February 19, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



103 



general inversely as the breadth ot this zone. At Oshima the tidal 

 current is sometimes imperceptible, either because it is overpow- 

 ered by the Kuro Shiwo, or because at that time it flows through 

 the strait between Oshima and the main island. 



— The New York Industrial Building, erected during the past 

 year, is nearly ready for use. The furniture dealers will be the 

 first to occupy the building, and other trades have bespoken it so 

 that there will be a continuous exhibition or fairs of varying 

 kinds. The building is in a most fortunate situation, occupying 

 the block bounded on the east by Lexington Avenue, on the west 

 by Depew Place, on the north by Forty-fourth Street, and on the 

 south by Forty-third Street, within a short block of the freight 

 depot of the Grand Central Railroad, and within reach of all the 

 ■street cars connecting with the ferries by which New York is ap- 

 proached from New Jersey, elc. 



— The influence of steam on magnets is the subject of an inter- 

 esting note in the Sehweizerisehe Bauzeitung, in which reference 

 is made to the researches of Strouhal and Barus. These have 

 shown that, with long continued heating in steam, magnets lose 

 from 28 to 67 per cent of their power. If, after this, the magnets 

 are remagnetized, and again exposed to the action of steam, only 

 a very slight loss of magnetic power is found to take place. The 

 ■experiments which have been made would seem to warrant the 

 conclusion, also, that after such treatment a magnet is less liable 

 to deterioration from mechanical vibration as well as heat. In 

 ■one of the experiments a short magnet was boiled in water for 

 four hours. It was then magnetized and held in an atmosphere 

 of steam for two hours more, after which its magnetic moment 

 was measured. It was then subjected to fifty blows from a piece 

 of wood, both transversely and longitudinally. Again measuring, 

 its magnetic moment, showed a loss of ^^, and, on repeating the 

 hammering with the wooden bar, the loss was yj^ of the original 

 moment. In view of this, repeated steaming and magnetizing is 

 recommended as a good means of securing permanent magnetism 

 in pieces of hard steel. 



— The Orang-Ulu are a people living in the southern part of 

 Sumatra, who were visited by M. J. Claine during the summer of 

 1890 (^Asiatic Quarterly Review, October, 1891). In May he ar- 

 rived at Palembang, formerly the capital of the sultans of Palem- 

 bang and now the seat of a Dutch resident. This town, contain- 

 ing a population of 60,000, composed of Malays, Arabs, Chinese, 

 and a few Europeans, is situated on the Kuraa Sunsang, a branch 

 of the Musi. Leaving Palembang in August, M. Claine ascended 

 the Musi and its afliuent, the Lemattang (Lamatang), to Muri- 

 Enim (Muara Inim), about 186 miles from Palembang. Two days 

 later the land journey was commenced, and, after a few hours' 

 march, the country of the Orang-Ulu was entered by a bridge 

 guarded by a group of natives. At Lahat the curious peak of 

 Bukib Segello (Cerillo?) was photographed, and at Bandar, the 

 last fortified post of the Dutch Government, a halt of two days 

 was made. The country i's mountainous and wooded, with here 

 and there fine plains. The head-waters of the Lemattang run 

 through profound gorges, and aborescent ferns afford a welcome 

 shade from the burning rays of the sun. Soon after leaving 

 Bandar M. Claine came in sight of the rich plateau of Passuraah 

 and the superb outlines of the Uempo, strongly marked against 

 the sky, and came to a halt at Pager- Alam. The TJla are very 

 similar to the Malays in outward appearance and costume, but, 

 never having adopted Mohammedanism, they differ in their hab- 

 its. Each village is governed by a Creo, or chief, who wears, as 

 a sign of authority, a pair of gold-woven pantaloons, provided by 

 the Dutch Government. His power is very limited, all his acts 

 being controlled by the elders. The chief occupations of the men 

 are smoking and cock fighting, while the women do all the hard 

 work. They grow rice and cocoa-nut trees. The houses, like 

 those in other parts of Sumatra and Java, are built on piles, and 

 entered by means of a notched beam. The husband, on his mar- 

 riage, is bound to enter the service of the wife's family. Mar- 

 riage is celebrated with the following curious ceremony : An im- 

 mense balance, adorned with leaves, is placed before the house of 

 the bride, in one of its wooden scales the parents deposit fruit, 

 rice, fuel, cocoa-nuts, and a small kid, and in the other the bride- 



groom is bound to lay before sunset the gifts he makes to his in- 

 tended. As soon as the scale dips in his favor, the girl leaves the 

 house and approaches him, and the ceremony is concluded by a 

 feast and dance. On the 11th of September M. Claine set out 

 with a Dutch otficer to ascend the Dempo. Passing by the village 

 of Gunong Agun, through a region abounding in tigers, they 

 reached the summit on the second day, and then; crossing a long 

 and narrow plateau, ascended the Merapi volcano, visited seven 

 years before by Mr. H. O. Forbes. The barometer marked 9,000 

 feet at the summit. From Pager Alam M. Claine made a tedious 

 journey across the Passumah plateau to Padang-Bornay and Ta- 

 lang-Padang, crossing the Upper Musi several times by bamboo 

 bridges. At Tebbing-Teggi (Tingi) he took passage on a coffee 

 prauw, and descended to Palembang. The current is so rapid 

 that it takes forty-five days to ascend the river, whereas three- 

 fourths of the descent is accomplished in three days, and the re- 

 mainder in four dajs and four nights. 



— It has been proposed through the pages of the British Jour- 

 nal of Photography that upon the advent of the twenty-first birth- 

 day, in 1893, of the gelatino-bromide dry plate process, in pho- 

 tography, a substantial and fitting testimonial should be offered 

 to Dr. R. L. Maddox, the inventor, now a veteran invalid, who 

 has derived no pecuniary advantage from his valuable discovery, 

 which has so largely advanced the progress of photography in all 

 its branches, and in every country. For this purpose a committee 

 has been formed in London, in order to carry out the scheme in 

 the United Kingdom of Great Britain, consisting of the following 

 gentlemen: Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., president of the Photo- 

 graphic Society of Great Britain, chairman; Captain W. de W. 

 Abney, C.B., F.R.S., R.E., Messrs. A. H. Harman, F. York, and 

 Sir H. Trueman Wood, assisted by others, as the executive, with 

 the aid of Dr. A. Clifford Mercer, F.R.M.S., Syracuse, N.Y. For 

 the furtherance of this project internationally, a foreign committee 

 has been formed in Southampton, of the following gentlemen: 

 James Lemon, Esq., Mayor of Southampton; Col. Sir Charles W. 

 Wilson, K.C.B., F.R.S.. R.E., director of the Ordnance Survey, 

 Southampton ; Major-General I. Inuis-Gibbs, Captain Robert Evans, 

 R.N. Subscriptions can be forwarded to the Southampton Bianch 

 of the National and Provincial Bank ot England, by check or bank 

 draft, crossed "Maddox Fund," or by post-office order; but, if 

 preferred, they can be addressed direct to the secretary, Charles 

 J. Sharp, solicitor, 71 French Street, Southampton, and will be 

 acknowledged by him. 



— The outlook for the recently discovered coal mines in the 

 Argentine Republic is so favorable, according to Engineering, that 

 the railway companies of that country have declined to renew 

 their contracts with the British mines for fuel. Hitherto all the 

 coal burned on the Argentine railroads has been imported, but it 

 is believed that the newly-discovered mines will furnish a supply 

 entirely sufficient for domestic consumption. 



— Mail advices from the Argentine Republic bring information 

 of the discovery of a vast bed of silver in the bottom of the bay 

 of San Bias, Argentine Republic. The silver appears in the black 

 metallic sand which covers the bottom of the bay. This sand is 

 full of silver pellets, and divers have brought up a sufficient quan- 

 tity to justify the belief, as stated by the Buenos Ayres Standard, 

 that " the silver deposit in the bottom of the bay is greater than 

 in the famous Bonanza mines of California." 



— About four years ago there was inaugurated in Berlin a 

 series of popular lectures on astronomy, illustrated with stereop- 

 ticon views. This series has proved so successful that it has con- 

 tinued till the present time, and within ten days a similar course 

 has been opened in New York. The lectures are given at the 

 Carnegie Music Hall three times a week, and are entitled ''A Trip 

 to the Moon." The views shown are excellent and must certainly 

 impress on those seeing them many an important fact in astron- 

 omy. The matter given by the lecturer varies somewhat as 

 occasion may require. 



— WiUiam Draper Lewis, Ph.D., is the author of a pamphlet 

 recently published by the American Academy of Politicar and 

 Soci.al Science. The title of the essay is " The Political Orgaa^za- 

 tion of a Modern Municipality." 



