November 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



451 



the eruption will become more serious than it is 

 at present. 



— In the second part of the first volume of the 

 ' Supplementary papers ' issued by the Eoyal geo- 

 graphical society there is a valuable map of central 

 Asia, sho^ring the territory between the Zarafshan 

 and Amu-Daria Rivers. It was comi)iled from the 

 latest Russian documents to illustrate Mr. E. Del- 

 mar Morgan's paper on the ' Recent geography of 

 centi-al Asia from Russian sources.' The map ex- 

 tends only to about 72° 30' of longitude east from 

 Greenwich, and therefore does not take in the 

 sources of the Amu-Daria or the Oxus. Never- 

 theless, as it shows the glaciers of Tanimar and 

 Fedshenko, and the hitherto almost unknown 

 mountain regions of Badakshan, Bokhara, and 

 Karateghin, it is of very considerable value. Mr. 

 Morgan's article, containing as it does much in- 

 formation hitherto inaccessible to English readers, 

 should also be borne in mind. 



— The French government has just created, says 

 Nature, a certain nmnber of travelling- juries. 

 This is a modified form of an tastitution estab- 

 lished by the fii'st republic. In the organic law 

 of the Institut it was ordained that the Institut 

 was to select yearly ten citizens to travel abroad 

 and collect information useful to science, com- 

 merce, and agriculture. These scientific travellers 

 will not be appointed by the Academy of sciences, 

 or the whole Institut, but by a special adminis- 

 trative commission, on the basis of a competitive 

 examination. 



— A German traveller who has recently visited 

 Macedonia makes, says the London Times, the 

 following statement respecting the population of 

 that country : "If people speak of the condition 

 and the movement in Macedonia, they should be 

 reminded that this Turkish province is perhaps 

 the most checkered picture of nationalities of any 

 country in Europe, and that not one of them 

 possesses an absolute majority. In the east, round 

 Salonica, and along the coast, the Greek element is 

 very strong ; but even the largest seaport place 

 might be considered a Jewish town rather than a 

 Greek centre. The west is the stronghold of the 

 Albanians, — the most savage, most aboriginal, and 

 most lawless nationality of our part of the globe. 

 A considerable Slav population pushes itself be- 

 tween the Greeks and Amauts ; and distributed 

 among Greeks, Slavs, and Amauts, we find a large 

 number of Turks and Wallachians. The latter 

 are called in Macedonia mostly Zinzaras, or 

 Tsintsaras, because in their dialect they do not 

 pronounce the number five ' tchintch ' (like their 

 kin of Roumania), but ' tsints.' With regard to 

 the number of the population as a whole and 



separately, it may safely be asserted that the 

 various statements are entirely unreliable, the de- 

 gree of exactness varying with the views and 

 sympathy of the several authorities who make 

 them. When a Russian general estimates the 

 number of Bulgarians in Macedonia at 1,500,000, 

 this figure may be as much assailed as the claim of 

 the Greek notables when addressing a manifesto 

 to the patriarch and the Porte, to be considered the 

 representatives of 800,000 Greeks living in the 

 province. If Macedonia is mentioned as the seat 

 of i)olitical agitation, the Albanian districts of 

 Janina and Scutari must be left out of considera- 

 tion altogether. The other four great adminis- 

 trative districts remaining — Monastir, Salonica, 

 Kossovo, and Seres — are stated to contain, in 

 accordance with the proportionately most rehable 

 figures, about 1,531,000 inhabitants, who are 

 divided as follows: 410,000 Christian and 46,000 

 Mohammedan Bulgarians (Pomaks), 350,000 Al- 

 banians, 280,000 Turks, 145,000 Greeks, 120,000 

 Servians, 95,000 Zinzaras, and 40,000 Spanish Jews. 

 The remainder consists of gypsies and foreigners. 

 It may be added that the number of Albanians 

 and Turks is probably taken too high ; that of the 

 Servians, on the contrary, too low." 



— An expedition, under Dr. Bunge and Baron 

 von Toll is to start next spring for the exploration 

 of the New Siberian Islands, which, since Anjou's 

 journeys in 1821-23, have only been visited by the 

 ill-fated members of the Jeannette expedition, on 

 their way to the mouth of the Lena. 



— A French journal has recently called attention 

 to the following good case of 'mental suggestion: ' 

 On July 14, 1884, Mile. A. E. was put mto the 

 hypnotic condition by a friend who tells the 

 story, and who says to her, " On Jan. 1, 1885, at 10 

 A.M., you will see me ; I will come to wish you a 

 happy new year ; after this I will immediately dis- 

 appear." Neither spoke of this until after Jan. 1. 

 On that day Mile. A. E. was in Nancy, and the 

 narrator in Paris. " At 10 o'clock she heard a knock 

 at the door, and saw me enter, and heard me wish her 

 a happy new year in a loud voice, and suddenly dis- 

 appear. She went to the window to see me as I went 

 out of the door into the street, but I Avas not to be 

 seen. In telhng the story to a friend, she expressed 

 surprise at seeing me in a summer suit of clothing 

 at that time of the year. Of coui'se, it was the suit 

 I wore on July 14. In spite of my aflirmations, 

 she insists that I was really with her on New 

 year's day." 



— Reporting on the ti-ade of Tamsui, Cliina, the 

 English commissioner of customs says that the 

 trade in cam^Dhor is represented in the retm-ns by 

 such an insignificant figm-e that there is great 



