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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



obey the will; the failure giving rise to 

 sudden interruptions of the voice, while the 

 articulating power may remain unaffected. 

 As in other impediments of speech the har- 

 monious action of the muscles engaged in 

 articulation may be disturbed, in this case 

 the disordered coordination affects the voice 

 only. The movements required for articu- 

 lating syllable! are perfectly performed, but 

 the production of vocal sound is at inter- 

 vals suspended. The affection may cause 

 the patient to stop speaking, as he is con- 

 scious of what he sometimes calls a " catch 

 in the breath " ; or he may continue a sen- 

 tence from which some words will be lost to 

 the listener. Isolated sounds are usually cor- 

 rectly articulated, even by confirmed stam- 

 merers ; and the same is true in these vocal 

 impediments ; but it is in the rapid emis- 

 sion of certain combinations of sounds that 

 the sudden arrest is liable to occur. Dr. 

 James states that after long and patient 

 observation of the action of the vocal cords, 

 aided by appliances specially devised for 

 the purpose, he was able to obtain ocular 

 demonstration of the presence of the affec- 

 tion; and, once distinguished from other 

 impediments of speech, he found it amen- 

 able to treatment. 



Statnre of the Japanese. Mrs. Chaplin 

 Ayrton, M. D., has recently published the 

 results of nearly three hundred observations 

 of the height and span of the Japanese. 

 She found the average height to be five feet 

 three inches, and the span four feet eleven 

 inches. In the case of twenty-four women, 

 taken at random, the tallest was a trifle 

 over five feet two inches, and the average 

 was four feet eight inches, with an average 

 span of four feet six inches. The shortness 

 of the span as compared with the height is 

 a general characteristic that is especially 

 marked in the case of the women. Sixty 

 per cent, of the persons measured had the 

 span less than the height, and thirty-three 

 per cent, greater than the height, while in 

 only 6 - 8 per cent, were the height and span 

 equal. Climate can hardly be made to ac- 

 count satisfactorily for the smallncss of the 

 Japanese, for they live in a temperate re- 

 gion, though it is subject to sudden and 

 marked changes. The general use of char- 

 coal-braziers for heating may have some- 



thing to do with it, by causing them to in- 

 hale the carbonic oxides. The characteristic 

 of their food is the rarity of meat and the 

 abundance of salt. Many of the additional 

 causes of the smallncss of the Japanese may 

 be so remote as to cease to affect the nation 

 except by hereditary influence. 



Aids to Hearing : the Osteophone. The 



audiphone and dentaphone, which have been 

 extensively advertised as instrmnents for 

 aiding the hearing of the deaf, have been 

 objected to on account of mechanical diffi- 

 culties in using them. The audiphone to a 

 certain extent obscures the features of the 

 person using it the dentaphone is held 

 more or less in the line of vision ; and both 

 instruments require the constant service of 

 the hands when in use. Dr. Charles II. 

 Thomas, of Philadelphia, has devised an in- 

 strument that is intended to obviate these 

 difficulties, which he has named the osteo- 

 phone. It consists of a large receiving dia- 

 phragm attached in an arched form to a rod 

 of wood or metal, which rod is bent in the 

 form of a pipe-stem. One end of the rod is 

 to be held firmly between the teeth as a 

 pipe is held, leaving the hands of the listen- 

 er free for other occupations, while he is 

 able to hear all the sounds that may be con- 

 veyed by the diaphragm. The diaphragm 

 is below and away from the face, and com- 

 paratively inconspicuous. The inventor sug- 

 gests that ornamental fans, coated with shel- 

 lac and tipped with ivory or hard rubber, 

 may be made to answer fairly well for oc- 

 casional use, but will be unsatisfactory if 

 depended on permanently. Fuller's card- 

 board, treated with shellac varnish, and 

 dried, makes one of the best of resounding 

 mediums. A piece of yellow pine turned 

 into a trumpet - shape, and placed in the 

 mouth of the deaf person, will convey a gcod 

 volume of sound, and even a string connect- 

 ing the upper teeth of the persons convers- 

 ing perceptibly aids the sound. A small rod 

 of hard wood, connecting the teeth of the 

 two persons, gives a volume of sound many 

 times exceeding that transmitted either by 

 the audiphone or the dentaphone. Sensible 

 vibrations, produced by and corresponding 

 to those of the voice, are propagated in the 

 hard palate and base of the skull of persons 

 speaking in the ordinary tones ; and the rod 





