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 dangerous or unfit for food. Nevertheless, he adds, the possibility of a constant or intermittent contamination of the oyster beds ought to be carefully inquired into.

American Women in Science.—The annual meeting of the National Science Club for Women was held in Washington, January 2d, 3d, and 4th, in the new reading room of the club in the Lenman Building. The election of officers resulted in the choice of Mrs. Rosa Smith Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind., as president; Mrs. Almena B. Williams as vice-president; Miss Isabel Lenman as treasurer; Mrs. Laura Osborn Talbot as general secretary; Mrs. Edward Good fellow as recording secretary, and Mrs. Horatio King, Mrs. Mark Harrington, Mrs. Herschell Main, Mrs. Anna Lowell Woodberry, all of Washington, and Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, of Rochester, N. Y., as members of the Executive Committee. The address of the retiring president, Mrs. A. D. Davidson, who had served for three successive terms, was mainly upon geological forces in Europe. General meetings were held on Thursday, January 3d, at the Hall of the National Museum, where a lecture was delivered by Mrs. Olive Thome Miller on The Birds our Brothers, and papers were read constituting a rich programme of scientific essays by members from all parts of the country. On Friday, the 4th, the Council met at the Lenman Science Rooms, and adjourned till January, 1896. These rooms will henceforth be open to women who come to Washington for scientific study and investigation, who will be admitted on cards from members. The library needs gifts of books and pamphlets in science.

The Koreans.—While the Koreans generally display Mongolian characteristics, features are often met with in them almost European in refinement and Caucasian in cast, indicating a mixture of race among them. As described by Mr. H. S. Saunderson, they are tall, finely built, with features approaching more nearly to the European cast of countenance than those of the Chinese or Japanese. Their hair is black, sometimes shading to brown; is worn by the men tied up into upright columns on the tops of their heads, and by the women parted in the middle and made into chignons. Both sexes have small hands, which they are careful to keep clean and soft, and small feet. Their complexions are not so dark as those of the Chinese, nor so yellow. Their foreheads are high, and their voices are low and well modulated. They are genial when treated according to their notion, ready to laugh at a good joke, and to throw themselves into the fun of the moment. They are very proud, but treat foreigners politely while they despise them. Their policy of isolation is the result of long and hard wars with the Chinese and Japanese, and was adopted in the first place to make the country difficult of access to hostile forces. According to Mr. Saunderson, its effects have been detrimental to the national character. Their dress is strictly regulated. They pay great attention to the cleanliness of their outer robes. "No one who respects himself will ever appear in a dirty coat. Consequently, the women's chief occupation consists of washing the raiment of their lords and masters, and far into the night can be heard the tapping of the sticks with which the wet clothes are beaten a most destructive process. As the clothes are but roughly tacked together and are glued at the seams with rice paste, they come to pieces every time they are washed, and have to be reglued when dry. The starch used consists of a mixture of rice paste and honey, and it gives the surface a peculiarly beautiful gloss." This regard for cleanliness does not extend to the underclothing or the body, which, according to Mr. Saunderson, are shamefully neglected. In summer basket-work frames are worn on the arms, back, and chest, under the robes, in order to keep the latter clean and dry, and also for the sake of coolness.

The Pamirs.—The term Pamirs, as applied to a particular region in central Asia, was defined by the Hon. George Curzon in a recent address before the Royal Geographical Society. It does not mean a vast tableland, as some suppose, or a "series of bare and storm-swept downs," as others have conceived, or a steppe; but, as is illustrated in the region itself, a mountainous valley of glacial formation, differing from the adjacent or other mountain valleys only in its superior altitude and in the greater degree to which