July 25, 1878] 



NATURE 



343 



amplitudes of the third and fourth partials for voices i, 3, and 

 5 at various pitches. The place where a somewhat sudden 

 change happens is marked by a vertical bar. 



Pitch of 



third 

 partial, 



Table \\\.— Third Partials. 

 } /' f% r '" ^" ^' ^' ^' &' f% f ^ 



Ta"LE in.— Fourth Partials. 



Pitch of 

 fourth 

 partial 



rth } d" b" b"\j a" g" /" e" d' d' b' b"^ a! 

 ial. ) 



Voice 1 I *o : I '4 o'S 2'2 o"6 0*4 07 i*6 3*3 3*1 47 2*9 

 „ 30-4 0-4 — 0-4 0-2 0-3 0-5 —13-5 2-8 3*6 3-9 

 » 5lo"3 i'4 07 o"8 o'6 i'3 ^'3 o"5 —1 2*5 i*5 2'i 



It will be seen that the third partial springs into prominence 

 more suddenly with voices 3 and 5 than with voice i, but 

 there is a rapid increase with voice I, where the sudden change 

 occurs with the other voices. This want of continuity suggests 

 an adjustment or tuning of the mouth cavity, an idea which 

 receives support from experiments on the sound it, to be 

 afterwards described. 



Another very marked example of this sudden introduction of a 

 new partial was given by voice 6, a powerful bass. 



The apparent tuning of the mouth cavity required to jwoduce 

 the sudden introduction of a new partial might perhaps be 

 described as the involuntary selection of a new of different 

 quality, but better adapted to be sung on the new note. We do 

 not reject this mode of considering the phenomenon, but at the 

 same time point out that there is a generic property common to 

 the J's above and below the critical notes which leads us to 

 regard all the varieties as sensibly one and the same vowel 

 sound. Our experiments do not so far show whether any tuning 

 takes place in the upper part of the scale, where nothing but a 

 prime and its octave are present. 



5. Whenever a partial falls on 3^ we find that it is specially 

 prominent. This fact was ascertained by Helmholtz ; and the 

 confirmation of his experiments by a completely different method 

 is very satisfactory, both as showing that the letter J, as pro- 

 nounced by the English and German singers, did not differ 

 sensibly, and as tending to justify our confidence in the method 

 of investigation which we have followed. In that part of the 

 scale where the vowel consists simply of the prime and its 

 octave, the second partial, when it falls on ^'jy, is usually a 

 maximum, both absolutely and relatively to the prime. I'his 

 result was to be expected from the experiments of Helmholtz 

 and Bonders. 



6. The upper partials. are often larger in amplitude than the 

 prime. 



The second partial was occasionally a little more than double 

 the prime ; the third partial in low notes was sometimes four 

 times as great as the prime. The fourth partial was in one case 

 eight times as large as the prime and the fifth partial in our 

 single example on F was one and a half times the prime. 



We defer drawing any conclusions from these results until we 

 have described the analogous phenomena observed for the vowel 

 sound «. Fleeming Jenkin 



J. A. EWING 



NOTES 

 Prof. F. V. Hayden has recently been elected Foreign Mem- 

 ber of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Rome. This is one of 

 the oldest scientific societies in the world, and the number of 

 foreign members in the department of the natural sciences is only 

 thirty-seven. The University of Rochester (U.S.) at its annual 

 commencement on the 3rd instant, conferred on Dr. Hayden the 

 honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In his letter communi- 



cating its action, the president, Rev. Dr. M. B. Anderson, 

 says : — " The Trustees and Faculty of the University desired 

 to recognise by this action your great services to science through, 

 your personal attainments, as well as the almost unparalleled 

 energy and success which have characterised your explorations 

 in regions hitherto unknown to the geologist as such. They did 

 not hope to add in the slightest degree to your well-earned repu- 

 tation, but they desired to express their appreciation of the 

 honour you have done our country and the state and city of your 

 early residence, by those great labours which have linked your 

 name with geological science for all coming time. The friend- 

 ship of many years has made my official connection with this 

 public act a source of the most sincere pleasure." 



The Netherlands Zoological Society held its annual summer 

 meeting at Harlingen on July 14 last. The chairman of the 

 Committee for the Zoological Station, Dr. Hubrecht,' gave a 

 short statement showing how the prospects of the young institu- 

 tion had con siderably improved during the past year, how an 

 annual; income of about 150/. had been obtained, which had 

 permitted an extension of the wooden building, described 

 and figured in NATURE, as well as the application of a new 

 heated air motor (system Rennes, Utrecht) for oxygenising the 

 sea-water in the aquaria by a constant stream of atmospheric air. 

 The transportable Zoological Station has been erected during the 

 summer months of 1878, on the Island of Terschelling, between 

 the Zuyder and North Seas, and several members of the Society 

 are there now, for the greater part occupied in the study of the 

 invertebrate fauna of the Dutch coast. These investigations are 

 being considerably facilitated by the great liberality of the 

 Marine Minister, who has put a vessel with a mate and three 

 sailors at the entire disposal of the Committee for the next six or 

 eight weeks. As has hitherto been done, it is expected that at 

 the end of the season a circumstantial report will be issued by 

 the Committee, in which the results of this year's campaigning' 

 will be duly recorded. 



The death is announced of Dr. Thomas Oldham, who was, 

 from its origination in 1850 till 1876, at the head of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of India. It was under his direction that the official 

 geological survey was commenced, first under the Hon. East 

 India Company and afterwards as part of the Government 

 public service ; and until his retirement, from ill -health, he had 

 the control of the issue of the official geological maps, as, portion 

 by portion, the work was completed, and the issue of the me- 

 moirs explanatory of the maps. In 1861, eleven years after the 

 survey was commenced, he originated the publication of the 

 folio- sized " Palaeontologia Indica," which consisted of plates, 

 with descriptive letter-press, illustrating the fossils of the 

 country, and the work has progressed steadily in fasciculi as an 

 official publication printed by command of the Governor- 

 General of India. Dr. Oldham was bom in Dublin in May> 

 1816, and entered at Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of six- 

 teen. After taking his B.A., he studied in 1837-38 at the engineer- 

 ing school of Edinburgh, and attended Jameson's lectures 

 on geology and mineralogy. Returning to Ireland in 1839, he 

 became chief geological assistant to Major-General Portlock, then 

 at the head of the survey of Ireland, and he helped in the pre- 

 paration of the well-known report on Londonderry, Tyrone, &c., 

 published in 1843. After being for a while curator and assist- 

 ant-secretary of the Geological Society of Dublin, he held for a 

 year the professorship of engineering, and in 1845 succeeded 

 the late Prof. John Phillips as Professor of Geology. He was 

 then appointed local director of the geological survey of 

 Ireland, and the Geological Society of Dublin elected him 

 its president. After the various experiences thus gained, 

 in 1850 he was appointed to organise the geological sur- 

 vey of India. There were many unexpected difficulties to 



