Bibliographical Notices. 431 



He criticizes the views of former observers, aud argues that the 

 shales in question do not lie on the top of the sandstone, but are 

 intercalated with it ; that fossil plants of the same genera and 

 species are found in both the shale and the sandstone ; and that the 

 former have originated in thick vegetable growths on a land-surface, 

 with or without shallow marshes. The second geological paper is 

 by K,, Etheridge, Jun., on Australian Strophalosm (Palaeozoic), and 

 on a new Aucella {Auc. Liversklgei vel hughendensis) from the Cre- 

 taceous rocks of N.E. Australia, noticing also Inoceramus mara- 

 thonensis and another, and Ancyloceras Flindersi, and another from 

 the same rocks ; two plates illustrate this paper. 



The Presidential Address, by Chr. Rolleston, rich with a cordial 

 and philosophical notice of Darwin, his works and views, is not the 

 least interesting of the several good papers in this volume. 



Internationale Zeitsclirift f'llr aUgemeine Sjyrachwissenscliaft. 

 Edited by E. Techmer, Bd, i. Hft. i. Leipzig, 1S84. 



We have received the first instalment of the new journal of com- 

 parative philology, edited by Herr Techmer, with the assistance of 

 a very distinguished company, among which we see the names of 

 Professors Lepsius, Max Miiller, Oppert, Potl, Sayce, and Wundt. 

 With such a staff a journal ought to find a wide area of circulation. 



The essay which will most interest the readers of the ' Annals ' 

 is that by F. Techmer, which deals with the scientific analysis and 

 synthesis of audible language. The earlier portion deals with syn- 

 thesis from the point of view of the physicist, the latter with the 

 anatomical analysis. The student of works in English will re- 

 member that a study of this kind was made by Prof. Max Miiller in 

 the second series of his well-known lectures on the Science of Lan- 

 guage, wherein one was devoted to the " Physiological Alphabet." 

 Having the two contributions before us as we write, we have to say 

 that the latter essay aflords us an excellent example of the great 

 improvements brought about in the last fifteen years in the illus- 

 trations of anatomical and physical points. 



It is true, indeed, that Merkel's work, from which many of 

 Techmer's figures are taken, was published before Prof. Max M tiller's 

 lectures ; but this point is really for, and not against, our view, 

 inasmuch as had the standard of illustration been as high in 1870 

 as it is in 1884 the popular lecturer would have been as well advised 

 as the scientific essayist, and have gone like him to an admirable 

 source of representation. 



It would not be right to compare the methods of a lecture delivered 

 before a more or less general audience and the close investigation 

 which is suited to the pages of a journal for specialists. 



There is a particularly interesting essay by Mr. G. Mallery on 

 Sign-Language — a subject which has not escaped the American 

 Bureau of Ethnology. It is a mistake to suppose that an Indian 

 cannot rise to the necessities of the situation and invent, when 

 needful, new signs. An instructive proof of this is afforded by Mr. 



