8 
displaced the older system of finger alphabet, and it is simply 
wonderful how rapidly a long communication can be made. 
A few years ago I gave a lantern exhibition—I cannot call 
it a lecture—to a Deaf and Dumb Institution, and proceeded to 
throw a few slides on the sheet. The intense silence that reigned 
was at first a little disconcerting. One expects at least some 
slight show of appreciation from time to time under such circum- 
stances. But one thing I did notice, and that was a number of 
fingers made signs and then the Principal—who possessed the 
power of speech—requested me to say a few words on each 
picture. I did so, and then he communicated my remarks to the 
speechless audience with wonderful rapidity. At the conclusion, 
I was thanked in the name of the silent audience for the 
strangest experience it has fallen to my lot. 
We will next consider sound as a means of thought. Dean 
Farrar in his chapters on language shows the analogies of light 
and sound :— 
Sound corresponds to Sheen. 
Clear Sound _s,, Brightness. 
Echo " Reflexion. 
Noise a Glimmer, 
Tone a Colour. 
I have just mentioned that blind people connect colour with 
sound and I would like to add a fact, told me by a friend. While 
he was a student at college he was talking to a fellow student, 
who was blind, and asked him what he thought of red colour. 
He replied that he thought it was like the sound of a cornet! 
My friend remarked that he was not far from the truth as red 
was rather a loud colour ! 
In his Manual of Psychology, Dr. Stout says:—In all 
language there are traceable certain comparatively elementary 
phonetic components, called roots, expressing primary universals, 
or products of conceptual analysis, and these roots variously 
modified and entering into various combinations express con- 
ceptual synthesis or discursive thinking. They blend and com- 
bine in continuous speech, just as the corresponding concepts 
blend and combine in continuous thought. This is possible because 
of the ultimate unity of composition of the phonetic material, which 
is resolvable into elementary alphabetic sounds which do not 
occur in isolation but as parts of an articulate complex. 
Attempts have been made to explain the origin of language 
without emphasizing the importance of the visible gesture as a 
starting point. There are three main theories of this kind, which 
have been nicknamed by Max Miller the Pooh-Pooh Theory, the 
Bow-Bow Theory, and the Ding-Dong Theory. Their more pre- 
tentious titles are the Interjectional, the Onmatopeic, and the 
Pathognomic Theory. The principle involved in all these theories 
