438 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 360 



many of the miners are engaged during part of each year in other 

 pursuits. Silver-mining is now carried on in every mining disrict in 

 the colony, but the richest and most extensive deposits are at the 

 Barrier Ranges, in the extreme north-west corner of the colony. 

 These deposits extend over a tract more than a hundred miles long 

 . by several miles in width. Among other minerals, cobalt, plum- 

 bago, and bismuth have been discovered in paying quantities, and 

 are being mined to some extent. 



— One of the largest engineering firms in England has under- 

 taken the manufacture of aluminum on an extensive scale by the 

 new Maussier process. This process comprises three distinct pe- 

 riods and kinds of operations, — the desilification, the reduction, 

 and the liquation. The desilification is effected by means of fluor- 

 ine or fluoride of calcium at a high temperature in the presence of 

 carbon. Lime, or the carbonates of potassium or sodium, may be 

 added to facilitate the decomposition of the silicate. The reduc- 

 tion or expulsion of the oxygen is obtained by means of iron and 

 manganese raised to incandescence in the presence of car- 

 bon. The liquation, the object of which is to separate the alumi- 

 num from the iron and manganese, is effected by dropping the 

 molten mass into carbon ingot moulds. These moulds are made 

 of wood charcoal. The aluminum so obtained is said to be nearly 

 pure. 



— In a paper read before the Johns Hopkins University Philo- 

 logical Association, Nov. 15, 1889, by Leon ibn Abi Suleiman, it 

 was said that American and European scholars who have come 

 in contact with educated Arabs are much surprised to see how 

 well they are informed in regard to European languages, history, 

 and literature, and how little they know of their own native lan- 

 guage and its literature. Nor is this wonderful, if we consider the 

 manner in which Arabic is studied b^ the modern Arabs. The 

 weak points are the incapacity of most of the teachers, and the 

 very imperfect methods they employ, and also the great desire of 

 every Arab to imitate the Europeans, especially the French, as 

 closely as possible, not only in language, but also in dress and 

 mode of life. It is in Syria, especially in Beirut, that the study of 

 Arabic receives more attention than in any other part of the East. 

 Beirut is situated 57 miles west-north-west of Damascus, the capi- 

 tal of Syria, and has about 90,000 inhabitants. Of those, 50,000 

 are Christians, mostly from the Lebanon Mountains, 4,000 Jews, 

 and the rest Mohammedans. Science and literature are in the 

 hands of the Christian population, whose number daily increases 

 by immigration from the Lebanon Mountains and the adjacent 

 districts. The city of Beirut is widely known as an educational 

 centre, is resorted to by students from all parts of the East, and 

 the pedagogical methods prevalent in its schools may be fairly as- 

 sumed as representative. Every religious denomination maintains 

 at least one school, where instruction is given either free or for a 

 merely nominal fee. Such schools are frequented by the large 

 middle class. When the Arab leaves his village and comes to the 

 city of Beirut to go to school, he for the first time puts on his red 

 shoes, or rather slippers, which he has hitherto carried carefully 

 under his arm while walking barefooted to church on Sundays. 

 This is his first step toward enlightenment. Having once entered the 

 school, his only desire is to learn French, which is taught in every 

 school ; and, were it not that he is obliged to study Arabic, he would 

 certainly not do so. His dislike for this study increases owing to 

 the exceedingly dry and uninteresting manner in which he is taught. 

 After spending nearly two years in learning the alphabet and spell- 

 ing, he spends three years more in reading the Bible, and all the 

 while no attempt is made to explain to him a single word that he 

 does not understand. Thus far, at least, he in a measure follows 

 what he is reading ; but afterwards, when selections from old Ara- 

 bic poetry are given him to read, his task becomes monotonous in 

 the extreme; for now he does not know whether he is reading 

 Arabic, Turkish, or Persian, and his teacher is absolutely unable to 

 enlighten him, as he himself does not comprehend the meaning of 

 a single passage. We must bear in mind, however, that modern 

 Arabic is just as different from the classical language as modern 

 Greek from classical Greek. After learning to read Arabic poetry 

 fluently, the student enters a class in which the grammar is taught, 

 learning by rote without understanding .a word. Writing, like 



reading, is taught mechanically, and much importance is attached 

 to the acquisition of a good hand. When this has been acquired,, 

 the student is given, every two or three weeks, a letter to copy, 

 and thus learns the art of letter-writing. After this he leaves the 

 school, but continues his French and English studies. By this 

 time he has exchanged his saraweel for a French suit, addresses- 

 his friend " Ya jnon cher," and tries to speak French whenever he 

 can find or make opportunity. The upper classes, of course, study 

 on a better basis. They usually attend the excellent private schools, 

 and colleges with which Beirut is well provided. The foremost of 

 those, and the oldest, is the Madrasat-al-Bustani, the academy of 

 the late Butrus Bustani, the editor of the famous dictionary " Mu- 

 hit-al-Muhit." This school, the American College, and the Uni- 

 versity of tl)e Jesuits, are considered the best. But in these also,. 

 European languages hold the foremost place, and students desiring 

 of devoting themselves to the study of classical Arabic do so pri- 

 vately after leaving college, studying the Koran, not taught in any 

 school, the old grammarians, even now the best, and trying to imi- 

 tate in their writings the language of the Koran; so pleasing to the 

 ear of the cultivated Arabic scholar. Such men form the several 

 literary societies, among which the Zahrat-al-Adab is the most 

 prominent. But few Arabs can be said to possess a fair knowl- 

 edge of their own literature. The example, however, of those who- 

 devote themselves to this study is beginning to be felt, and the 

 system of the schools is daily becoming better. Nevertheless it 

 will be long before the study of Arabic in the East will be estab- 

 lished on a true scientific basis. 



— At a recent meeting of the American Oriental Society, after a 

 brief introduction describing the opinions held by various scholars- 

 that there was a connection between the aborigines of China and 

 Mesopotamia, an account was given by Dr. Cyrus Adler of a pa- 

 per by Mr. Yonekichi Miyake, in a Japanese literary journal, in 

 which he compared an ancient golden banner preserved at the cel- 

 ebrated Buddhist temple Horinji, in the province of Yamato, Ja- 

 pan, with designs on Assyrian and Hittite monuments. The con- 

 clusion of the author is, " that there once existed inter-continental 

 communication in Asia, and that the Assyrian art was introduced 

 into China probably through Persia and India. Although Japan 

 is entirely separated from the continent, it came under this influ- 

 ence, by way of China, about 1000 years ago." 



— A correspondent of Garden and Forest sends the following 

 note upon Magnolia glauca in its isolated northern station in Es- 

 sex County, Mass. : " Magnolia Swamp contains several hundred 

 acres, and it is one and a half miles in length and from ten to over 

 one hundred rods in width. I am of opinion that this swamp has 

 furnished the shrub to all the others. In regard to three of the 

 smaller swamps, I know that this is a fact, the magnolia shrubs 

 having been transplanted by men. The inhabitants of Gloucester 

 are firm in the belief that Magnolia glatica is a native shrub, but 

 I cannot think so. I believe it was introduced by the old settlers, 

 some of whom may have lived in and removed from a more south- 

 ern State. ' The old Salem road,' deserted by the travelling public 

 for over a hundred years, skirts the eastern side of Magnolia 

 Swamp. Along the line of this road are the ruins of old cellars, 

 and in the swamp opposite one of the cellars, near a spring, may 

 be found magnolias which appear the oldest in the region. The 

 root-crowns below the moss are often found to be two feet in di- 

 ameter. In no other place can I find such a growth, and it is here, 

 1 think, that the shrub first started. It must be evident to any 

 careful observer that Magnolia glauca is struggling here in an- 

 unnatural climate. The primary roots grow straight down into- 

 the muck, and in the fall are thickly covered with rootlets snowy 

 white in color. In the spring these rootlets are mostly dead, and 

 a greater part of young shoots die down to the moss, and a certain 

 per cent of the old plants are winter-killed, which indicates that 

 there is no harmony between shrub and climate." 



— The fruit of the Japanese persimmon or kaki can still be found 

 in the markets of this city in great abundance, and of extraordinary 

 beauty and excellence. It is raised in Florida and Georgia, where 

 the kaki has been planted in large quantities. According to Gir- 

 den and Forest, it is by far the handsomest dessert fruit which the 

 market affords at this season of the year; but it is a questioft 



