EVENTS OF THE MONTH

Tuesday, July 13.-The number of silver dollars coined at the mints during the last fiscal year was 21,203,701... .Two warships will be sent to Hawaii to relieve the Philadelphia and Marion....The convention of the national league of Republican clubs was opened in Detroit, Mich....Turkey has dispatched an ultimatum to Persia demanding the withdrawal of Persian troops from Turkish territory, near Kerbeta; Russia is believed to be behind Persia

Queen Victoria received 180 members of the Pan-Anglican conference at Windsor castle.

Wednesday, July 14.-President McKinley has suspended the operation of ex-President Cleveland's order consolidating the pension agencies of the country and reducing their number to nine from eighteen... The anniversary of the fall of the Bastile was celebrated in France ....Mr. and Mrs. Whitelaw Reid entertained a large company at luncheon in London... It is said that the report of fighting at Candia between British troops and Bashi Bazouks is without foundation....The report that the Turks are constructing a military road in one of the passes of Mount Othrys has been confirmed.

Thursday, July 15.-The Transmississippi congress met at Salt Lake, Utah; William J. Bryan made a speech....A joint proposal of bimetallism was presented to Great Britain on behalf of the United States and France; the British cabinet will give its answer at a subsequent conference.... It was announced in London that a conference will be held in Washington in the autumn to consider the Bering sea seal question, and that Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and the United States will be represented....A dispatch from Paris to a London news agency says that inquiry at the United States embassy confirms a rumor that Spain and Japan have arranged an offensive alliance against the United States for the mutual protection of Cuba and Hawaii.

Friday, July 16.-The Transmississippi congress, at Salt Lake, adopted resolutions favoring the annexation of Hawaii and the construction of the Nicaraguan canal; recommending recognition of Cuba as a nation; providing for a national board of arbitration, and for fostering the beet-sugar industry....The New York bankers' association adopted resolutions demanding that Congress take action on the currency question and recommending retirement of all government paper. Acting upon the suggestion of Captain-General Weyler, the queen regent has pardoned eight insurgent chiefs who were under sentence of death....A number of Russian students have been arrested at the request of the Russian government on the charge of complicity

in nihilistic movements.

Saturday, July 17.-The steamship Portland arrived at Port Townsend, Wash., with over $700,000 in gold from the Klondyke region on board; the excitement over the discoveries is increasing on the Pacific coast.... President McKinley nominated Terence V. Powderly, formerly general master workman of the Knights of Labor, to be commissioner-general of immigration....Turkey, after presenting a new and unacceptable frontier scheme to the peace conference, was informed that the conference would

adjourn until the frontier line traced by the military attachés was accepted. The Rev. Dr. Butler, bishop-elect of Concordia, Kan., died in

Rome.

Sunday, July 18.-The striking miners in the Pittsburg district are becoming desperate, and there are indications of trouble ahead ....An earthquake occurred in the island of Stromboli, one of the Lipari Islands.... Edward Charles Baring, Baron Revelstoke, is dead.... An Indian loan of 300 lacs of rupees at 31⁄2 per cent. is announced.

Monday, July 19.-The press of Madrid expresses sympathy with England over the Sherman incident and criticises the conduct of the American government... Gold to the amount of $250,000 was withdrawn from the New York sub-treasury for shipment to Canada....The steamer Hope, with the Peary and other Greenland expeditions on board, sailed from Boston

The excitement in regard to the gold diggings on the Klondyke continues, and many men are setting out for the new Eldorado... The Czar has telegraphed to the Sultan demanding the immediate evacuation of Thessaly... Under-Secretary Curzon said in the House of Commons that the request of the United States for a conference to consider more adequate measures for protecting the seals had been declined as "premature"....The Japanese official press says it is probable that the Mikado's government will agree to the Hawaiian proposal to submit the pending disputes to arbitration.

Tuesday, July 20.-The President signed the deficiency appropriation bill....The treasury department notified the collectors of customs at New York and other ports to make final liquidation of all entries made since the passage of the tariff bill by the House, the retroactive clause having been discarded by the conferees....Emperor William's physician says that the sight of the Emperor's eye was in no sense impaired by the recent accident on the imperial yacht.... China is about to reorganize her army on the lines of the German military; a Chinese fleet is to be built in England and Germany... Jean Ingelow, the poet and novelist, died in London.

Wednesday, July 21.-The American exhibits of tools, agricultural implements, and bicycles at the Brussels exposition excel, but in other departments the American showing is a failure

A Chicago dispatch says that 3,000 tons of Bessemer pig iron, the product of a Milwaukee mill, have been sold for export to Germany.... The Sultan of Turkey has issued an irade sanctioning the settlement of the frontier question

in accordance with the wishes of the Powers.

Thursday, July 22.-The Secretary of State will issue a circular supplementing one previously sent out, in which foreign countries will be asked and invited to take part in the Omaha exposition... President E. B. Andrews, of Brown University, Rhode Island, whose freesilver utterances were distasteful to the trustees and fellows of the institution has resigned.... A monument to Gen. John A. Logan was unveiled in Chicago....It is said that the Dominion premier has obtained a written assurance

that Great Britain will denounce the Belgian and German commercial treaties....A new bill, giving the government power to repress opposition meetings and agitation, has been passed by the upper house of the Prussian diet....Mr. Whitelaw Reid, special envoy of the United States to the Queen's diamond jubilee, gave a notable dinner in London as a return for British hospitality.

Friday, July 23.-The treasury department has given orders for $104,000,000 in notes of small denominations, in anticipation of a large demand for currency to be used in moving the crops....T. B. McGregor, president of the united mine-workers of Missouri and Kansas, says he will refuse to order the men in his jurisdiction to join the coal strike....The Turks have begun the evacuation of Thessaly....The Czar has presented King Alexander of Servia, with 40,000 Berdan rifles and 25,000,000 cartridges....It is said that Germany, chagrined at the result of her protest against the annexation of Hawaii, sounded Japan, but the latter declined to be a party to any concerted action.

Saturday, July 24.-The tariff was passed by the Senate and signed by the President; the President sent to congress a message recommending the appointment of a non-partisan monetary commission....A number of steamships arrived at New York after a race across the ocean to enter their cargoes prior to the passage of the new tariff law....A company headed by J. Edward Addicks has sent representatives to the Klondyke region of Alaska to take part in the hunt for gold....Captain-General Weyler has recently received from Spain a million dollars in silver for war purposes...The partisans of Don Carlos, pretender to the throne of Spain, are said to have resumed active agitation

Work has completely suspended in Barcelona, Spain, owing to strikes.

Sunday, July 25.-Debs and other strike agitators held meetings in the Fairmont region of West Virginia; the mines are all guarded by deputy sheriffs....The details of Count Okuma's (the Japanese minister of foreign affairs) protest against the annexation of Hawaii are published; in them the Count is quoted as saying: Japan must oppose to the utmost; the annexation must not be recognized."....The visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany to St. Petersburg is to be signalized by a great display of pomp and ceremony.

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Monday, July 26.-The President and Secretary Alger decided to send a company of troops to Alaska to support the civil authorities in the administration of the law....The British government has again declined to interfere in the execution of the sentence imposed on Mrs. Maybrick.....The Transvaal raid was debated in the house of commons on a motion to compel the production of telegrams which had been refused the committee; the motion was defeated

The Canadian cabinet has decided to levy a royalty on gold taken out of the Klondyke.

Tuesday, July 27.-The President has appointed Major Moses P. Handy, of Illinois, to be special commissioner to the Paris international exposition in 1900. Labor leaders met in conference at Wheeling, W. Va., to consider the coal-strike situation; mine operators

met at Pittsburg and discussed a proposed uniformity agreement....United States ex-Senator James Doolittle, of Wisconsin, died near Providence, Rhode Island....As a result of the initiative of Germany, backed by Austria and Italy, a clause has been drafted for embodiment in the Turco-Grecian peace treaty whereby European financial control will be established at Athens... Mr. George J. Goschen, first lord of the British admiralty, announced a supplemental naval estimate of £500,000 for the commencement of four very swift armed cruisers, made necessary by rapid additions to foreign navies.

Wednesday, July 28.-The receipts from internal revenue during the past fiscal year amounted to $146,619,508, which was $211,106 less than the previous year....Passengers on the steamship Majestic arriving at New York were obliged to pay duties under the new tariff law on all personal effects they had brought from abroad exceeding $100 in value... Canada has decided to impose a royalty on all the gold taken from the Klondyke fields; the rate will be 10 per cent. on claims yielding $500 a month and 20 per cent. on all heavier yields; efforts are to be made to establish a telegraph line and build a road; customs and police officers are being hurried to the front.

Thursday, July 29.-President McKinley began his summer outing at Lake Champlain Decrees of sale of the Union Pacific railway under foreclosure were entered at Omaha ; the upset price was placed at $50,637,455....Advices received in Chicago from twenty-seven States show that business is picking up, and that a def. inite improvement in conditions exists....The views of Germany as respects European control of Greek finances were agreed to by the ambassadors at Constantinople....In Mexico the theory is advanced that European bankers are depressing the price of silver as an answer to the Dingley tariff....Andrew Carnegie has offered the town of Stirling, Scotland, the sum of £6,000 for a public library.

Friday, July 30.-The state department is informed that Japan has accepted Hawaii's offer to arbitrate the differences between the two countries....The British foreign office notified Ambassador Hay that Great Britain accepted the proposition of the United States for an international conference on the question of pelagic sealing in the Bering sea....Further fighting has occurred between the British forces and native tribesmen in India; the tribesmen were repulsed....The King of Siam arrived at Portsmouth, England, and was received with royal

honors.

Saturday, July 31.-The treasury department, has prepared a statement showing the estimated loss of revenue to the government on account of increased imports during the months of March, April, May, and June, 1897, in anticipation of the increased duties imposed by the new tariff act; the aggregate net loss is estimated at $32,666,427....The situation in the coal miners' strike becomes more serious....Captain-General Weyler announced that he would grant amnesty to fifteen hundred exiles from Cuba....A statement from Athens indicates that should foreign control of Greek finances be adopted the King of Greece would abdicate.

Sunday, August 1.-The state of siege at the De Armitt mines near Pittsburg was maintained, several thousand strikers arriving there from the surrounding country. It is reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming, that two officers of the Eighth Infantry, stationed at Fort D. A. Russell, are under orders to go to Alaska, to investigate the situation and report on the advisability of sending troops to that region....In consequence of the rapid spread of the revolt of the tribesren the Indian government has ordered the reserve brigade to assemble....A report has reached Cape Town that the Portuguese have been badly routed in the Bileni district, north of Delagoa Bay. The foreign admirals at Canea have decided to oppose by force the landing of any additional Turkish troops.... News has reached Cairo of heavy tribal fighting up the Nile between the Dervishes and the Jaalins; the Dervishes, under one of the generals of the Khalifa, defeated the Jaalins in a pitched battle and occupied Metemneh on July 1.

Monday, August 2.-The monthly statement of the public debt shows that the debt, less cash in the treasury, at the close of business on July 31, was $993,446,646, an increase during the month of $6,790,560, which is accounted for by a corresponding decrease in the cash in the treasury; this decrease is in consequence of exceptionally heavy disbursements....Fort Chakdara, in the Chitral district, has been relieved by the British force under General Blood.

Tuesday, August 3.-The proposed uniformity agreement in regard to coal mining in the Pittsburg district is completed; it is believed that the required number will approve it; after that it is intended to hold a conference with the miners and agree upon a new wage scale.... British metal dealers have placed an, order with the Pittsburg reduction company for 1,000 tons of aluminum; the contract was secured in open competition with all the aluminum works of Europe....A.division of the Turkish fleet has been ordered from the Dardanelles to Crete.... Viscount Garnet Joseph Wolseley, field marshal and commander-in-chief of the British army, is seriously ill....The uprising of natives in Bechuanaland has collapsed, the chiefs having surrendered to the British authorities.

Wednesday, August 4.-The domestic exports for the fiscal year, which ended on June 30th last, were the largest in the history of the United States and established a new record. The government has begun to press for a settlement of the McCord claim for $50,000 against Peru... All records for gold deposited at the San Francisco mint in one day were broken by the receipt of $3,750,000....The South African policy of the British government was attacked in the house of commons; Mr. Joseph Chamberlain declined to reopen the Transvaal affair, but explained the action of the government with reference to the commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium.

Thursday, August 5.-The price of silver in New York declined to 554 cents per ounce bid; this makes the bullion value of the silver dollar a trifle more than 43 cents....The State committee of the National Democrats of Ohio decided to call a state convention in Columbus, on September 8 and 9, to nominate a state ticket

Friday, August 6.-The commercial ratio between gold and silver is 36.6 to I...The navy department directed the preliminary acceptance of the gunboats Marietta and Wheeling, built by the Union iron works of San Francisco... The British cabinet informed the American bimetallic commission that it will probably reply to the proposal of the commissioners on behalf of the United States in October; the American commissioners say they are not discouraged by the postponement. The British parliament was prorogued until October 23. The British political officer at Malakand, India, reports that 2,700 of the tribesmen were killed in the recent uprising....The Canadian government has taken steps to enforce the alien labor laws against citizens of the United States.

Saturday, August 7.-The President has made the following appointment: William L. Distin, of Quincy, Ill., to be surveyor-general of Alaska

The report of an expert of the geological survey, who made investigations in Alaska, is published....The international arbitration conference was opened in Brussels; an especially cordial welcome was given to the delegates from the United States....The Emperor and Empress of Germany arrived at Cronstadt, Russia.... At the state banquet given by the Russian Czar and Empress to Emperor William and Empress Augusta Victoria in St. Petersburg, mutual toasts were indulged in for the maintenance of peace.

Sunday, August 8.-Señor Canovas del Castillo, the prime minister of Spain, was assassinated at Santa Agueda by an anarchist.... Secretary of State Sherman expressed the opinion that the assassination of Castillo would create sympathy for and thus strengthen his party....It is asserted that the Russian government will prohibit the export of wheat, owing to the bad harvest throughout Russia.

Monday, August 9.-Consul-General Haywood, in a report to the state department, states that during 1896 American vessels numbering 247, of 243,983 tons, entered at Hawaiian ports, while vessels of all other nationalities numbered 139, of 234,014 tons; these are the only foreign ports where a majority of the carrying trade is now under the American flag. The annual meeting of the American association for the advancement of science began in Detroit Michele Angine Golli, who shot and killed Señor Canovas del Castillo, the Spanish premier, has confessed that the deed was the outcome of an extensive anarchist conspiracy....Another outbreak is reported on the Afghan frontier.

Tuesday, August 10.-Many British scientists are arriving at New York to be present at the meeting at Toronto, Can., of the British Science Association. Among the arrivals are Lord Kelvin (Sir Wm. Thompson), the great inventor and experimenter in magnetism, and Sir Joseph Lister, the distinguished English

surgeon.

INQUIRIES ANSWERED

I see it stated that Germany ranks third among the nations that possess colonies. Is not this a mistake-the writer probably meaning Holland or Belgium? Kindly give a list of the colonies owned by these European powers, with their location, area and estimated population. Also, please state which nation ranks second as a colony-possessing power, England, presumably, being first.

The last twenty years have seen great activity among European nations in the acquisition of colonies or in adding to their number. Two decades ago, Britain's colonies, protectorates and dependencies, embraced an area of 71⁄2 million square miles, with a population, in round numbers, of 200 millions. To-day the area of her possessions exceeds 11 million sq. m., with an estimated population of 340 millions! France comes next, with colonial possessions and protectorates dispersed over Asia, Africa and Polynesia, besides Guiana and her islands off Newfoundland. The total area of these slightly exceeds 21⁄2 million square miles, with a population estimated at 42 millions.

Some thirteen years ago (1884), Germany began to extend her dominion beyond the bounds of Europe, and though, as yet, she possesses no colonies in the proper sense of the term, she has declared her protection over various areas or spheres of influence, chiefly in Africa and the Western Pacific. The area of her African possessions (which include Southwest and East Africa, Togoland, and the Cameroons), is estimated at 920,000 square miles, with a population, roughly speaking, of 10 millions. In addition to this territorial area in Africa, Germany has acquired possession or annexed the following islands, etc., in the Pacific (area 100,000 sq. m.; pop. 400,000): Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, and Bismarck Archipelago.

The Colonial possessions of the Netherlands, which include Borneo, Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, etc., cover an area of 780,000 square miles, with a population, according to the last returns, of 34 millions. Belgium has no colonies, though she exercises a quasi-sovereignty over the Congo Free State in Africa. About twelve years ago the Congo State, which was opened up in part at the individual expense of Leopold, King of the Belgians, was placed under his personal sovereignty; but in 1889 the King, by will, bequeathed his rights to Belgium, and in the following year they were declared inalienable. A convention between Belgium and the Congo

Independent State, held July 3, 1890, reserved to Belgium the right of annexing the State after a period of ten years.

Will SELF CULTURE kindly give me (a teacher) a brief statement, intelligent to young people, of how rain and hail are produced? Also say where I can read about such phenomena, including thunder-storms, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

The producing causes of rain, thunder, and hail you will find set forth in the article "Meteorology" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. XVI., pages 119, 120, 129, 132, and 150. For an explanation of the reverberations that are heard in the prolonged roll of thunder, see the article "" Acoustics," ," Vol. I., page 107. With regard to rain, it may be said, in popular language, that under the influence of solar heat, water is constantly rising into the air by evaporation from the surface of the sea, lakes, rivers, and the moist surface of the ground. Of the vapors thus formed the greater part is returned to the earth as rain. The moisture, originally invisible, first makes its appearance as cloud, mist, or fog; and under certain atmospheric conditions the condensation proceeds still further until the moisture falls to the earth as rain. Simply and briefly, then, rain is caused by the cooling of the air charged with moisture.

Hail is the name given to the small masses of ice which fall in showers, and which we call hailstones. When we examine a hailstone it is found usually to consist of a central nucleus of surrounded by successive layers compact snow, of ice and snow. Hail falls chiefly in spring and summer, and often accompanies a thunderstorm. Hailstones are formed by the gradual rise and fall, through different degrees of temperature (by the action of wind-storms), and they then take on a covering of ice or frozen snow, according as they are carried through a region of rain or snow.

I have been looking in the Encyclopædia Britannica for the word Xantho, and have been unable to find it. Please instruct me where to look for the term and supply its meaning.

The Encyclopædia Britannica, we again notify correspondents, is not a defining dictionary or lexicon, but a collection of treatises on all branches of knowledge. The word Xantho, which is a prefix, meaning yellow (from the Greek xanthos), our correspondent will how

ever find in the Britannica in connection with words to which the term yellow is prefixed. It will be found in connection with anthropology, or the science that treats of the varieties of the human races, also in connection with mineralogy, with bird and plant life, and, generally, wherever the term yellow is applied. See, among other references to the compounds formed from Xantho, Encyclopædia Britannica Vol. XVI., page 431 (last column near the top), for a number of references under Mineralogy. Also see Vol. II., page 113, for the Xanthochroi, or blond Caucasian peoples, under the article Anthropology.

Pray can you give me any account of a John Somerville, who was a man of some fame? I do not find him in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Please, at the same time, state in SELF CULTURE which is the correct expression-To-morrow is Wednesday, or To-morrow will be Wednesday.

There was a John Somerville living in Shakespeare's day who achieved notoriety as a conspirator, by threatening the life of Queen Elizabeth. This is the only one of that name known to us among historical characters. You will find mention of him in the article on Shakespeare-page 754, Vol. XXI. There was a William Somerville, a Yorkshire poet, who lived early in the 18th century; and there is Mary Somerville, the scientific writer and mathematician; but no other Somerville, so far as we know, who was in any way famous.

The objection to the phrase "To-morrow is Wednesday" we have always treated as rather pedantic or in the nature of a verbal quibble. Of course, logically, when speaking of a future day, "will be" is more accurate; but when we use "is" we mean to imply that to-morrow (when it comes) is such and such a day, and not some other day. Colloquially, we do not see any serious objection to the use of is. Speaking of public holidays, we say the Fourth of July is one, Washington's birthday is another. These instances, it is proper to say, however, do not imply futurity; if that is implied, "will be" should be used; though we may use is, if we mean, as we usually do, that to-morrow, when it arrives, is such and such a day. In similar forms of speech in other modern languages the present tense is permitted and sanctioned by good usage.

I desire some information regarding the phenomenon "catalysis." Will SELF CULTURE kindly supply?

Catalysis is the name given to a numerous class of chemical changes that are induced in certain chemical systems by a substance which does not itself undergo any permanent alteration, but which by its mere presence, under suitable conditions, brings about a rearrangement of the molecules of the bodies with which it is placed in contact. The phenomenon is also called "contact-action." The material which acts in this manner upon other chemical substances without itself apparently 'being affected by the changes it induces, has been termed a catalytic or contact-force." No satisfactory theory has been advanced to account for these changes, or to define what the force of catalysis is. The Swedish chemist Berzelius, who was the first to study these reactions in certain substances under more or less favorable conditions, assumed this catalytic force to be of the character of an electrical force, and could find no other definition for the peculiar power.

Faraday, Konowalow, Ernest Meyer, and other chemists, have had theories accounting for the catalytic action, most of which have been disputed by other authorities. Mills has propounded certain ideas relating to catalysis, making motion the basis of the force. Ostwald has shown valuable determinations of dynamical effects of substances in inducing or accelerating chemical dissolution or decomposition, and holds dynamic force to be identical with catalytic force. Contact chemical action, whatever be its true cause, plays a highly important part in several industrial operations, such as the inversion of cane sugar, the conversion of starchy matters into glucose, the decolorization of sugar solutions by charcoal, and, recently found useful, in the purification of waters by filtration through porous media.

Formerly the great industrial processes of fermentation in the manufacture of alcoholic liquors were referred to contact chemical action, but it now seems certain that such changes are phenomena connected with organic life, and not with those of unorganized matter. For a theoretical consideration of catalysis see Mendeljeff's work, B. 19,456. For examples of catalytic action upon various substances, see Watt's "Dictionary of Chemistry," Vol. I., pages 731-752.

I have spent some years in the study of German, and I believe that I read and write it as well as I do English. I therefore desire to ask you whether you can give me the address of any publisher who is willing to pay fair remuneration for translations of German prose into English. If you do not know of any such,