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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



"WHAT THE EYE SEES IN READING." 



Mesrs. Editors. 



IN your admirable cautionary note on 

 " The Eyesight of Readers," in the 

 September number of your magazine, you 

 say, " A book of five hundred pages, forty 

 lines to the page and fifty letters to the line, 

 contains a million of letters, all of which the 

 eye has to take in, identify, and combine 

 each with its neighbor." 



I believe you are wrong. I don't believe 

 we deal with letters in reading at all, ex- 

 cept when we meet unfamiliar words. I 

 think persons, who read rapidly recognize 

 words and phrases without analyzing them 

 into their elements. I think that every word 

 has a countenance, a physiognomy, which 

 we soon learn, and which we afterward rec- 

 ognize as we do the faces of our friends. 



Repeatedly I have amused myself by 

 approaching an unfamiliar sign, or handbill, 

 or printed page. What comes first into 

 view? Not letters, but words; and tliey 

 stand identified when no single letter can be 

 distinguished. 



It lies within easy observation that the 

 lateral oscillation of the eyes of a rapid 

 reader is very limited. Why ? He cares so 

 little about spelling the words he reads, 

 that he does not even present to all of them 

 the more sensitive spots on his retime, but 

 is content to leave the images of most w ords 

 upon more peripheral parts where they 

 could not be spelled. 



I would not presume to inform you of 

 the brilliant success of the experiment of 

 teaching children to read without spelling 

 an experiment which I believe has been 

 most thoroughly tried in St. Louis. In the 

 case of children so taught, words only are 

 scanned, the young I'eaders being wholly 

 ignorant of the value of letters. 



I have a correspondent whose written 

 characters could not possibly be recognized, 

 and yet to me his letters are fairly legible. 

 Why? Because, however far he departs 

 from the standai'd of the copy-book, he al- 

 ways writes any given word in the same 

 way ; and, although I could not spell isolated 

 words from his written page, I have learned 

 to recognize them as quickly as if they were 

 fairly printed. 



I think it might be successfully main- 

 tained that there actually is not time for 

 each letter to be separately regarded, either 

 by the eye or the mind, in rapid reading. 

 I read the first three pages of the " Sketch 

 of Joseph Leidy " in three minutes, and 



Abercrombie could have read it much quick, 

 er. In each minute I read four hundred 

 words, containing more than two thousand 

 letters. I subnnt that, while it is possible 

 to see six or seven words per second, it is 

 quite impossible to see thirty or forty letters 

 per second. Dan Millikin. 



Hamilton, Ohio, September 10, 1880. 



A CASE OF PEOTECTIVE MIMICRY. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



I VENTURE to send you an account of a 

 sparrow's performance which I witnessed 

 some time ago, and which you may consider 

 worth publishing. It seems to me that the 

 publication of such observations, when known 

 to come from a trustworthy source and 

 bearing the stamp of probable correct inter- 

 pretation, is sure to add a light and pleasant 

 page to our journals of popular science, as 

 well as furnish a store from which illus- 

 trations may be drawn by those needing 

 them. You have no reason to know me or 

 my trustworthiness, but, that I do not depend 

 upon imaginary data for such narratives as I 

 send, I think I may refer you to my friend 

 and teacher. Professor W. K. Brooks, of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, or to Professor 

 Martin, of the same institution, although I 

 do so this time without their know ledge or 

 permission. 



Some time since, while riding slowly 

 along a dusty macadamized road, I was 

 startled by the hurried flight close by my 

 side of a small bird which dropped in the 

 road a few paces ahead, and after a flutter 

 in the dust sat perfectly motionless. I drew 

 up my horse to watch events, when a moment 

 later a hawk swooped by, but missed its 

 prey, and went off into an adjoining field. 

 The sparrow remained still in its place, and, 

 all covered with dust, looked for all the 

 world like one of the many loose stones ia 

 the road so much so, that no wonder it 

 should have escaped the sharp sight even of 

 the hawk. 



But one explanation of such a freak 

 seemed possible ; and when we reflect that 

 these birds generally take to the bushes or 

 to the lichen-spotted rail fences, when pur- 

 sued by hawks, and that dust is not a con- 

 stant factor of the environment, we stop to 

 admire so bright a spark of intelligence 

 kindled under such trying circumstances. 

 Respectfully, 

 BoLLiNG W. Barton, M. D. 

 Baltimore, September 80, 1880. 



