436 



NATURE 



[Sept. 5, 1889 



are laying down a law which applies to our own criticism 

 of Prof. Walras. We shall therefore forbear to reduce 

 our initial encomium by invidious reservations. When all 

 that could be made are summed and subtracted, there 

 would still remain to Prof. Walras the undoubted glory 

 of an original discovery. He may say of that, as 

 Napoleon of his victories, '' Jl y a Id du solide que^ la 

 dent de Venvie ne pent ronger." F. Y. E. 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR 

 HOMES. 

 Musical Instrwnerits and their Homes. By Mary E. 

 Brown and W. Adams Brown. (New York : Dodd, 

 Mead, and Co., 1888.) 



THIS work should prove very useful to all who are 

 interested in music and musical instruments. 

 Primarily it professes to be a catalogue of the collection 

 of musical instruments made by Mrs. J. Crosby Brown, 

 of New York ; but its value has been greatly augmented 

 by a series of essays on the music and musical instru- 

 ments of Oriental and savage races. The " catalogue " 

 portion is well illustrated with clever pen-and-ink 

 sketches, which give, for the most part, an excellent 

 idea of the instruments, though they do not exhibit a 

 great amount of detail. A brief description with dimen- 

 sions, and, where possible, the native name, accompanies 

 each sketch. The catalogue is divided into geographical 

 sections, and at the end of each is added an essay treat- 

 ing of the music of the country from an historical and 

 theoretical point of view, with a general account of the 

 native instruments. Though these essays contain little 

 that is new or original, they nevertheless form extremely 

 useful compilations from a large amount of scattered 

 literature ; the references are full, and the list of authori- 

 ties is a very representative one. 



The sections devoted to China and India are of special 

 interest, as dealing with regions which were the birth- 

 places of so many of the instruments in use amongst our- 

 selves, changed though these be from their original forms. 

 There seems little doubt, for example, that we owe the 

 harmonium to China, and that instruments played upon 

 with a bow had their original home in India, whither, too, 

 we must refer the original use of " sympathetic strings." ^ 

 Musical instruments, like all other products of man's 

 handiwork, are subject to the laws of evolution, and each 

 arrived at its present state by gradual stages of improve- 

 ment. If the genealogies could be all followed back to 

 the earliest stages, all instruments could be referred to 

 such simple original forms as, for example, hollow or solid 

 logs, reeds, or hunters' bows. With the rapid disappear- 

 ance of the more primitive native instruments, the dif- 

 ficulty of tracing the history of music backwards by 

 means of primitive " survivals " increases year by year. 

 Every effort should be made to collect and place on re- 

 cord these simple forms, as from these we greatly derive 

 our ideas of the " dawn " of music. The magnificent 

 work by Hipkins and Gibb furnishes us with beautiful 

 illustrations of beautiful instruments, but does not deal 

 with the humbler kinds. The illustrations in the present 

 work, therefore, are especially valuable, as the primitive 

 instruments receive equal attention with the more ela- 



borate. A very common error has crept into the pages 

 of this otherwise excellent work— in the terminology. 

 Nothing is more distinct than instruments of the " oboe " 

 type and those of the " clarionet " type are from each 

 other. These, though somewhat similar in general aspect, 

 belong to different classes— the " double-reed " and the 

 " single-reed " classes respectively ; and any relationship 

 must date back to the time when they each probably 

 took their origin from a section of corn-stalk, the one 

 form being sounded through the pinched end of the stalk, 

 and the other through a slit cut in the end, and forming 

 a vibrating or beating tongue. We find, however, in 

 several passages a confusion of these terms. Thus, the 

 Corean, Greek, and Spanish " clarionets," so called, are 

 evidently " oboes," with double reeds for mouth-pieces. 

 Similarly, the " pandeiro " of Madeira, not having a 

 tense membrane, cannot be a "tambourine," however 

 much it looks like one. The " mogugyo," or " wooden 

 fish," of Corea and China, is called a "drum" in one 

 passage (p. 80). But a " drum," too, must have a tense 

 membrane, and an instrument ceases to be one if lacking 

 this addition. The " mogugyo " is really far more closely 

 allied to the " bell " series, though there is no general 

 term which expresses this class of wooden instrument. 

 Such mistakes are, doubtless, mere slips, but they are apt 

 to be misleading. 



In the description of savage music it is stated (p. 240) 

 that the Mincopies have no musical instruments. This 

 is not quite true, as they have one, though a simple one, 

 and consisting merely of a hard-wood board, of special 

 shape, which is used for sounding a rhythmical time for 

 dancing. It is used only as a musical instrument, and so 

 illustrates a step in advance of the Australian, who taps 

 with a stick upon his "casting-board" for the same 

 purpose, without employing a separate instrument. 



It is to be hoped that other collectors will follow the 

 excellent example of the authors of this work, and pub- 

 lish illustrated catalogues of their collections. We can 

 hardly expect many such beautifully produced ' cata- 

 logues," but the scientific spirit and easy style of this 

 bo°ok might well be a model for others. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Heat. By H. G. Madan, M.A., F.C.S. (London: 



Rivingtons, 1889.) 

 THIS is an elementary treatise of e^^^eptional merit com- 

 binino- thoroughly practical work with sound theoretica 

 conclusions, ^he^ourse of i^^^^ruction which it com- 

 prises has been found suitable by the author, in his capa 

 Sy as instructor at Eton College, for boys who already 

 have some acquaintance with physiography and element- 

 ary dynamics^ Mathematical expressions are accordmg 

 used as little as possible, and, when used at all, they an 

 fully explained in ordinary language. j 



A very large number of experiments-many of then 

 new-are described, and we have the author's assuranc 

 "hat they are all capable of successful Performance .u 

 moderate skill and care. It is rightly observed that ex 

 periments which do not always succeed, ev^n wthtb 

 greatest care, are altogether unsuitable for young student- 

 as they invariably tend to make them lose confidence i| 



'^PartkuTar attention is given throughout to the applia 

 tion of the general laws of heat to the arts and man. 



I 



