POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



567 



ettes made of tobacco, wrapped in the dry 

 leaves of the wild banana, to his dead rela- 

 tives in "Apo Leggan" (hades). These 

 cigarettes are placed on the top of and 

 around the coffin ; and, should the body be 

 that of a man, his weapons, tools, and a small 

 quantity of rice, with his priok (cooking pot), 

 are deposited in the tomb with him that he 

 may be able to continue his daily pursuits 

 in the other world. But if of a woman, her 

 large sun-hat, her little hoe — used for weed- 

 ing in the paddy fields — her beads, earrings, 

 and other finery are placed with her body, 

 that she may not be found wanting on her 

 arrival the other side of the grave. Mr. Hose 

 was once present when the corpse of a boy was 

 being placed in the coffin, and he watched 

 the proceedings from a short distance. As 

 the lid of the coffin was being closed an 

 old man came out on the veranda of the 

 house with a large gong and solemnly beat it 

 for several seconds. The chief, who was 

 sitting near, informed him that this was al- 

 ways done before closing the lid, that the 

 relations of the deceased who had already 

 passed out of this world might know that 

 the spirit was coming to join them. There 

 was another strange ceremony at which he 

 was once present, called " Dayong Janoi," in 

 which the dead are supposed to send mes- 

 sages to the living, and which proved that 

 " spiritualism " was of very ancient practice 

 among the Kayans. 



Heat Phenomena of the Diamond. — In 



his experiments with the diamond Mr. Mois- 

 san has found that, in his thermo-electric ap- 

 paratus for burning in oxygen, when the tem- 

 perature was slowly raised the combustion 

 proceeded gradually without the production 

 of light ; but if the temperature was raised 

 40° or 50° C. above the point at which this 

 slow combustion begins, a sudden incandes- 

 cence occurs, and the diamond becomes sur- 

 rounded by a brilliant flame. Various deep- 

 ly colored specimens of diamonds burned 

 with production of incandescence and flame 

 at temperatures of from 690° to 720° C, but 

 transparent Brazilian diamonds did not attain 

 the stage of slow combustion without incan- 

 descence till the temperature of from 760° to 

 770° C. was reached. A Cape diamond suf- 

 fered gradual combustion at from 780° to 

 790° C. Specimens of exceedingly hard 



boort began to combine with oxygen at 790°, 

 and burned brilliantly at from 840° to 875° 

 G. When Cape diamonds were heated with 

 hydrogen to a temperature of 1,200° C, they 

 remained unchanged ; but if the stones had 

 previously been cut, they frequently lost their 

 brilliance and transparency. Dry chlorine 

 gas was found incapable of reacting with the 

 diamond until a temperature of from 1,100° 

 to 1,200° C. was attained. Hydrofluoric-acid 

 vapor likewise only reacted at about the 

 same high temperature. Vapor of sulphur 

 also requires to be heated to 1,000° C. before 

 reacting, but in the case of black diamonds 

 bisulphide of carbon is produced at about 

 900° C. Metallic iron, at its melting point, 

 combines with the diamond in the most ener- 

 getic manner ; and it is a point of consider- 

 able interest that crystals of graphite are 

 deposited as the fused mass cools ; hence the 

 experiment forms a striking method of con- 

 verting the allotropic form of carbon that 

 crystallizes in the cubic system into that 

 which crystallizes in the hexagonal system. 

 Melted platinum likewise combines with the 

 diamond with great energy. 



Hnrry, and the Chance of Life. — In a 



paper on The Duration of Life of the Nerv- 

 ous American, Dr. Julius Pohlman asks, "Is 

 this so often quoted ' fearful nervousness ' 

 and ' early death ' a fact or merely an asser- 

 tion? What proofs have we for it? It 

 seems very plausible, indeed, and apparently 

 correct physiological reasoning to say that 

 the individual's longevity is in inverse pro- 

 portion to his daily hurry, all other things 

 being equal. But not many years ago the 

 equally misleading but equally plausible state- 

 ment was accepted that the human race was 

 growing smaller with the advance of civiliza- 

 tion. " First of all," the author continues, " the 

 assumption that increased activity and greater 

 hurry mean more rapid wearing away of the 

 body ignores the fact that the human body 

 is a wonderful piece of machinery, which not 

 only renews itself constantly, but whose 

 strength and power of endurance and capaci- 

 ty for more work increase with increased 

 use up to the point at which use becomes 

 abuse. At what time and under what press- 

 ure this danger line is reached depends upon 

 the individual." The testimony of the ex- 

 ecutive officers of four of our largest life- 



