ZANZIBAR. The sudden death on August 25 of Sultan Hamid bin Thwain, the ruler of Zanzibar, the attempted usurpation by Seyyid Khalid, and the bombardment of the palace by the British warships, have directed public attention to this comparatively little known but important city on the east coast of Africa. The Zanzibar dominions achieved their independence some forty years ago under Seyyid Majid, whose... more...

American Missionary Association. ANNUAL MEETING. Our annual meeting at Lowell, Mass., October 23d to 25th, promises to be an occasion of great interest. A large proportion of the addresses will be from missionaries. The work throughout the year has been greatly blessed, despite the difficulties it has had to meet from lack of adequate means. The meeting opens at three o'clock, Tuesday afternoon,... more...

BENT, JAMES THEODORE (1852-1897), English traveller, was the son of James Bent of Baildon House, near Leeds, Yorkshire, where he was born on the 30th of March 1852. He was educated at Repton school and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1875. In 1877 he married Mabel, daughter of R.W. Hall-Dare of Newtownbarry, Co. Wexford, and she became his companion in all his travels. He went abroad... more...

Dot Calliper had come out on the mountain-side, with all the rest of them, after blackberries. She had picked her little pail full industriously, but she was too fat and too small to climb any further among the rocks and stumps and bushes, so they had left her there, in the shade of the great chestnut-tree, to watch the milk-pails. Not that there was any milk in them just now, for all three of them... more...

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, was a contemporary of the historian Herodotus. He was born in the island of Cos between 470 and 460 B. C., and belonged to the family that claimed descent from the mythical AEsculapius, son of Apollo. There was already a long medical tradition in Greece before his day, and this he is supposed to have inherited chiefly through his... more...

CONDUCTION, ELECTRIC. The electric conductivity of a substance is that property in virtue of which all its parts come spontaneously to the same electric potential if the substance is kept free from the operation of electric force. Accordingly, the reciprocal quality, electric resistivity, may be defined as a quality of a substance in virtue of which a difference of potential can exist between different... more...

COQUELIN, BENOÎT CONSTANT (1841-1909), French actor, known as Coquelin aîné, was born at Boulogne on the 23rd of January 1841. He was originally intended to follow his father’s trade of baker (he was once called un boulanger manqué by a hostile critic), but his love of acting led him to the Conservatoire, where he entered Regnier’s class in 1859. He won the first prize for comedy within a year,... more...

HOW MY NEW ACQUAINTANCES SPIN. The strictly professional man may have overcome his natural aversion to some of the most interesting objects of his study, such as snakes, and toads, and spiders, and vermin of all kinds; but people in general have always required that any attempt to force such abominations upon their notice should be preceded by a more or less elaborate and humble acknowledgment of their... more...

GUN PRACTICE IN THE FRENCH NAVY. The gunners of the French fleet are possessed of a skill which is recognized by all the maritime powers, and these picked men proved this at the siege of Paris, where they made themselves illustrious, not only by their courage and their coolness, but also by the accuracy of their firing. Nothing is neglected, moreover, to keep up the precision of hand and eye that... more...

THE HOUSE-SPARROW. The English house-sparrow, a pert, daring little bird, which is seen in crowds in almost all cities of the Northern United States, was first brought to this country about twenty years ago. It is said the first specimens were liberated in Portland, Maine, where they immediately made themselves at home, and began nest-building and worm-catching as eagerly as when in their native air.... more...