Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/589

Rh feet. It is necessary to proceed with the utmost caution in order not to lose one's way; for there is nothing to serve as a sign-post, except occasional sticks placed by passing caravans; and the wind blows them down and the sand covers them. Each successive caravan replaces them in the most convenient spot These sticks have to be followed on the march, for, when the least wind is blowing, only the most skillful and experienced guides can trace the direction of the road. The barkhans shift from place to place; and plain evidence of their drifting nature appears before the eyes of every traveler between Merv and Bokhara. When they move, it is usually without undergoing any change of shape. Besides the sands in the Kara-Kum, M. Lessar describes the kyrs, takirs, and shors. The kyrs are firm surfaces of clay mixed with sand, only occasionally covered with sand-hillocks, and hardened by vegetation. They usually consist of a row of valleys alternating with eminences not exceeding from one hundred and forty to two hundred and ten feet in height, and are always passable. The takir is a very hard surface devoid of vegetation, surrounded on all sides by sands almost horizontal or sloping but slightly. The clayey soil is impervious to water, but presents a very slippery surface in rainy weather. Shors are similar in appearance to takirs, but distinguished from them by their soil, which is a ferruginous sand, with gypsum protruding in many places on the surface. They arc sometimes dry and sometimes boggy; but in any case not difficult of passage.

Ancient Anæsthetics.—A recently discovered manuscript by Abélard gives some curious information concerning the means employed by the surgeons of his time to produce insensibility during their operations. Pliny mentions a stone of Memphis which, brayed and applied with vinegar, was put on particular parts of the body to anæsthetize them. He, Dioscorides, and Mattheolus speak of putting patients to sleep previous to operations by causing them to take, in bread or some other food, the juice of the leaves or a decoction of the roots of mandragora, or a dose of the plant called morion. Opium and hemp were used by the Chinese In the poly-composite pharmacy of the thirteenth century a preparation was made of opium, the juices of henbane, mandragora, hemlock, and other plants, with which sponges were charged. Having been dried in the sun, the sponges were moistened when it was desired to use them, and then applied under the noses of the patients as chloroform sponges are now applied.

A Chinese Dinner in High Life.—A member of a Bremen trading-house lately had the honor of taking dinner with a Chinese magnate in Pekin, and has given an appetizing description of the feast. The table was set with twenty-two dishes, and was lit with ten large lanterns, the light of which shone clear through brightly colored shades and ornaments. Instead of being served in courses, the dishes were brought in one at a time and passed to the guests severally, beginning with the most distinguished or with the oldest. The merchant has given a list of them, with his comments, as follows: 1. Doves with mushrooms and split bamboo-sprouts—delicious. 2. Fat pork fritters (or something like fritters) splendid. 3. Pigeon's-eggs in meat-broth, the whites hard but transparent—very good. 4. Chinese bird's-nests with ham-chips and bamboo-sprouts (a mucilaginous dish)—excellent. 5. Poultry, different kinds, cooked with mushrooms and bamboo-sprouts—very agreeable. 6. Duck, with bamboo and lotus fruits, the fruits tasting and looking like an acorn without its cup—tolerably good. 7. Hog's liver fried in castor-oil—bad. 8. A Japanese dish of mussels with malodorous codfish and bacon—horrible. 9. Sea-crabs' tails cooked in castor-oil, with bits of bamboo and ham—would have been palatable but for the wretched oil. 10. A star made of pieces of fowl, bacon, and dove, covered with white of egg—very juicy. 11. Slices of sea-fish and shark's fins, with bamboo and mushrooms—it was hard to tell what kind of a dish it was, but it was rather bad than good. 12. Giblets of poultry with morels—the morels helped the giblets down. 13. Ham and cabbage—not particularly good. 14. Hams of sucking pigs cooked in their own juice. A pause now ensued, during which pipes and tobacco were brought in. The pipes held about a