Abstract
CALCUTTA. Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 7.—R. K. Bhide: Two more new species of Gramineæ from Bombay. Two new species of grasses are described, (1) Chloris quinquesetica, collected by Mr. G. A. Gammie, and subsequently by the author, from Bassein, and (2) Sporobolus scabrifolius, collected by the author from Rannebennur.—Manindra Nath Banerjee: A measure of chemical affinity. The chemical activity of an element bears a simple relation to its density; if its atomic volume be divided by its density, the figure obtained, for which the name “specific extensity” is suggested, gives a measure of the chemical activity of the element. For instance, platinum, which is a very inactive element, is near one end of the scale with a specific extensity of o 42; hydrogen, a very active one, is near the other end with a specific extensity of 127.25. There are a number of exceptions to the rule, the most obvious being the inactive gases found in the atmosphere.—Rev. H. Hosten: The mouthless Indians of Megasthenes. According to Megasthenes, there lived near the sources of the Ganges a tribe of people, the Astomoi, who had no mouth, but merely orifices through which they breathed. They ate and drank nothing. When they went on a distant journey, they took with them certain roots and flowers or wild apples, on the perfumes of which they subsisted. “ Should they inhale very foul air death is inevitable.” The tribe is found mentioned in conjunction with the Trispithami (men of three spans long), the Pygmies, and the Scyritae or Scyratae (Kiratas), tribes whose characteristic features are distinctly Mongolian or Himalayan. A number of texts are quoted to prove that the u foul air “against which the Astomoi had to protect themselves represents the phenomenon known as mal-de-montagne, or breath-seizure,” and that the “wild apples” they used as antidote were onions, dried apples, and apricots, nostrums employed in the Himalayas wherever breath-seizure prevails. The fact that some hill tribes used in their travels fruits of which they inhaled the perfume, lest the ”foul air” should kill them, seems then to have led to the idea that they subsisted on nothing else. From this to the belief that they needed no mouth, and, in fact, had none, or “instead of mouths had orifices through which they breathed,” the inference was easy.—Rev. Fr. Nicholas Krick: Account of an expedition among the Abors in 1853. The recent expedition among the Abors gives renewed interest to Fr. Krick's visit to them in 1853. His ” Relation d'un voyage au Thibet en 1852 et d'un voyage chez les Abors en 1853” (Paris, 1854) has become scarce; hence we are under obligations to Rev. Fr. A. Gille, S.J., for having translated that part which concerns the Abors. Fr. Krick's remarks on their manners and customs are as applicable to-day as they were nearly sixty years ago.
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Societies and Academies. . Nature 90, 63–64 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090063a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090063a0