452 



SCIJEN'CE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 146. 



fear of its total extinction in the near future. The 

 immediate cause of its rapid collapse may be 

 traced to the eagerness of the Chinese to acquire 

 by all possible means as much territory as pos- 

 sible. During the last three years hills thickly 

 wooded with camphor trees have been bmned 

 over by the Chinese, in order to compel the sav- 

 ages to withdraw. Destruction on so large a scale, 

 naturally tells on the camphor trade. Forests of 

 camphor trees do still exist farther inland, but the 

 absence of all beaten tracks across the mountains 

 renders them difficult of access. 



— M. Parize, director of the agricultural sta- 

 tion of North Finistere, in Spain, reports a curious 

 phenomenon resulting from the explosion of a tem- 

 pered glass crucible. He heard one day a violent 

 explosion in his laboratory, and, hastening into 

 the room, saw on the table and floor, in a circle, a 

 layer of glassy debris resembling crystals of sul- 

 phate of soda. The explosion was caused neither 

 by a blow nor disturbance of the ah'. The grains 

 varied in size from the head of a pin to a pea, 

 with a few as large as a nut, but these were divided 

 by cracks which would break them into analogous 

 grains. An inkstand of pressed glass exploded in 

 a similar manner not long ago in Boston. 



— The small volume just published by Prof. 

 Rudolph Eucken of Halle, entitled ' Prolegomena 

 zu forschungen liber der einlieit des geisteslebens,' 

 and which is publislied as the methodological part 

 of a forthcoming comprehensive work on the sub- 

 ject, is as remarkable a bit of philosopliical word- 

 mongering as we have lately seen. The author is 

 an expert in terminology, and in this thick pam- 

 plilet advances from the history of terms to the 

 invention of them. Instead of psychological he 

 proposes the term 'noological' as more compre- 

 hensive because including spirit. Instead of 

 system, the word 'syntagma' is introduced to 

 include large collective tendencies and unities of 

 action as weU as of thought. ' Innensicht,' ' voU- 

 that,' ' arbeitswelt,' ' kombinierendes thun,' which 

 are hardly translatable, and many far more fa- 

 miliar words, are given a precise and technical not 

 to say stramed meaning, as instruments to help the 

 author in the impending self -deli very of his sys- 

 tem. His problem is stated in so manifold ways — 

 is so hard for him to state in fact — that its solu- 

 tion must be difficult indeed. It is, in general, 

 whether there is a unitary character to mental life 

 and the world ; whether one force animates all 

 the fulness of being ; or, again, whether the uni- 

 verse is one collective act, or fact, with any charac- 

 ter so distinctive that it may be described. The 

 texture and quality of the thought is thin and 

 poor. There is no index to speak of, no resume, 



and little promise of reward to the diligent 

 reader. 



— Aug. Boltz concludes, in a pamphlet on ' The 

 Cyclops, an historical people, deduced from lan- 

 guage,' that Cyclops is a perverted form of 

 Siclos, or Siculos, the name of an Italo-Pelasgic 

 tribe inhabiting the eastern portions of Sicily; and 

 that it has no proper etymological connection with 

 the words kvkIo- and b-^. Nevertheless, he thinks 

 that the mythological one-eyed giant of Homer 

 may have originated from some instance of natural 

 monstrosity in real life, that had been encountered 

 by the first Greeks who visited the island. 



— In a paper read before the Anthropological 

 institute of Great Britain, Sir J. Park Harrison has 

 stated that, according to his observations, among 

 the Enghsh the great toe is longer than the second; 

 but as the ancients have represented in statuary 

 the second toe as the longer, this must have arisen 

 from a different proportion prevailing in Greece 

 and Italy. Barroil finds {Arch, per Vantrop., 

 vol. XV.), however, as the result of 447 measure- 

 ments of Italians, that 62 per cent have the great 

 toe longer ; and although it is true that, of twelve 

 antique statues in the galleries of Florence, all but 

 two have the second toe longer, he thinks this has 

 arisen from a conventional feeling, which regarded 

 that shape of the foot as more beautiful. It is 

 found to be the case frequently that the relative 

 length varies in the two feet. While the great toe 

 is the longer in the majority of mankind, the case 

 seems to be reversed in the mongoloid and negro 

 races. 



— The Russian government has summoned the 

 principal ironmasters and manufacturers of the 

 Ural and middle Russian districts to attend a con- 

 ference at St. Petersburg, at which delegates of 

 the various industries will be present, in order to 

 discuss the steps that should be taken to improve 

 the iron industry of Russia. Since 1874 the pro- 

 duction of pig iron has not increased, and in some 

 years has decreased. Instead of being, as Russia 

 once was, one of the leading iron-producing coun- 

 tries, Austria produces twice as much, France 

 nearly four times, Germany five times, and Eng- 

 land, once an importer of Russian iron, now pro- 

 duces ten times as much. The Moscow Gazette 

 ascribes this to an antiquated system of commerce, 

 onerous railway rates, and insufficient j)rotection 

 on the part of the tariff. 



— A large f aUing-off in the immigration is re- 

 ported by the chief of the bureau of statistics. The 

 number arrived during the year was 395,346, as 

 against 518,592 during the preceding year, and a 

 faUing-off of fifty per cent since 1882, when the 

 arrivals were 788,902. 



