Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/116

 [Vol,, v., No. 104.

��strike the beads of the wedges. The wedges, when all In place, were driven in the proper order to bring the pier back to Its original position, and were then futened by fron spikes driven by a ram-rod dropped through s gas-pipe as a guide. The work was done on the three plera by three divers in ninety days, and three hundred wedges were used.

— On an obscure passage in the Koran, Mr. W. T. Lynn, late of the Royal observatory, Greenwicli, writes OS follows : " In reference to Sir George Airy's letter in the Athenaeum, suggesting that the famous passage in the &f ty-fourtb Sura of the Koran does not relate to any pbenomenal or supposed miraculous appearance in the moon, but to the ordinary semi- lunar phase when she is said, in the language of astronomers, to be dichotomized, perhaps I may qUDl« Mr. Kodwell's rendering of the passage; 'The bour hath approached, and the moon hath been clefL But If the nnbellenera see a miracle, lUey tuni aside and say, " magic that shall pass away." And they treat the propheta as Impostors, and follow their own lusts; but every thing is unalterably Bxed.'

" This bardly reads like n reference to an ordinary appearance of the moon as a chronological datum. The 'unbelievers' couid surely not speak of that which occurs every fortnight as 'magic;' though many might conclude from previous experience that a peculiar appearance, produced by some meteoro- logical condition, even though of a more remark- able kind than they had seen before, would pass away, and bad no prophetical meaning. As to the expression, 'every thing is unalterably fixed,' Mohammed would probably mean that even miracles took place, like ordinary phenomena, by divine ap- pointment. Mr. Rodwell, like Sale, thinks the word translated ' hath been cleft ' may mean ' will be cleft,' the future ' being expressed by the prophetic preter- ite, and the reference being to one of the signs of the last day.' Nevertheless, he admits that the passage may refer to a miracle said to have been wrought by Mohammed; and this is, I believe, the general Im- pression of Mohamniedaiis with regard to It I well remember travelling many years ago to Oxford with an Egyjitian who had some scientific acquaintance with astronomy, and was at the time vlslling the English observatories; aJid, on my remarking that Mohammed laid no claim to miraculous powers, be exclaimed, 'Oh, pardon! il a fait des miracles; II dlvlaa la lune en deux parties, et puis'— Here my companion broke oH his own sentence with a hearty laugh, sufficiently indicating bis own scepticism of the alleged miracle. He was evidently about to refer to the later accretions of the ator>- with which I was familiar at given by Gibbon from Maracci; but he gave the Koran as bis authority, and his primary reference was undoubtedly to the passage quoted by Sir George Airy."

— The Swedish academy of sciences has recently published the resulta of the measurementa of the level of the Baltic, begun in 1750, to decide the con- troversy on the point lietween Celsius and the German scientific men of his day. The verdict of these hun-

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��dred and thirty-four years is that both parties wen right, and both were wrong. The Swedish coast ' been steadily rising, while that along the southeni fringe of the Baltic has been as steadily sinking. The dividing-line, along which no change Is perceptible, passes from Sweden to the Schleswig-Holsteiu coast, over Bomholm and Laland. The uorihem part of Sweden has risen about seven feet. The rate of ele- vation gradually declines as we go southward, being only about one foot at the Naie, and nothing at' Bornbolm, which remains at the some level as in the middle of the last century. An example will beat Illustrate the process. The clIB near Fieta, known as ' Slora Reppeu,' was, in IS51, ninety-three centi- metres higher above the water-level than it was In the year 1750; and on the 12th of August, 1884, it was found to be about fifty centimetres higher than in 1851, showing that the rale of elevation had been quickened during (he thirty years imme<llate)y pre- ceding. The general average result would be that the Swedish coast has risen about a hundred and forty- three centimetres (nearly fifty-six inches) during the last hundred and thlriy-four years.

— Writing to Kotniot from the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do 6ul. Dr. H. von Ibreng, In regard to a cose of polydactylism in a horse, which came under his own observation, aays he has scarcely spoken to any one, who has travelled much in thai region, who has nut himself met one or more cases of the kind. The extra toes are on the Inner side of the fore-feet. The (juestion, be says, forces itaeif upon one, whether there has not been a survival of the old race of Equns in a few regions, which has escaped the notice of the discoverers and early settlera of the country. " The horse certainly still existed in the Rio Grande during the pleistocene era, as I have re- ceived horse-teeth from alluvial soil which were found in digging a well, and which agree In the very slight- est details with the corresponding teeth of Eiguua Caliollns. It is possible that among the wild horses of South America there are still to be found descend- ants of the native horses of the alluvial."

— Hinnon skulls and other bones were lately dug up from the kjokkenmiiddings at Muyem, near the Tajo, Portugal, which, judging from the character of the deposits and accompanying fauna, can almost with certainty be ascribed to the quaternary epoch. The earlier race was dolichocephalic. To this belonged a number of skulls of wonderful uniformity, offering BO few differences, except of a sexual character, that we have unquestionably to do here with a homoge- neous race. The prognathism of the skulls, and the length of the fore-arm, such ua is only met with among negroes, recall at once the African races; while the capacity of the cranium is so small that It can be compared only with that of the Australian. There are also but few races of so small stature as these old inhabitants of Portugal, Only three brachycephalic skulls were found; and, judging from the organic marks, these belonged to a larger race than the doli- chocephalic.

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