P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANT. 



141 



Ing, " I paint women as I love them." Fur- 

 ther, artists appear to embody their consti- 

 tutional features in their figures, and will 

 design large or small subjects according as 

 they are themselves large or small. The fig- 

 ures of portly and vigorous artists will be dis- 

 tinguished by fullness of muscular develop- 

 ment. According to this theory, the resem- 

 blance extends even to the different parts 

 of the body. Raphael, who preferred to 

 paint Virgins, had a virginal head ; Michael 

 Angelo, who had a virile head, put more 

 virility into his creations. If we should go 

 into the room where a deliberative body had 

 sat, and gather up the figures which the 

 members had amused themselves with com- 

 posing during the tedium of discussion, we 

 would be surprised by observing that each 

 one had sketched something very like his 

 own likeness. Dr. Delaunay has experi- 

 mented with artists, and with persons who 

 did not know how to draw, and has always 

 found that they made their own profiles in 

 their off-hand sketches. The sketch of an 

 unpracticed person would of course be rude 

 and ungraceful, and an unfair portrait, but 

 there would be traits of resemblance about 

 it sufficient to reveal the author. A friend 

 who had what is called a square head drew 

 a figure which was imperfect enough, but 

 the line defining the back part of the head 

 made a right angle. A person with curled 

 hair is not apt to draw straight hair, but 

 curled ; one with straight hair will give his 

 figures hair like his own ; a bearded man 

 will give them a full beard, a beardless man 

 none ; and peculiarities in the form of the 

 beard are often found reproduced in the 

 drawings. Finally, in the works of imagina- 

 tion of painters and sculptors we may recog- 

 nize the productions of artists who have all 

 the time multiplied their likenesses in their 

 figures. The same conclusion is applicable 

 to imitative designs. If we have a drawing- 

 class of fifty pupils, having a respectable 

 degree of skill, all drawing at the same 

 head, theoretically we should have fifty 

 heads more or less well executed, but all 

 resembling the model, and consequently 

 one another. This will not, however, be 

 the case. The drawings will differ from 

 each other so obviously that, instead of 

 fifty copies of the same head, there will be 

 fifty different heads. Each pupil executes 

 a different head from the one drawn by his 



neighbor, and more or less resembling his 

 own head. In proof of this, a letter is 

 quoted from a professor of drawing in a 

 lyceum in Paris, who says : " When our pu- 

 pils are competing for a prize, they have the 

 same model in view, but each one in copy- 

 ing from it reproduces himself more or less. 

 We may, by simply examining his design, 

 determine whether his face is round, oval, 

 or square, whether it has projecting forms, 

 or a smooth contour with few inequalities." 

 The same is the case with sculptors, and 

 even with costumers, who were found by 

 Dr. Delaunay to be most apt to have figures 

 of their own style in view in fitting their 

 customers. 



Echoes in Buildings. Cords stretched 

 in a kind of network near the ceiling have 

 been recommended for destroying echoes in 

 churches and public halls, aud have been 

 tried satisfactorily in St. Peter's Church, 

 Geneva, and in the Assembly Hall of the 

 city offices of Bordeaux, France. When 

 metallic wires are used in the same manner, 

 the resonance is greatly diminished, and is 

 sometimes converted into a musical sound. 

 A remarkable resonance has been noticed 

 in connection with the great staircase of 

 stone in the Walhalla at Regensburg, Ger- 

 many. The visitor, after going up the first 

 stairs, steps upon a landing from which two 

 other staircases rise in opposite directions. 

 At this point every step calls out a metallic 

 ringing, as if the whole stairs were made of 

 brass. A stamp of the foot on the middle 

 of the landing is answered by a clear, re- 

 sounding, musical tone. The ringing con- 

 tinues as the visitor goes up the stairs, 

 growing weaker as he approaches the sec- 

 ond landing, and finally ceases. The phe- 

 nomenon is believed to be due to the rapid 

 reflections of the sound-waves between the 

 opposite staircases. 



Stammering of the Vocal Cords. Under 

 this title Dr. Prosser James, of London, de- 

 scribes in the "Lancet" a throat malady, 

 which he says may at times entirely suspend 

 the work of clergymen, lawyers, singers, 

 and others who make professional use of 

 the voice. The disease appears to be due 

 to defective coordination of certain muscles 

 of the larynx, in consequence of which the 

 vocal apparatus fails at intervals to fully 



