MELODEON, THE SILENT. 



prostrated. Many merchants failed, and the 

 rents of farms, owing to the insolvency of 

 most of the so-called Erbzins paechter, were 

 very generally reduced. Emigration, especially 

 from the rural districts of Mecklenburg, con- 

 tinued on a very large scale. The Minister of 

 the Interior of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in a 

 report, addressed to the Federal Council of the 

 North-German Confederation, states that up- 

 ward of nine thousand persons emigrated from 

 that grand-duchy in the first six months of 

 1868. Owing to this heavy drain upon the 

 population, the supply of farm hands has be- 

 come so scarce in some of the rural districts 

 of Mecklenburg that not a few of the large 

 estates in the southeastern part of the state 

 were only partially cultivated in 1868; and in 

 September and October, 1868, nearly three 

 thousand farm-laborers and working-women 

 were imported from Sweden to fill up the gaps 

 caused by the emigration of the native popu- 

 lation. Petitions, addressed to the North-Ger- 

 man Reichstag, praying for the restoration of 

 the liberal Mecklenburg Constitution of 1849, 

 were signed in March and April by nine-tenths 

 of the voters of the cities and towns, and a great 

 number of persons in the rural districts ; and 

 applications to the same effect were made to 

 the grand-dukes and the Mecklenburg Diet ; but 

 all efforts in this direction have hitherto re- 

 mained fruitless, owing to the obstinacy of the 

 landed aristocracy still controlling the desti- 

 nies of Mecklenburg. 



MELODEON, THE SILENT. In 1868, M. Da- 

 guin, a French physician, in the course of some 

 acoustic experiments, invented an instrument 

 called the analyzing cornet, by the use of 

 which, out of a conftised body of sound, com- 

 posed of many different notes, he could sepa- 

 rate, and make audible by itself alone, any 

 particular note, at pleasure. This instrument 

 consists of several tubes, opening and shutting 

 together, like the tubes of a telescope. By 

 varying in this manner the length of the in- 

 strument, it is obvious the length and volume of 

 the column of enclosed air will also be changed 

 to an equal extent. In this way by length- 

 ening and shortening the cornet, certain notes 

 are marked or emphasized with a force of tone, 

 which makes them heard separate and apart 

 from any other notes which may be sounded 

 with them. In the course of his acoustic 

 studies, M. Daguin was led to the invention of 

 a curious instrument, by the use of which he 

 has developed most astonishing results. 



In this last instrument, the volume of the 

 column of air is not changed as in the first, 

 but remains constantly the same; and the 

 sound is modulated through holes in the side 

 of the tube, which are played on with the 

 fingers that is, opened and shut, after the 

 fashion of a flute or other wind instrument. 

 The cornet is a tube of convenient length, bell- 

 mouthed at one end, and closed at the other 

 with a perforated button, which in use is to be 

 pressed against the concave of the ear. By 



MERVINE, WILLIAM. 



463 



varying the order of opening the holes, the 

 desired note is selected and separated from 

 the confused mingling of sounds, and can be 

 distinctly heard in the column of air, by itself 

 alone. The condition of the reverberation of 

 sound in the column of air, and the musical 

 force or emphasis by which certain notes are 

 heard separate from other sounds, are changed 

 in the manner described. 



With this instrument, all the notes of the 

 gamut can be made audible; with no other 

 base than the confused body of mingling 

 sounds from which these notes are separated. 

 In this way a tune can be played, which shall 

 be heard by no one but the person using the 

 instrument ; and, strange to say, he will hear a 

 melody, audible only to him, and played with 

 an instrument which makes no sound. In fact, 

 he does nothing more than pick out the notes 

 from among the other sounds with which it 

 is mingled. On this account M. Daguin has 

 named his instrument the Silent Melodeon, 

 because it plays a tune without a sound. 



One of these, a three-holed instrument, on 

 which a perfect major chord can be sounded, 

 has been presented by M. Daguin to the Acade- 

 my. The inventor has suggested that this 

 instrument may, in a certain way (by illustra- 

 tion perhaps) be of use in solving the^ problem 

 of double vision. He has experimented with 

 it, for the purpose of ascertaining the result 

 of impressions made by two different musical 

 sounds, nearly symphonious in pitch, and 

 heard separately by the two ears. For this 

 purpose he makes use of two of the silent me- 

 lodeons, one at each ear, and each melodeon 

 fingered or played on in the way proper to 

 bring out the tones, the effect of which, in 

 combination, he is studying. Then, the sepa- 

 rate notes, diverse in sound, bnt equal in vibra- 

 tions, seem one, like the notes of a melody 

 heard by both ears at once. There is in this 

 something singularly analogous to the double 

 vision of the stereoscope, where two separate 

 pictures blend into one. 



MERVINE, Rear-Admiral WILLIAM, TJ. S. 

 N., a naval officer of high character and long 

 and meritorious service, born in Pennsylvania 

 in 1T90 ; died at TJtica, N. Y., September 15, 

 1868. He entered the naval service from 

 Pennsylvania as midshipman January 16, 1809, 

 and hence lacked but four months of sixty 

 years of service. He had spent twenty-five 

 years in active duty afloat, visiting in succes- 

 sion every sea on which our flag floats. Four 

 years of duty on shore had occupied him, and 

 the remainder had been spent either in fur- 

 loughs or waiting orders. At the commence- 

 ment of the late war, though seventy years of 

 age, he reported promptly for duty, and did good 

 service during the first year of the war, but 

 his health was inadequate to the great labors 

 of such a period, and, reluctantly, he submit- 

 ted to be put upon the retired list in Novem- 

 ber, 1861, from which time he had been 

 waiting orders at his home in TJtica. He 



