Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/737

Rh  the figure through the opening of the tracery." Every village larger than a hamlet has its goldsmith and silversmith. In the filigree ornaments made by goldsmiths, the burnished gold retains its proper color, but the other gold is dyed red with tamarind-juice, a barbaric custom to which the Burmese cling tenaciously. The reason given for it is that no other metal but gold will assume this particular ruddy color when treated with tamarind-juice; it may in fact be regarded as the hallmark of Burmese jewelry. The silver-work of Burmah is much esteemed by connoisseurs all over the world; the artists treat this metal so as to obtain the greatest possible effect that the nature of the material allows. The trade is not a paying one, but the leading artists are devoted to their art, and are quite content if they gain enough to live on, provided that they keep their position at the head of the craft. Many of them are proficient in niello-work, in which the design appears as if drawn in silver outline on a black ground.

An Earthquake Experience.—A French gentleman residing at Mendoza, in the Argentine Republic, gives a graphic description in "La Nature" of the earthquake that took place there on the 30th of March, 1885, at about half-past ten in the evening. He was reading and smoking, when one of the sashes of his window opened all at once and immediately closed again with noise. He thought a dog had come in through the window, and bent over to look for the intruder under his desk. The window opened again, and he was obliged to hold on to his desk, while his chair leaned over with him. He straightened himself again, and was thrown to the right. At the same time his jaws came together and he bit off his pipe-stem, while he felt a pain in the pit of his stomach, like that of sea-sickness. Then the thought occurred to him that it was an earthquake. Six seconds afterward he heard a noise like that of a distant locomotive letting off steam, followed by the howling of dogs and the noise of the wind through the plantain-trees. Then he saw the angle of the wall veer slowly to the left, then return to its place, so speedily that he was scared and ran to the door to get out. The door would not open. The dogs kept on howling louder than ever. He burst the door open, and, running out, found all the people in the streets, mostly in their night-dresses. Three violent shocks were felt. The writer of the account believes that a fourth shock would have destroyed the town. The sky was afterward obscured with fog; and, for thirty seconds after the last shock, a subterranean noise was heard like the rumbling of a railroad-train in the distance.



in his "Essays of Health and Long Life," recommends, as the strongest preservative against contagions, a piece of myrrh held in the mouth. It has been asserted that Eastern physicians invariably adopt this protection when attending the sick.

window to the late Sir William Siemens, erected by his brother engineers, was unveiled in Westminster Abbey, November 26, 1885, with addresses by the Dean and Sir F. Bramwell.

article by Professor Rood, entitled "The Problem of Photography in Color," published in the last "Monthly," and credited to the "Photographic Bulletin," should have been credited to "Anthony's Photographic Bulletin."

in the course of his experiments in photographing the movements of horses, has been struck by the observation that the foot of the animal, being half the time at rest on the ground, must, during the other half the time, be in much more rapid motion than the animal itself. He estimates that in the gallop the foot reaches a velocity of sixty metres, or about two hundred feet, a second.

Entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, and Honorary Curator of Insects in the National Museum, has given to that institution his extensive private collection of North American insects, representing the fruits of his labors in collecting and study for many years.

Mexican Government is said to be contemplating the establishment of a meteorological station among the highest mountains of the country, at an elevation of nearly twenty thousand feet above the level of the sea. Instruments for its use, as far as possible to go a year without stopping, are being made at Zürich, Switzerland.

of Christiania, Norway, calls attention to notices that have been given of Scandinavian observations in the past, of 