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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tube, the width of the month-piece and its length, the size and 

 thickness of the tongue, the diameter of the instrument, the size 

 of the orifice, the nature of the material of which it is composed, 

 etc., variations in any of which produce — sometimes very impor- 

 tant — modulations in its tone. Experiments have shown that do 

 and mi in j^articular have a round, full, well-supported sound, 

 which in the Baduel regulation whistle can be heard for a distance 

 of more than six hundred metres. 



Competent observers have asserted that the manner of whis- 

 tling is not always the same, and that there are some unhappy 

 persons who can not whistle at all. According to these authori- 

 ties, among whom is M. Baduel, to whistle well it is necessary to 

 pronounce tu . . . tu slowly ; then tu . . . tii . . . tu more and more 

 rapidly and quite distinctly, especially taking care not to whistle 

 from the throat. To make the double tongue-stroke, we must 

 say tu . . . du . . . g, du, to give the trill ; but we should always 

 begin slowly, and proceed gradually to greater rapidity. 



Correspondents of " La Nature " have sent in to it illustra- 

 tions and descriptions of other whistles than those which M. 

 Gutode describes. One of them is a terra-cotta bird-shaped 

 whistle, somewhat like the Peruvian whistles, which has been 

 recovered from the prehistoric relics near Florence (Fig. 5). The 



Fia. 5.— Earthen Whistle from near Florence. 



sound is produced by blowing into the bird's beak. Another, 

 an extremely simple form, is used by the foremen in the spin- 

 neries of northern Europe, to direct the changing of the bobbins 

 on the looms. It is made of tin (Fig. 6), and gives out a sound 



