November 28, 1884.] 



SCIENCE. 



503 



economics, is offered to subscribers at the former rate, 

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— At the requisition of the Paris prefect of police, 

 Messrs. Dujardin, Beaumetz, Pasteur, and Roux per- 

 formed experiments with the view of ascertaining 

 what would be the best gas for disinfecting rooms in 

 which patients have suffered from contagious affec- 

 tions, and have come to the conclusion that sulphu- 

 rous-acid gas would be the most efficacious for such 

 purposes; but instead of simply burning sulphur, as 

 is done in the barracks and military hospitals, they 

 recommend the burning of bisulphide of carbon as 

 being the least expensive, and the least injurious to 

 the furniture, or articles of metal, in the room. This 

 recommendation is not new, but it is satisfactory to 

 have it stamped with the authority of the distin- 

 guished Frenchmen. 



— Among recent deaths we note the following: 

 J. A. Barral, agricultural chemist, editor of Arago's 

 works, at Paris, in his sixty-fifth year; Dr. J. J. 

 Woodward, U. S. A., microscopist, well known for his 

 micro-photographs, at Washington ; Dr. Th. Kostlin, 

 formerly professor of natural history, Sept. 1, at 

 Stuttgart; Dr. Heinrich Schellen, physicist, author of 

 1 Spectral-analyse,' ' Magnet- und dynamo- electrische 

 maschinen,' ' Electro-magneticher telegraph,' etc., 

 Sept. 3, at Cologne, in his sixty-sixth year; O. J. 

 Fahraeus, coleopterist, May 28, at Stockholm, in his 

 eighty-eighth year; George Brettingham Sowerby, 

 conchologist, author of ' Thesaurus conchyliorum,' 

 July 25, at London, in his seventy-second year; Dr. 

 A. Foerster, a well-known hymenopterist, Aug. 13, 

 at Aachen, in his seventy-fourth year. 



— The Imperial sanitary department at Berlin has 

 been arranging for a series of investigations dealing 

 with the practical dangers arising from the use of 

 petroleum, in comparison with the point of ignition 

 as fixed by Abel's apparatus. The ignition of gases 

 which are to be found above the oil, and the nature 

 of such ignitions as are caused by injury to the oil- 

 reservoir, or by throwing down the lamps, will also 

 receive attention. As all artificial trials of this kind 



are more or less unreliable in the results obtained, 

 the investigations will deal with the cases of petro- 

 leum ignition which have actually taken place. The 

 examination will deal with hanging-lamps, standing- 

 lamps, cooking-appliances, etc. 



— The Ainos are distinguished from all the Mongo- 

 lian peoples surrounding them by their dark com- 

 plexion, their luxuriant growth of hair, their thick, 

 long beard, heavy mustache, and their European 

 rather than Asiatic features. During his journey in 

 Kamtchatka, Dybowski visited the Island of Sag- 

 halin, and took the opportunity of collecting some 

 bones of the Ainos. The following account of the 

 graveyards of the Ainos he sent to Koperniki : — 



Unfortunately, almost all the graves have already 

 been rifled by the Russian soldiers, who hoped to find 

 gold and silver buried with the bodies: hence I have 

 found, outside the graves, skulls without the lower 

 jaw. Many, indeed, are broken into small pieces. 

 Very few graves are left entirely undisturbed; viz., 

 those only which are covered with turf, and conse- 

 quently more difficult to find, and which can hardly 

 be opened without implements ; but with these one is 

 not allowed to enter the graveyard, for the opening 

 of graves is forbidden. On account of this prohibi- 

 tion, the search of the graves was made very difficult 

 for me, as I was forced to dig with my hands, or only 

 with a small stick. Fortunately the graves of the 

 Ainos are not deep: they extend north and south, the 

 head buried towards the north. On the right side of 

 the grave, which is covered with turf, are embedded 

 three low pillars about three inches thick and one 

 and a half feet long. On the left side, at the foot of 

 the dead, is found a thin, pointed stick, thrust deep 

 into the earth. The upper end of it is cut in the form 

 of a human head, with two inclined lines running 

 downwards and outwards, as if they were intended to 

 indicate two streams of tears, or perhaps only the 

 eyes. A yard and a half under the sward are found 

 split (not sawn) planks, which rest upon other planks* 

 that make the walls of the grave, so that the corpse 

 lies in an empty space. The dead is in the same 

 clothes which he wore when alive, and is provided 

 with the same ornaments which he then carried On 

 the planks over the head of the dead, I have always 

 found three lacquered wooden boxes, and near the 

 feet one large box, also lacquered. On the body I 

 have always found a knife, a tinder-box, a piece of 

 touch-wood, and a pipe. 



According to the accounts of eye-witnesses, the 

 religious conceptions of the Ainos appear to be a 

 degenerate and crude feticism. These conceptions 

 are based upon a worship of numerous good and bad 

 spirits or gods, as god of the sun, of the stars, of the 

 sea; worship of the family guardian, of sea and land 

 animals and plants, as also of forest animals. The 

 Ainos have no conception of the continuation of the 

 soul after death, and consequently no service for 

 the dead. 



— At the first monthly meeting, Oct. 15, this 

 winter, of the Russian geographical society, the sec- 

 retary mentioned that the observations of the polar 



