620 



NA TURE 



[October 17, 1907 



Dr Stein's finds have amply confirmed the statements 

 of the Chinese official records, especially with regard 

 to the period of the isolation of the " Four Garrisons " 

 of Turkestan after the Tibetans had driven a wedge 

 northwards into the dominions of the T'ang, in the 

 eighth century a.d. To this period belong the rums 

 of Dandan-UiUq, while those of Niya, which show 

 the most marked classical characteristics, are five 

 hundred years older. It is at Niya that we find a docu- 

 ment sealed with a Chinese and a Greek seal side by 



The Tibetan evidence contained in graffiti (which 

 Dr. Stein for some reason insists on calling 

 " sgraffiti " : " sgraffito-work " is something quite 

 different) at Dandan-Uiliq and Endere is curious. 

 We have apparent references to defeats of the 

 Chinese : " At Pyagpag in the province of Glom- 

 lom this armv fought, and a tiger's meal was ob- 

 tained (i.e. nianv were killed)"; followed by the 

 savage remark, '"Now eat until you are fat!" 

 apparently an incitement to go and kill more Chinese. 

 These Tibetan graffiti have been translated by Dr. 

 Barnett, of the British Museum, and Dr. Francke, of 

 Leh ; from the transcripts of them and of the 



Buddhist sutras in Tibetan, also found by Dr.-.Stein, 

 the curious reader can gain an idea of the sounds 

 of the extraordinarily hideous Tibetan language^ 

 which would seem to' have served as the model for 

 Swift's Glumdalclitch, Brobdingnag, the Struldbrugs, 

 and the rest of the names in "Gulliver's Travels,' 

 not e.\cepting " Houynhnhnm." 



The Chinese graffiti are translated by the great 

 French Sinologist, Dr. Chavannes ; and Prof. E. J. 

 Rapson, of Cambridge, has begun the translation of 

 the Kharoshthi letters of the Indian maharajas who 

 ruled Khotan in the third century B.C., and of their 

 officials and dependants. Chinese' rule seems to have 

 been maintained contemporaneously with that of the 

 maharajas; but what powers were specially reserved 

 to the latter we cannot quite see from this correspond- 

 ence. Dr. Stein's new discovery (1907). that the 

 Indian kinedom stretched away east to beyond Cher- 

 chen .vnd Charkhalik to the Lop-nor, is of great his- 

 torical importance. 



For the details of Dr. Stein's exhaustive description 

 of his discoveries we must refer the reader to the 

 book. The congratulations of all archaeologists to all 

 concerned in its making go without saying. And not 



NO. 1081, VOL. 76] 



least congratulatory should be modern Chinese and 

 Japanese literati, to whom the Chinese documents and 

 antiquities of the Former Han and the Great T'ang 

 dynasties should prove of the greatest interest. 



H. R. Hall. 



INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL 

 COMMITTEE. 



A MEETING of the International Meteorological 

 Committee was held at Paris on September 

 10 and following days. 



The committee consists of seventeen members, ap- 

 pointed at the conference at Innsbruck in 1905. Ten 

 members were present, including the director of the 

 Japanese service. Two places were vacant by death. 

 The principal subjects discussed were the scheme of 

 organisation of international meetings for meteor- 

 ological purposes; marine charts and weather signals ; 

 a number of items of the international daily weather 

 .service, including reports by wireless telegraphy ; and 

 various propositions concerning the meteorology of 

 the globe, in which were included one on the neces- 

 sity for observing stations in the regions of centres 

 of .oction of the atmosphere, another on the necessity 

 for new charts of isotherms for the globe, and a third 

 on the desirability of daily observations from selected 

 stations, in order to trace the course of meteorological 

 changes over the globe. 



A number of special commissions were appointed to 

 report upon, or carry out, the various proposals. M. 

 .Mascart, president of the committee, was unfortun- 

 .•itely prevented by illness from attending the' meet- 

 ings with the exception of one held at his house for 

 the discussion of the question of international organ- 

 isation. At the close of the session he resigned the 

 office of president, and Dr. Shaw, director of the 

 British Meteorological Office, was elected pre.sident. 

 M. Angot, M. Mascart's successor at the Bureau 

 Central, takes his place also as a member of the 

 cnmmittce. Dr. Hcllmann, director of the Prussian' 

 Mcdorological Institute, was elected secretary, in 

 succrssion to Prof. Hildebrandsson, who retires upon 

 his withdrawal from the post of director of the Royal 

 Meteorological Observatory at Upsala. Dr. Hamberg, 

 director of the Swedish Meteorological Office, was 

 elected to succeed Prof. Hildebrandsson as a member 

 of the committee. The other vacant places were filled 

 bv the appointment of Dr. Maurer, director of the 

 Swiss office, and Mr. Stupart, director of the Canadian 

 office. 



' ' ' NOTES. 



We notice with regret the announcement made in a 

 Renter telegram from Paris that M. Loewy, director of 

 the Paris Observatory, and a member of the Academy of 

 Sciences, died there on Tuesday, October 15. 



At 1.17 a.m. on October 11 the Cunard liner Lusitania 

 arrived at .Sandy Hook, having crossed the Atlantic in 

 4 days It) hours 52 minutes. The total distance travelled 

 was 2780 nautical miles, and the average speed was 24002 

 knots. The highest day's run was 617 nautical miles. 



Reuter's correspondent at Mombasa reports that Dr. 

 Koch, who has been examining the causes of sleeping 

 sickness, left for Germany on October 15. His investi- 

 gation camps in Uganda have been taken over by the 

 colonial authorities. It is understood that Dr. Koch's 

 investigations have not led to any fresh discoveries. 



The Peking correspondent of the Times reports that an 

 Imperial Edict issued on October 9 orders the Board of 

 Revenue and Commerce forthwith to introduce a uniform 



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