Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/149

Rh in papers read at the recent meeting of the American Association by Prof. D. T. McDougal.

Meteorology and Sacrilege.—A recent debate in the Volksraad, at Johannesburg, on the subject of artificial rain-making has some scientific interest for the psychologist. The report is as follows: "The debate on the memorials from Krugersdorp requesting the Rand to pass an act to prevent charges of dynamite being fired into the clouds for rain was continued. Mr. A. D. Wohnaraus spoke in favor of his proposal, and denounced the action of certain persons in Johannesburg as invoking the wrath of God. Mr. Birkenstock said there was nothing irreligious or sacrilegious in these experiments; they were purely scientific experiments. The chairman said it was a monstrous thing to shoot into the clouds; it was nothing less than defiance of the Almighty; it should be made a criminal offense. Mr. Labuschagne was of the opinion that the offenders should be imprisoned. After a further discussion it was resolved, by fifteen to ten votes, to instruct the Government to draft a law to prevent such things happening in future, and submit it this session."

A Cambodian Lesson in Anatomy.—M. Adhémard Leclère, in his examinations of Cambodian schools, came upon a retired scholar-bonze who continued to teach in his rural retreat. He was giving lessons on anatomy to six students of a religious vocation, describing the bones of the human body. He said: "There is a bone in the tongue, which you do not know of, which you have never seen, but which nevertheless exists, for I have seen it. The most surprising thing about it is that it is isolated, and not attached to any other bone. It is all alone." The teacher had given a lesson on the Pali language the day before, and the day before that on the world as described in the sacred books, and also according to what he had heard from Europeans concerning it. "He showed me," says M. Leclère, "on his blackened tablet, a map of the world which he had drawn according to the best of his knowledge. I had some difficulty in recognizing France among all the round marks he had drawn, for it was larger than India, surrounded by water on all sides, and placed northwest of the Himalaya Mountains. 'My map,' he said, 'is not like the map in the sacred books, but it is true all the same.' I did not dare tell him, before his pupils, that it was not like our maps; so I asked him to go on with his lecture, and said I was very glad to be present. The students, each with his palm-leaf tablet and his iron-pointed stylus, listened quietly and respectfully, writing down the names of the bones as he mentioned them. 'The bones of the back are boxed into one another like the bones of a snake or of a fish; if there was only one bone, you would not be able to bend yourself gracefully, or to bend back, or to round your back or to turn yourself. At the slightest shock the bone would break, and you would not be able to carry anything heavy. If the bones of the back were imperfectly boxed, they would not roll upon one another, or else they would roll too much; and your body would be too stiff or too supple, and you would not be able to carry anything heavy.' While he was speaking thus I was looking at him. His body was bare; his long, bald head was slightly inclined toward his hearers, and his bright eyes had an expression befitting an old professor seeking to be correctly understood. He spoke slowly, pronouncing distinctly, and in dignified language; and his six students looked at him attentively, trying their best to understand all he said."

Wire-Glass.—Some instructive tests of wire-glass as a protection against fire were recently made by the Philadelphia Fire Underwriters' Association. Wire-glass consists of a more or less open meshwork of wire imbedded in glass plates in such a manner, it is claimed, that—under conditions where, unsupported by the wire network, the glass would speedily be shivered, and of no use in retarding the fire—the wire-glass interposes a barrier which, even when heated to incandescence and then drenched with cold water, still retains its effectiveness. A brick test house, about three feet by four feet, inside measurement, and nine feet high, was constructed. In one side of this structure a wire-glass window was fastened in a wooden frame covered with lock-jointed tin. In another side a Philadelphia standard fire door was hung. The upper part of this