedic work on Annam. 
A RECENT number of the American Meteorological ¥ourna! 
contains an article on the notorious dust-storms of Pekin. These 
occur in the dry season, especially in winter and early spring. 
They come on at irregular intervals, perhaps six or eight times 
in the season, and last about three days. The wind is westerly, 
most often north-west, and blows fresh or high. The condition 
of the streets of Pekin, evil as that is, would not account for the 
heavy clouds of dust that come down with the storm. The 
mouth and eyes have to be protected from the fine dust, which 
penetrates the closest room, and makes food to taste gritty. 
This abundant dust is spread over a large area. It extends 
eastward from Pekin to the sea, and south-eastward it regularly 
descends as far south as the Yellow River, and sometimes 
Shanghai, 10° of latitude away. The writer of the paper says 
this vast quantity of dust must come from the great deserts of 
Mongolia. A series of observations during one of these storms 
showed a fall in the thermometer when it came on, and a rapid 
change in the barometer, which rose from 786 mm. to 797 mm. 
making several rises and falls of less magnitude in the meantime. 
The clouds, which the day before had been unbroken, rapidly 
cleared away ; the sun was so obscured that it could be inspected 
by the naked eye; it was also set ina ring. The wind showed 
diurnal variations, the air was dry, and one had a feeling of 
malaise and nervousness. After the wind went down, the baro- 
meter remained high for a day or two, and on its descent there 
was another, but much less marked, dust-storm. The storm thus 
appears to have been a gale accompanying an area of high 
pressure, which came from the Desert of Gobi and travelled east- 
ward. The dryness of the wind and its abundant dust were in 
part due to this desert, which lies west and north-west of Pekin, 
and is not far away. In his great work on China, Richthofen 
discusses the geological effects of these storms, which are observed 
throughout the south and west of the Desert of Gobi, and further 
west are much worse than at Pekin. 
A LATE number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal contains a short memorandum by Prof. Pedler, of the 
Presidency College, Calcutta, on certain experiments which he 
has made on the corrosion of the lead linings of Indian tea-chests 
—a subject of considerable importance in more senses than one. 
His conclusions are that tea properly manufactured in the 
ordinary way has no power to corrode lead ; but if unseasoned 
and damp wood is used for the boxes, corrosion of the lead is 
almost certain, some varieties of wood acting more violently 
than others. Even with seasoned wood, if it becomes saturated 
with water, and be then placed in favourable circumstances of 
heat and moisture, corrosion takes place. The active agent, he 
thinks, does not exist ready formed in unseasoned wood, but is 
produced by a secondary action from the constituents of the 
wood. The corrosion is not due usually to contact action between 
the lead and the wood, but a volatile substance is gradually pro- 
duced from the unseasoned wood. The corroding agent is 
usually acetic acid in the presence of moist air and carbonic acid, 
but other acids of the same series are sometimes produced and 
also act on the lead, and in the case of butyric and valeric acids 
the incrustation is of a greenish yellow, while that from acetic 
acid is whitish or yellowish. The lead being corroded by these 
acids, which are produced by the decomposition of substances 
known to be present in the woods, the tea takes up the disagree- 
able odour of the latter after they have undergone the change in 
which acetic, butyric, and the other acids are formed, and will 
thus become deteriorated. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Common Fox (Cavis vulpes 6), British, 
presented by Mr. J. W. Morgan ; a Spotted Ichneumon (/er- 
pestes nepalensis) from Nepal, presented by Mr. Herbert W. 
Brown ; a Common Polecat (Mustela putorius), British, pre- 
sented by Mr. William Buckley ; a Red-crested Cardinal (Paro- 
