194 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



silver wire or stem is fixed a small olive-shaped body made of unpol- 

 ished china. The mere contact or slight rubbing of this against a 

 lead or iron surface, is sufficient to leave a mark which neither the 

 soft parts, nor the morbid secretions of the wound can obliterate. 

 This mark, which resembles the mark of a lead pencil on the china, 

 thus proves the presence and the location of the metallic body in the 

 wound without the possibility of a doubt, and the construction of 

 the instrument may be fairly considered as one of the most ingenious 

 of all the applications of science to the cause of surgery. 



THE MASTERY OF LANGUAGES. 



In a work on the " Art of speaking foreign tongues idiomatically," 

 published during the past year in London, by Mr. S. Prendergrast, the 

 author lays down the following propositions, which are worthy of at- 

 tention. 



1. Idiomatic speech may be gained by adults without going abroad. 

 2. Sentences may be formulated so that each lesson shall double the 

 number of results gained [a strong assertion ; think of the horseshoe 

 problem]. 3. Acquisition of unconnected words worthless. 4. Pr lim- 

 inary grammar unnecessary. 5. Speech gained by memory, not by rea- 

 soning. 6. Memory usually over-estimated; each one to ascertain his 

 own capacity; and 7, to keep within it ; and 8, not to see a word but 

 those he is engaged on. 9. Grammar- clogs the memory with imperfect 

 recollections. 10. The beginner on the author's method will speak 

 grammatically. 11. Children speak fluently with a small number of 

 words, and 12, with nearly the same epitome of language all the world 

 over. 13. A child with 200 words possesses the syntax and pronun- 

 ciation. 14. Every foreign language should be epitomized for a beginner 

 by the framing of a set of strictly practical sentences, embodying 200 

 of the most useful words, and comprising all the most difficult construc- 

 tions. 15. By this the greatest results with the least exertion ; and time 

 for study of pronunciation. Now in this there is sense and method 

 enough to make it clear that the writer is entitled to the attention of 

 philologists and teachers of language. He gives illustrations on the Te- 

 loogoo and Hindoostanee. At the end of the book is an account of a 

 machine, which is simple and ingenious, and supplies an unending power 

 of varying exercises upon a few words. If we construct a simple sen- 

 tence, and then vary iu words without alteration of construction, we may, 

 taking five words as an example, write down the following : 



This man is often cheerful 



One woman was never surprised 



The master will-be sometimes present 



No servant can-be always watchful 



Choose one word out of each column, and we have 256 grammatical pos- 

 sibilities ; as "The man can-be often watchful." Suppose the four words 

 in each column written on four faces of a cube, and the five cubes placed 

 in a box of five stalls, one side of the box being of glass. By shaking 

 and turning over the box, the visible faces of the cubes are changed at 

 hazard, giving different verbal variations of the phrase. Mr. Long's 

 machine has upwards of 20 words in the sentence, and the number of 

 possible sentences is millions of millions. A teacher of language is 

 often perplexed to give variety enough : a machine of this sort would 



