54 



AUDIPHONE, THE. 



AUSTEALASIA AND POLYNESIA. 



ever felt in watching the progress of our be- 

 loved science in the hands of our cousins in 

 the Far West." 



AUDIPHONE, THE. It has long been 

 known that waves of sound when made to re- 

 sound on the teeth of deaf persons are appre- 

 ciable by the auditory nerve, and that, when 

 conveyed by a hard vibratory substance held 

 in close contact to the teeth, the resonance in 

 the mouth affects the nerve independently of 

 the anatomical mechanism by which the waves 

 collected in the aural canal are transmitted. 

 The sonorous vibrations of the teeth and bones 

 of the face are conveyed to the perceptive 

 organism through the Eustachian tube. The 

 sounds thus produced are usually, however, so 

 wanting in clearness and purity that no one 

 until recently has thought it possible to con- 

 vey by such means any agreeable sounds, much 

 less intelligible speech. At length an Ameri- 

 can inventor, himself wanting the power of 

 hearing, has perfected an apparatus on this 

 principle, by which the mouth is made to per- 

 form the office of the ear, and with which the 

 deaf are made sufficiently sensible to, and able 

 to distinguish and appreciate, all kinds of 

 sounds. The sufferers from this affliction, 

 which deprives them in so great a degree of 

 lively and sympathetic social intercourse, have 

 not found that the ear-trumpet, when they 

 are able to use that clumsy instrument, re- 

 lieves them much from their social isolation. 

 These trumpets, while they can not convey to 

 the defective ear the language of general con- 

 versation or the utterances of public speakers, 

 or enable the wearer to enjoy the impressions 

 of music, have also a tendency to aggravate 

 the infirmity by throwing upon the impaired 

 organ a greater volume of sound than it is 

 able to bear. The inventor of the new instru- 

 ment called the audiphone, Richard S. Rhodes, 

 of Chicago, is himself deaf, and had his atten- 

 tion first attracted to the subject by the ticking 

 of, a watch. By holding the watch between 

 his teeth he perceived that he was able to hear 

 distinctly the clicking of the machinery, while 

 if he held it against his ear no sound was au- 

 dible. Mr. Rhodes consumed many years in 

 experimenting upon all kinds of materials. He 

 found wood, after trying a hundred different 

 kinds in all possible shapes, too resonant for 

 his purpose. The metals, zinc, silver, steel, 

 brass, etc., gave too hollow a sound. After 

 innumerable failures, he at last tested vulcan- 

 ized rubber, which yielded most promising 

 results. With another long series of experi- 

 ments he elaborated the form which bears the 

 sounds to the regained sense most perfectly 

 and distinctly. The instrument, which the in- 

 ventor proceeded to manufacture after obtain- 

 ing a patent, has been used with surprising 

 results, and promises to bestow the sense of 

 hearing and the power of speech on many 

 who otherwise could only communicate with 

 their fellow beings by signs and gestures. The 

 audiphone is similar in shape to a large fan. 



It consists of a sheet of vulcanized rubber 

 firmly attached to a handle of the same mate- 

 rial. The sheet is about ? V of an inch in thick- 

 ness. The first size used was 9 by 9 inches ; 

 but different sizes are now made. When in 

 use, this sheet is bent at the outer end by 

 drawing a cord which passes through holes in 

 the upper rim and down the inner side of the 

 sheet into a slot in the handle. The lower or 

 straight end of the sheet is held against the 

 teeth of the upper jaw. The curve required 

 is a very slight one, usually making an angle 

 of 10 or 12 between the cord and the level 

 surface. The more deaf the person, the tenser 

 must the rubber be drawn. The vibrations 

 imparted by any sound to the tense plate of 

 rubber are comnninicated to the upper teeth 

 and to the bones of the head, when the rubber 

 is held in contact with the teeth, even if they 

 are artificial teeth well fitted to the jaw ; and 

 the impression of the sound is faithfully re- 

 corded by the nerve of the ear. The instru- 

 ment enables a deaf person to hear and enjoy 

 music in a concert-room, as well as to listen 

 to conversation carried on near him in ordinary 

 tones. 



AUSTRALASIA AND POLYNESIA. The 

 population of the Australasian colonies of Eng- 

 land increases with greater rapidity than that 

 of any other country in the world. While the 

 population of the United States increased dur- 

 ing the forty years from 1830 to 1870 from 

 12,870,000 to 38,560,000, or about 200 per 

 cent., that of Australia and New Zealand has 

 during the same time risen from 300,000 to 

 2,000,000, or nearly 566 per cent. How rap- 

 idly the population has increased from 1871 to 

 1878 is shown by the following table : 



The total increase in seven years was about 

 692,000, or 35 per cent. The other English 

 possessions in Australasia and Polynesia are : 



Feejee Islands white population 1,569 



" natives 118,000 



Chatham Islands 172 



Lord Howe's Island 40 



Fanning Island 150 



Maiden Island 79 



Total 120,010 



Adding this total to the population of Aus- 

 tralia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, the total 

 population of the British possessions would 

 amount to 2,771,010. The total area, includ- 

 ing some small islands which are not inhab- 

 ited, amounts to 3,084,671 square miles. 



According to the last official censuses of the 



