94 



NATURE 



[May 23, 1878 



vowel e very clearly. At half revolution per second, ou, au, 

 were distinctly heard, 



2. The vowel was sung while the cylinder rotated at dif- 

 ferent rates of speed. On reproducing the sounds, the cylinder 

 being revolved more slowly than at first, the vowel au was heard, 

 changing to o, e, /, falling to e again as the velocity was 

 slackened a little. 



3. The vowel a was spoken while the cylinder made one revo- 

 lution per second. On reproducing the sound, the rate being 

 half a revolution per second, au was heard, changing to a when 

 the rate increased to one revolution, and at three revolutions per 

 second /was heard, 



4. The vowel was spoken several times in succession, the 

 rate of the cylinder being gradually accelerated. On repro- 

 ducing the sound by a uniform and slow rotation, au and ou were 

 heard ; on rotating faster, ^ and u 



Several other experiments were tried in the short time during 

 •which the instrument was at our service, all of which were 

 strikingly confirmatory of Helmholtz's theory. Difficulty was 

 experienced in reproducing the highest vowels e, f, probably on 

 account of want of readiness of response in the disc. The bell 

 of a reed-pipe was placed over the mouth-piece of the instru- 

 ment when the sound was to be reproduced, for which a horn of 

 pasteboard was substituted in some of the trials. 



We hope to render these experiments more rigorously quanti- 

 tative, as the phonograph promises to be a valuable aid to 

 research in this field. Very probably others may have worked 

 with the same end in view, and if so it would be interesting to 

 learn what has been their experience. Chas. R. Cross 



Boston, U.S., April 29 



The Telephone 



With reference to the letter of Lieut. Savage which appeared 

 in your last impression (p. 77) respecting the telephone, this gentle- 

 man has noticed that on removing the ferrotype disc of the sending 

 instrument and tapping the magnet with a diamagnetic body, 

 such as a piece of copper, the taps are distinctly heard at the 

 receiving end. I have repeated this experiment. Not only can 

 a diamagnetic substance be used for tapping, but the magnet 

 may be removed altogether and a bar of soft iron sub- 

 stituted without causing any material difference in the 

 results, and this bar of soft iron may be placed at risjht- 

 angles to the line of dip. The vibrations of a tuning-i'ork 

 are transmitted very distinctly. When held in the line of 

 dip the resiilts pbained are more marked. Taps and the tuning- 

 fork vibrations are readily heard, and by covering with the 

 ferrotype disc a conversation was actually carried on through 

 this bar of soft iron. There is perhaps nothing very surprising 

 in obtaining these phenomena with the bar in the " dip " line, but 

 when the same bar of perfectly soft and recently annealed iron 

 can be held in any position in a plane at right- angles to that line 

 and used as a sender for powerful vibration?, such as those of 

 a tuning-fork or the taps of a diamagnetic body on the naked 

 end of the bar, we cannot but be struck by the surprising 

 delicacy of the telephone as a test for the earth's magnetism. 

 , The receiving instrument used in the abve experiments was an 

 ordinary bell telephone 2^ in. disc '007 of an inch in thickness. 

 9, St. John's Road, Bristol, May 18 ALFRED Chiddey 



each hand. My second son, William, who is working with mc 

 on the Goodwill estate, married, and his wife had five children ; 

 they were born having the same peculiarity ; but I regret to say 

 none are living." 



I yesterday sent for William Laidlaw, and have substantiated 

 his father's statements. I measured the sixth fingers : the one 

 on the right hand is exactly i J inch in length, and has a perfectly 

 formed nail, the one on the left showed traces of having been 

 partially amputated. Edmund Watt 



Resident District Magistrate 



Dominica, British West Indies, April 27 



Hereditary Transmission 



In 1837, Capt. D' Urban of H.M.S. Griffin, having captured, 

 off the south coast of Martininme, a Portuguese slaver, called the 

 Don Francisco, landed in this colony the living freight of 437 

 human beings, who, about two months previously, had been 

 forced from their homes on the banks of the Congo, to be sold 

 in Cuba. 



William Laidlaw, one of the liberated slaves, who is now in a 

 position of some trust on the Goodwill sugar plantation in the 

 island, gives to me the following interesting details of hereditary 

 transmission in the African, which I believe will be interesting to 

 the readers of Nature. 



"I am about sixty or sixty-five years of age, and was bom 

 ■withsix fingers on each hand. Soon after 'my freedom' I 

 married a woman from 'our country.' We had four children, 

 two being boys and two girls ; they were born with six fingers 

 on each hand, and one of the girls had six toes on each foot. 



"My eldest son Robert, who is married and settled in 

 Demerara, is the father of two boys, who have six fingers on 



What is a "Water-shed" ? 



Some time ago the term " water-shed " was somewhat vaguely 

 used to imply either the dividing ridge between two river basins 

 or the slopes down which the water poured into the rivers them- 

 selves. Latterly, if I mistake not, it has generally been used by 

 geographers in the former sense only. Mr. George Grove^ 

 F.R.G.S., however, in his excellent little Primer on Geography, 

 uses the term "water-parting" for the ridge, and water-shed for 

 the whole of the ground between the water-parting and the 

 stream ; — very clearly illustrating his meaning by reference to 

 the ridge tiles and the slope of the roof of a house respectively. 



There may be some reason, especially in a work of the kind, 

 for substituting "water-parting" for "water-shed," in the sense 

 first quoted, but is the use of the latter, to indicate the flow of 

 water down the slopes, justified either by etymology, or even by 

 the correct use of the word " shed" in ordinary conversation? 



The derivation ham Ang\o-Sz\on sced-an or scead-an, indicates 

 the primary meaning to divide or sever. It is also used metapho- 

 rically in some of the north-country dialects, as "there is no shed 

 (difference) between us." No doubt, by a very natural ellipsis it 

 often implies flowing or fallii^. A woman sheds tears, or a tree 

 sheds its leaves, and the consequent flowing down the cheeks, or 

 fluttering down to the ground need not be specially expressed. 

 But in this case the word is used distinctively, and should surely 

 be used, if used at all, in its stricter and primary sense, while 

 the fall or flow of water can be appropriately distinguished. 



Of course this is merely a question of terminology, but I think 

 it is one worth noticing if only for the sake of the youthful 

 millions who are being brought to some knowledge of elementary 

 geography, and will hardly be helped to appreaate the exactness 

 of science if they find the same word is used by different authori- 

 ties to describe things so different as the dividmg ridge and the 

 hill slopes of the land they live in. R. H 



Savile Club, Savile Row, W. 



Abnormal Coccyx 



In Nature for September 21, 1876, I gave an account of a 

 peculiar abnormality in a girl aged eight, in whom the coccyx 

 was turned backwards and upwards, and a little above it there 

 was a circular depression in the skin, about J inch in diameter, 

 and about J inch deep. On being dragp-ed downwards the skin 

 in this hollow became everted and formed a covering to the point 

 of the coccyx. Shortly afterwards I had an opportunity of 

 examining the other children of the family, with the following 

 results : — 



Boy aged six, normal. 



Girl aged four, depression in the same spot as in the eldest 

 sister, coccyx normal. 



Girl aged two, normal. 



Boy aged seven months, fairly deep hole (not measured) in 

 same position, coccyx less curved forward than usual. 



The parents were said not to possess this peculiarity ; I could 

 get no information as to the other members of the family. 



A few days ago I met with another case of the same kind in A 

 boy eight months old. The coccyx was curved sharply back- 

 wards, and there was a circular depression in the skin, about 

 5 mm. in diameter, a little higher up than in the other cases, 

 which was easily raised to the level of the surrounding parts, 

 and effaced by a little traction. Andrew Dunlop 



Jersey 



Lecture Experiment 



A glass flask of about a litre capacity is partially filled with 

 water and' closed with a cork, through which a tube passes 



