POPULAR Ml 'S CELL ANY. 



713 



Miss Watson did not become acquainted 

 with these facta till it was too late to pre- 

 serve a record of the language itself ; but 

 in the other case, a part of the language 

 was preserved by a careful and scientific 

 observer. This case occurred in Albany, 

 New York, and was described, by Dr. E. R. 

 Hun, in the " Monthly Journal of Psycho- 

 logical Medicine " in 186S. A little girl four 

 and a half years old, the sprightly and in- 

 telligent child of cultivated parents, had 

 been observed, when two years old, to be 

 backward in speaking, " and ouly used the 

 words ' papa ' and ' mamma.' After that 

 she began to use words of her own inven- 

 tion, and though she understood readily what 

 was said, never employed the words used 

 by others. Gradually she enlarged her vo- 

 cabulary. . . . She has a brother eight- 

 een months younger than herself, who has 

 learned her language, so that they talk free- 

 ly together. He, however, seems to have 

 adopted it only because he has more inter- 

 course with her than with others ; and in 

 some instances he wdl use a proper word 

 with his mother, and his sister's word with 

 her. She, however, persists in using only 

 her own words, though her parents, who are 

 uneasy about her peculiarity of speech, make 

 great efforts to induce her to use proper 

 words." Dr. Hun followed up this general 

 description of the language with analyses 

 of some of its words and other features. 

 These two recorded instances of child-lan- 

 guages led Mr. Hale to further inquiries, 

 which, though brief and limited, showed him 

 that cases of the sort are by no means uncom- 

 mon, and he cites a few other instances. In 

 the light of the facts thus set forth, it be- 

 comes evident, says Mr. Hale, " that, to in- 

 sure the creation of a speech which shall be 

 the parent of a new linguistic stock, all that 

 is needed is that two or more children should 

 be placed by themselves in a condition 

 where they will be entirely, or in a large 

 degree, free from the presence and influence 

 of their elders. They must, of course, con- 

 tinue in this condition long enough to grow 

 up, to form a household, and to have de- 

 scendants to whom they can communicate 

 their new speech. We have only to inquire 

 under what circumstances an occurrence 

 of this nature can be expected to take 

 place." 



A Correction. — We find the following in 

 "Science" of January 21st: 



Popular science. — It is often very popu- 

 lar indeed. Here is an article on the voices 

 of animals by Detlcr von Geycrn (whoever 

 he is), from Ueber Land und Mecr, trans- 

 lated for the Popidar Science Monthly, Janu- 

 ary, 18S7, written in the good old traditional 

 vein, quoting what anybody has said on the 

 subject in a wonder-mongering way, as if 

 every thing said and written must be true. 

 And Herr von Geyern himself says, " Fish 

 can produce no sound in water, because air 

 is lacking as a medium to propagate the 

 waves of sound; and yet we incline to the 

 belief that water itself may admit of form- 

 ing some kind of sound-waves which the fish 

 may be capable of exciting, and which will 

 be experienced and comprehended by other 

 fish ; " and he adds, " As far as we are con- 

 cerned, of course, fish will remain mute," 

 etc. — as if between fifty and a hundred spe- 

 cies of fish are not known to make sounds, 

 many of which have been described and ex- 

 plained by naturalists ; and as if water and 

 every other elastic medium were not well 

 known as propagators of sound, often better 

 than air, — a fact familiar to boys, who hold 

 their heads under water, while bathing, to 

 hear the loud sound made by the striking- 

 together of two stones under water in the 

 hands of a companion at a little distance. 

 H. W. P. 



Grinnell, Io., Jan. 14. 



We very much regret that an error so 

 obvious as the above should have escaped 

 attention in the revision of the article in 

 question ; but we do not pretend to be in- 

 fallible. The paper was accepted on its 

 general merits as a bit of pleasant reading ; 

 and coming to us from an outside source, it 

 could not receive that critical attention to 

 every detail which our own translator is 

 compelled, by the nature of the case, to give 

 to each item of his work. 



Self-Purification of Water.— F. Emich 

 has carried out a series of experiments on 

 the behavior of water when allowed to stand 

 exposed to the air, and also when shaken 

 up with air. He has further experimented 

 with sterilized water, and on the behavior of 

 waters submitted to the action of ozone and 

 hydrogen peroxide. The self-purification of 

 water, or the destruction of its organic and in- 

 organic impurities, may be the consequence, 

 either of a purely chemical process (oxida- 

 tion), or of a biological process. It appears 

 that, on exposure to or agitation with air, the 



