652 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



place, he presses the lever down, bringing the paper in contact 

 with the plate, forces the India-rubber-tipped tampon upon the 

 character with such force as to obtain a relief impression of it on 

 the paper. This done, he repeats the operation for his next char- 

 acter, and so on till his writing is done. This machine has the 

 further advantage that the writer can revise his work by going 

 over it with his fingers, and, if he finds that he has anywhere 

 stamped the wrong character, he can bring the proper character 

 under the tampon, insert the paper again at the spot where the 

 wrong character appears, and, by a single application of the tam- 

 pon, obtain an impression of the right character, and, with the 

 same movement, obliterate the wrong one. — Translated for the 

 Popular Science Monthly from La Nature. 



Fig. 8. 



[We add an engraving (Fig. 8) of the writing-machine devised 

 by Prof. E. L. Youmans, the late editor of the " Monthly," during 

 his blindness, which he used with much satisfaction till he recov- 

 ered his eyesight. The sheet of paper is held in a slit in the roller, 

 upon which it is rolled as it is written upon, a line at a time, leav- 

 ing a blank for the next line, the proper spacing of which is de- 

 termined by a ratchet. The pencil is kept in a straight course by 

 means of the bar which is shown beneath the writing. The slide 

 seen near the middle of the bar is used to mark the place where 

 the writer leaves off — as at the end of a sentence. — Editor.] 



Prof. Judd claims for paleontology the right to be recognized as a distinct 

 branch of science, because it deals with a class of objects and with objects in con- 

 ditions with which biological metliods alone can not cope. Its objects, besides being 

 largely fragmentary, are in a mineralized condition, for which a peculiar knowl- 

 edge and skill in petrology are required; it has, in the case of each deposit, to 

 study tbe conditions under which the materials were laid down ; and it has to de- 

 termine the succession of processes to wliich the materials have been subjected 

 through the nges since their original accumulation. Processes and knowledge are 

 required in the solution of these problems which are afforded by no other single 

 branch of science. 



