7 i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



what their idioms are able to express. Nev- 

 ertheless, the author's conclusions, which 

 apply only to seven Indian idioms, are in- 

 teresting; they are as follows: 1, The In- 

 dians distinguish as many as, if not more 

 shades of color, than we do. 2. No generic 

 term meaning color exists, and it seems that 

 such a term is too abstract for their con- 

 ception. 3. Many of their color-terms, even 

 the most opposite ones, are derived from 

 one and the same radical syllable. For 

 example, in the Kalapuya idiom blue is pei- 

 ankaf pawe-u, and yellow pe-i antk pawe-u. 

 4. In the Indian lists we observe some 

 names of mixed colors which impress the 

 eye by being not homogeneous. Such is 

 the Klamath term ma'kmakli, which is the 

 blue mixed with gray, as seen in wild geese 

 and ducks ; and gray in most of the dia- 

 lects means black mixed in with white, or 

 white with black, as in the fur of the rac- 

 coon, gray fox, etc. 5. In naming some 

 colors Indians follow another principle than 

 we do, in qualifying certain natural objects 

 by their color, and then calling iuem by the 

 same name, even when their color has 

 been altered. This we distinctly observe in 

 kaka'kli, yellow and green in Klamath, the 

 adjective having been given originally to 

 the color of grass, trees, and other plants. 

 Most frequently blue and green are rendered 

 by one and the same term. 6. As stated 

 above, Indians often follow principles differ- 

 ing from ours in naming colors. The Kla- 

 math language "has two terms for green, 

 one when applied to the color of plants (ka- 

 ka'kli), another when applied to garments 

 and dress (tolaliiptehi). So, too, blue, when 

 said of beads, is expressed by a different 

 word from the blue of flowers or of gar- 

 ments. 7. Reduplication of the word-root 

 is very often met with in color-names, but 

 the cause of this is not always the same. 

 In Klamath and the Sahaptin dialects it is 

 distribution and repetition (as of white hairs 

 on a darker ground in the fur of the rac- 

 coon) ; in Dakota it is the idea of intensity 

 that has produced this synthetic feature. 



Draper's Researches on Oxygen in the 

 Snn. Professor Henry Draper, on the 13 th 

 of June, laid before the Royal Astronomi- 

 cal Society of London the evidence by which 

 he claims to have demonstrated the exist- 



ence of oxygen in the sun. A writer in 

 the London " Times " (presumably Mr. J. 

 Norman Lockyer) acknowledges the force 

 of the evidence adduced by Professor Dra- 

 per. He says : " We think that most spec- 

 troscopists will admit that Professor Draper 

 does not pass beyond the limits of scien- 

 tific caution in claiming that the coincidence 

 shown in his photographs between the 

 bright lines of oxygen and bright parts of 

 the solar spectrum establishes the proba- 

 bility of the existence of oxygen in the 

 sun. The burden of proof, or rather of dis- 

 proof, should now fall on those who con- 

 sider that the coincidence may, after all, be 

 merely accidental. To us it seems that if 

 such evidence as Professor Draper has ob- 

 tained is rejected, hardly any spectroscopic 

 evidence can suffice to prove the existence 

 of an element in the sun. We certainly 

 have not stronger evidence in the case of so- 

 dium or magnesium, elements which every 

 physicist regards as present in the sun, 

 than Professor Draper has obtained in the 

 case of oxygen." 



Telegraph Operators and Consumption. 



Pulmonary consumption appears to be an 

 exceptionally frequent cause of death among 

 telegraphers, and one reason assigned for 

 the fact is the peculiarly strained posture 

 which an operator receiving messages con- 

 tinuously is obliged to assume in order not 

 to lose the characters as they are ticked 

 out to him from the sounder. " The opera- 

 tor in receiving bends his head and shoul- 

 der on his left side while listening to the 

 sounder, this position confining his left lung 

 and his heart in an unnatural position ; and, 

 being assumed day after day, month after 

 month, eventually brings on the dread dis- 

 ease consumption." But a writer in the 

 " Journal of the Telegraph " suggests a dif- 

 ferent cause for the prevalence of consump- 

 tion among telegraphers, viz., the original 

 physical insufficiency of a large proportion 

 of the young men who enter on this career. 

 He says : 



" In choosing an occupation for a young 

 man, after he has received an education, if 

 his health is not good, or if he should be 

 of slight build, the question of his accept- 

 ing a position requiring bodily labor is ig- 

 nored entirely, and some field of usefulness 



