POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



567 



Henry, M. Charles. Harmonies de Formes et 

 de Coulenrs. Paris : A. Hermann. Pp. 65. 



Hensoldt, Dr. H., New York. The Limits of 

 Scientific Inquiry. Pp. S. 



Hervey, E. W. Flora of New Bedford and the 

 Shores of Buzzard's Bay, New Bedford. Pp. bO. 



Howard. John R. Henry Ward Beecher: A 

 Study. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Pp. 161. 75 

 cents. 



Index, American Periodical. New Haven. May, 

 1891. Pp. 80. 10 cents ; $1 a year. 



Japan, Imperial University, Tokio. Journal of 

 the College of Science. 



Keen, W. W., M. D., Philadelphia. Five Cases 

 of Suprapubic Cystotomy. Pp. 28. 



Kenyon, Ellen E. The Coming School. Cassell. 

 Pp. 146. 



Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto- 

 Cal. Circular of Information. Pp. 15. 



MacphaiL, J. A., M. D., Montreal. On Vivisec- 

 tiou. Pp. 27. 



Mally, F. W. The Boll "Worm of Cotton. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Pp. 50. 



Mendelsohn, S LL.D. The Criminal Jurispru- 

 dence of the Ancient Hebrews. Baltimore : M. 

 Ourlander. Pp. 2T0. $2.50. 



Niagara State Reservation, New York. Report 

 of the Commissioners for 1890. Pp. 108, with 

 Map. 



North, N. Dexter, Editor. Bulletin 01 the Na- 

 tional Association of Wool Manufacturers. Quarter- 

 ly. Pp.110. 50 cents ; $2 a year. 



Parker, T. Jeffery. Lessons in Elementary Bi- 

 ology Macniillan. Pp 40S. $2.25. 



Postmaster - General. Argument in Favor of 

 Postal Savings Banks. Washington. Pp 72. 



Prosser, Charles S. Geological Position of the 

 Catskill Group. Pp 16 



Purdue University, Lafavette, Ind. Annual Reg- 

 ister for 1890-'91, and Scheme of Study for 1S91-92. 

 Pp. 88. 



Reeve, Charles H. The Prison Question. Chi- 

 cago : Knight & Leonard. Pp 194. $1.25. 



Roberts, John B., M. D., Philadelphia. Relation 

 of Bacteria to Practical Surgery. Pp. 16. 



Rose Polvtechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Ind. 

 Catalogue, etc., 1891. Pp 49. 



Ryder, John A. The Sturgeons and Sturgeon 

 Industries of the Eastern Coast of the United States. 

 United States Fish Commission. Pp. 54, with 

 Plates. 



Scientific Alliance of New York. Directory. 

 Pp. 22. 25 cents. 



Shufeldt, R. W., M. D. North American Kites. 

 Pp. 6. Classification of the Pigeons Pp. 2. Birds 

 from the Equus Beds of Oregon. Pp. 4. An In- 

 stance of the Black-snake attracting Man. P. 1. 

 Mortuary Customs of the Navajo Indians. Pp. 4, 

 with Plate. 



Smock, John C. Report of the State Geologist 

 of New Jersey for 1890. New Brunswick, N. J. : 

 Irving S. Upson. Pp. 305, with Maps. 



Thomas, Charles Hermon, M. D., Philadelphia. 

 The Construction and Adaptation of Spectacle- 

 frames. Pp. 10. 



Thompson, Ernest E. The Birds of Manitoba. 

 Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 1S6. 



Thomson, Sir William. Popular Lectures and 

 Addresses. Vol. III. Macmillan. Pp. 611. $2. 



Thornton, William, Boston. Origin, Purpose, 

 and Destiny of Man. Pp. 100. 



Thorpe, T. E. A Dictionary of Applied Chemis- 

 try. Vol. II. Longmans. Pp. 714. $15. 



Townsend. Clinton. Report of Results in Palo 

 Alto Sugar-House, 1890-'91. Pp. 6. 



Trelease, William. Second Annual Report of the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis. Pp. 117, 

 with Plates. 



Van Rensselaer, Mrs. J. King. Playing-cards 

 from Japan. Pp. 2, with Plates. 



Vernon-Harcourt, L. F. Achievements in En- 

 gineering. Scribners. Pp. 811. $1.75. 



Ward, Lester F., Washington. The Transmission 

 of Culture. Pp. 6. Neo-Darwinism and Neo-La- 

 marckism. Pp. 71. 



Whiting, Harold. Experiments in Physical 

 Measurement. Part III. Principles and Methods. 

 Cambridge, Mass. John Wilson & Son. Pp. 824. 



Whitman, C. O., and Allis, E. S., Jr., Editors. 

 Journal of Morphology. January, 1891. Ginn & 

 Co. Pp. 70. $3.50. 



Wilcox, Walter F. The Divorce Problem. Co- 

 lumbia College, New York. Pp. 74. 



Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Report. Pp. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Spontaneous Languages. We noticed, 

 several months ago, a deeply interesting 

 study of the spontaneous development of 

 language in children, by the Hon. Horatio 

 Hale. The same phenomenon tantamount 

 to the creation of an original tongue has 

 been observed by other persons ; among 

 them, Miss Watson, of Boston ; Dr. E. R. 

 Hun, of Albany ; Archdeacon Farrar (in the 

 case of Indian children left by themselves 

 for weeks together in Canadian villages) ; 

 and by M. Taine, in his work De P Intelli- 

 gence. Mr. W. J. Stillman has recently 

 communicated to Nature observations made 

 by him upon his son several years ago, when 

 he was under the care of an Italian nurse. 

 As the child's utterances took shape it was 

 found that he repeated certain sounds with 

 a definite meaning, and soon coined a small 

 vocabulary for himself, comprising words 

 for bread, water, milk, etc. The first word 

 distinguished was chumbhoo, for water. 

 Then in a few weeks he began to couple the 

 Italian words with his, and said chumboo- 

 aqua. Little by little he dsopped his own 

 words and began speaking only Italian. 

 Recently, when on a visit to Crete, Mr. Still- 

 man met a boy who had formed for himself 

 a similar language, with the same word for 

 water as his own son had invented. Mrs. 

 Agnes Crane cites in a later number of Na- 

 ture the case of a nephew of Dr. George 

 Gablentz, a well-known Sinologist, who, be- 

 fore he learned his mother-tongue, called 

 things by names of his own invention. The 

 constant elements were the consonants, 

 while the vowels were varied and employed 

 as they were deeper or higher to denote 

 greatness or smallness. The root for round 



