7 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Mr. Edison has just sent me the following notes of the results of 

 recent experiments : 



" That the size of the hole through which you speak has a great deal to do 

 with the articulation. "When words are spoken against the whole diaphragm, 

 the hissing sounds, as in shall, fleece, last, are lost; whereas, by the use of a 

 small hole provided with sharp edges, these words are reenforced and recorded. 

 Also, teeth around the edge of a slot, instead of a round hole, give the hissing 

 consonants clearer. 



"That the best reading is obtained when the mouth-piece, B F B (Fig. 2), is 

 covered with several thicknesses of cloth, so that the snapping noise on the foil 

 is rendered less audible. 



" I send you a sheet of copper-foil upon which I made records in Ansonia, 

 Connecticut, that could be read 275 feet in the open air, and perhaps farther, if 

 it had been tried." 



Mr. Edison also states that impressions of sonorous vibrations 

 have been made on a cylinder of soft Norway iron, and from these 

 impressions have been reproduced the sonorous vibrations which made 

 them. 



THE MARPINGEN MIRACLES. 



THE recent debate in the Lower House of the Prussian Parliament 

 on the Marpingen miracles is in many ways remarkable. That 

 the Ultramontane party should have had the courage themselves to 

 force on the discussion is rather surprising, though it is true that all 

 the speakers on that side were careful to deprecate the notion of at- 

 taching any religious importance to the question, and to treat it purely 

 as one of law and equity, while they studiously avoided committing 

 themselves to any belief in the alleged supernatural occurrences. Be- 

 fore, however, speaking of the debate, we may recall to the memory 

 of our readers the circumstances which gave rise to it, and which 

 occurred a year and a half ago in the month of July, 1876. And in 

 doing so it may be well to repeat what we have before now had occa- 

 sion to observe in dealing with narratives of this kind, that there is 

 no need to enter on any general discussion of the existence or credi- 

 bility of miraculous agency. There is certainly, to use Mr. Lecky's 

 words, " no contradiction involved in the belief that spiritual beings 

 of power and wisdom immeasurably transcending our own exist, or 

 that, existing, they might, by the normal exercise of their powers, per- 

 form feats as far surpassing the understanding of the most gifted of 

 mankind as the electric telegraph and the prediction of an eclipse 

 surpass the faculties of a savage." Thus much would indeed be con- 

 tended for by every Christian apologist, nor is it consistent to main- 

 tain the truth of the New Testament mirac'cs and deny on a priori 



