February 5, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



7i 



to occupy twice the volume predicted by theory, — in other 

 words a given volume of the vapor exerts twice the theoreti- 

 cal pressure. The explanation is easy when we learn that 

 tlie salt is dissociated into the two gases, ammonia and hy- 

 dro-chlorine acid. Similar anomalies in osmotic pressure 

 may lead to a similar interpretation, although quite antago- 

 nistic to our ordinary conceptions and teachings. Sodium 

 will burn in chlorine with striking evolutions of light and 

 heat; we recognize the product as a new substance. Chem- 

 ical action has taken place. By a large expenditure of en- 

 ergy the elements may again be separated ; this also is 

 chemical action. But we dissolve the salt in water, evapo- 

 rate, recover it as before, and are prone to count all these 

 changes as purely physical. Little do we suspect that the 

 dilute solution contains in freestate the two substances which 

 we usually know as metal and gas, the two kinds of atoms 

 moving independently of each other, so long as they are dis- 

 tributed in equal numbers in any portion of the fluid. Yet 

 such is the theory of Arrhenius, now fast gaining ground. 

 Cold water decomposes a most stable compound, the elements 

 being gradually reunited in evaporation and crystallization. 

 Accept this hypothesis for electrolytes and their peculiar 

 properties are explained, their additive character must follow 

 as a necessary consequence of their nature, and the several 

 kinds of anomalies fall into harmonious relations. 



On this hypothesis the speed of chemical change should no 

 longer be proportioned to the whole quantity of each active 

 substance present, but rather in proportion to that part 

 which has already suffered loosening of the bonds. The 

 facts of dynamical chemistry afford an independent and 

 v.iluable confirmation of the new views. 



THE OEIGIN OF THE ASS, THE CAT, AND THE 

 SHEEP IN CHINA. • 



At a recent meeting of the China Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society in Shanghai, Dr. Macgowao, a well-known 

 Chinese scholar, read a paper on the probable foreign origin 

 of the ass, the cat, and the sheep in China. He said that the 

 Chinese, in their numerical co ordination of concrete and 

 abstract nature, give the "six domestic animals" as the 

 horse, ox, goat, pig, dog, and fowl; which seems to indicate 

 that when that formula was framed, neither cat, sheep, nor 

 ass had been domesticated there. When familiar beasts 

 were selected to denote years of the duodenary cycle, to the 

 "six domestic animals" were added the rat, tiger, hare, 

 dragon, serpent, and monkey, to complete the dozen, as if 

 the ass, sheep, and cat v?ere too little known to meet the ob- 

 ject in view, which was the employment of the most familiar 

 representations of animated nature for the duodendary no- 

 menclature. Still more striking is the absence of the ass, 

 sheep, and cat from the twenty-eight zodiacal constellations, 

 which are represented by the best-known animals. 



With regard. to the ass, there is ample reason to regard it 

 as being excluded from the list of domestic animals because 

 it was not archaic. The hybrid mule is of comparatively 

 modern origin in China, dating back only about a score of 

 centuries. A miscellany of the Sung era states that "the 

 mule was not seen during the Hsai, Shang, and Chou dynas- 

 ties; that it was a cross between the ass and horse from Mon- 

 golia. It is regularly bred in the north, and is worth in the 

 market twice as much as the horse; it is popularly reported 

 that its bones are marrowless, which is the reason of its in- 

 ability to produce its kind." Again, it is recorded in a Ming 



1 From Nature. 



cyclopedia: "The mule is stronger than the horse, and is 

 not a natural product of China; in the Han era it was re- 

 garded as a remarkable domestic animal." Is it likely that, 

 if the ass existed during the three ancient dynasties, there 

 was no crossing with the horse ? 



With regard to the cat. Dr. Macgowan proceeded to state 

 that there was a quotation from a standard work which dis- 

 closes the fact that Yuang Chuang, the pilgrim monk, who, 

 in the seventh century A.D., returned after sixteen years' 

 wanderings in India, brought cats with him to protect his 

 collection of Sanscrit Buddhist books from rats. That ac- 

 count, however, is somewhat invalidated by an anecdote of 

 Confucius, who is related to have one day seen a cat chasing 

 a rat. These conflicting statements are from authoritative 

 sources, and it is. impossible to oft'er a satisfactory explana- 

 tion. Possibly the cat of Confusian times was only a par- 

 tially domesticated wild cat. There must have been some 

 ground for the statement of the cat having been brought 

 from India, as it is hardly likely that in all the long period 

 of Chinese history it should be named but twice as a domes- 

 tic animal. He quotes from Chinese folk-lore on the subject 

 of cats. As cruelty to cats and other animals is followed by 

 retribution, so services rendered to them meet with supernal 

 recognition. As anciently the tiger was sacrificed to because 

 it destroyed wild boars, so the wild cat was worshipped be- 

 cause it was the natural foe of rats; boars and rats being the 

 natural enemies of husbandry. At the commencement of 

 the Sui dynasty, A.D. 581, the cat spirit inspired greater 

 terror than the fox did subsequently. The hallucinations of 

 cat spirit mania prevailed, forming a remarkable episode in 

 Chinese history, only to be likened to the fanatical delusioa 

 of witchcraft that frenzied Europe a thousand years later. 

 It was believed that the spirit of a cat possessed the power of 

 conjuring away property from one person to another, and 

 inflicted through incantations bodily harm. The popular 

 belief was intensified and spread like an epidemic, until 

 every disastrous affair that took place was ascribed to cat 

 spirit agency set in motion by some mischievous enemy. 

 Accusations were lodged against suspected persons, and, the 

 slightest evidence sufficing for conviction, the malicious were 

 encouraged to trump up charges against the innocent, until 

 the country became a pandemonium. No one was safe, 

 from the Imperial family down to the humble clodhopper. 

 Even a magnate of the reigning house, who enjoyed the 

 titular distinction of Prince or King of Szechuan, was exe- 

 cuted for nefariously employing the agency of cat spirits. 

 In this manner several thousands were immolated before the 

 delusion was dispelled. Happily the period appears to have 

 been of brief duration: incentives such as kept up the witch 

 mania for centuries were wanting in China. Coming down 

 to our own times we find a cat-craft delusion prevailed over 

 a great portion of Chekiang. " In the summer and autumn 

 of 1847 frightful wraiths appeared throughout the depart- 

 ments of Hangchow, Shaohsing, Ningpo, and Taichow. They 

 were demons and three-legged cats. On the approach of 

 night a foetid odor was perceptible in the air, when dwellings 

 were entered by something by which people were bewitched, 

 causing alarm everywhere. On detecting the effluvium in 

 the air, householders commenced gong-beating, and the 

 sprites, frightened by the sonorous noise, quickly retreated. 

 This lasted for several months, when the weird phenomena 

 ceased." Well did he remember, said Dr. Macgowan, the 

 commotion that prevailed in Ningpo throughout those months 

 of terror. Every gong that could be procured or manufac- 

 tured for the occasion was subject to vigorous thumping 



