456 



NATURE 



\AugUst 2 2, 1878 



has, in the case of all the human voices investigated, one strong 

 proper tone in b'\), but as the cavity which produced the artificial 

 ff% did not possess this characteristic, and it was possessed by dif- 

 ferent voices in very different degrees, it should perhaps be re- 

 garded as an accident of the human voice rather than as essential 

 to the production of the vowel. It is difficult, however, on the 

 constant cavity hypothesis, to see how the third partial of an o 

 sung on or near a should not be stronger than it is. We are 

 disposed to regard it as more probable that the cavity also is 

 tuned. We do not mean by this that it has a proper tone always 

 in unison with one of the partials of the note sung, but only that 

 there is a tendency to accommodate the pitch of the cavity so 

 that it shall reinforce some partial more strongly than might 

 have been the case without this tuning. On this view the range 

 of reinforcement of each cavity need not extend over much 

 more than an octave, nor the range of adjustment over so much 

 as six semitones. The upper reinforcement would lie round 

 about b\ on which note the greatest reinforcement can be 

 given. Another way of putting the same conclusion would be 

 to say that the generic character of the human o was given by the 

 fact that the range of reinforcement of any o cavity extends over 

 rather more than an octave, with an upper and strongest proper 

 tone never far from b"^, but sometimes deviating slightly from that 

 pitch on account of the voice choosing its cavity so as to bring a 

 strong proper tone more closely into unison with one of the upper 

 harmonics of the note sung. 



We should describe the a cavity as differing from that for o 

 chiefly in having a higher general pitch of resonance, and per- 

 haps, also, a wider range. 



It is evident that Willis and Wheatstone were right in con- 

 sidering that the vowel quality was given by a particular reso- 

 nator, and that the pitch of maximum resonance of the resonator 

 was an important element in determining the vowel character of 

 the sounds produced. Willis's vowels were not thoroughly 

 recognisable because the form and material of his resonator were 

 not adapted to include the second element of range of reinforce- 

 ment. 



Fiurther, our experiments agree with the observation of Bon- 

 ders that there is a pitch of maximum resonance in human mouth 

 cavities for the vowel 0, although, as we have said above, we are 

 disposed to consider the cavity as not quite constant. We fail 

 to distinguish any such characteristic tone in the case of ;7, and 

 we observe that it is fixed by Helmholtz only with considerable 

 diffidence. 



Our experiments entirely confirm Helmholtz's statement that 

 vowel sounds are made up of harmonic partial tones, and the 

 groups of partials, so far as he gives them, for the vowels we 

 have investigated, agree fairly well with our results. Since these 

 experiments were brought to a close our attention has been 

 directed to a paper by Felix Auerbach {Pogg. Ann. Ergdnzung, 

 viii. 2), containing an account of experiments on vowel sounds 

 made lay him in Prof. Helmholtz's laboratory. By the aid of 

 resonators applied to the ear he made numerical estimates of the 

 strength of the several partial tones when vowels were sung on 

 various notes. He was led, as we have been, to the conclusion 

 that the relative partials were an important factor in the result as 

 well as the absolute pitch, but we cannot say that our numbers 

 agree with his estimates or support the deductions which he has 

 drawn from them. 



Fleeming Jenkin 



J. A. EWING 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The directors of the Polytechnic are about to make an im- 

 portant alteration in the science department of this institution. 

 It is intended to separate the laboratory from the rest of the 

 institution, and to establish a high-class school of practical 

 science in all its branches. Dr. Edward B. Aveling has been 

 appointed to the charge of this laboratory, and intends forth- 

 with to establish classes for practical instruction in all the science 

 subjects required for the university, government, and other 

 examinations. 



The first series of 500 select public teachers in France arrived 

 in Paris on August 15 to visit the Exhibition, at the expense of 

 the government. They are accompanied by i,oco teachers of 

 the same districts travelling at their own expense, but conveyed 

 at half price by the various railway companies, and boarded in 

 several Paris colleges. They were received at the Sorbonne, in 



the large hall, by M. Casimir-Perier, the Sub-Minister of Public 

 Instruction, and lectured by M. Levasseur on the teaching of 

 geography. They will be lectured on the teaching of French, 

 of history, and on the organisation of lectures and public 

 libraries. They will leave on Friday, and be succeeded by 

 another set of teachers. 



M. Bardoux has issued a circular intirriating that a special 

 financial department has been created for facilitating the build- 

 ing of school-houses in the several French communes. A credit 

 of 60,000,000 francs has been voted by the Chambers, and will 

 be divided amongst the several municipalities that desire to 

 improve or rebuild their public schools, on the condition that 

 each should expend a sum of at least double that taken from the 

 public exchequer. 



Prof. A. Woltmann, of Prague, has accepted a call to the 

 directorship of the Archaeological Institute at Strasburg. 



The first experiment of an educational turn for children, 

 about which we spoke some months ago, has given such good 

 results that a new society is in process of formation at St. Peters- 

 burg for a similar purpose. Several eminent teachers of the 

 Russian capital have offered their services to the society, which 

 will yearly send out companies of children on educational travel, 

 as well as parties of young ladies and young men who have finished 

 their studies in secondary schools, or are following the courses 

 of high schools. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, August 12. — M. Fizeau, president. 

 — On the composition of the milk of the cow-tree (Bros- 

 mium galadodendron), by M. Boussingault. He finds that 

 while the general constitution of the juice of the cow-tree 

 approaches that of milk, the proportions of the various sub- 

 stances are very different. — Observation on the discovery an- 

 nounced by Mr. L. Smith of a new earth belonging to the 

 cerium group, by M. C. Marignac. He does not see any reason 

 for distinguishing the supposed new earth from terbene. — 

 Studies on the placenta of the Ai (Brady pus tridactylus, Lin.) ; 

 the place which that animal should occupy in the series of 

 mammals, by M. N. Joly. — On the fundamental co-variants 

 of a cubo-biquadrati c binary system, by Prof . Sylvester. — New 

 process for the analysis of milk, yielding rapidly butter, lactose, 

 and caseine, in one and the same specimen, by M. A. Adam. — 

 M. J. Vinot sent to the Academy a letter addressed to him by 

 Leverrier in September, 1876, in which the late astronomer 

 inferred, from various observations, that there are two intra- 

 Mercurial planets. — On the functions of leaves ; function of the 

 stomata in the exhalation and inhalation of aqueous vapours by 

 leaves, by M. Merget. — On the delay of the pulse in intra- 

 thoracic aneurisms and in aortic insufficiency, by M. Fr. Franck. 

 — Chemical researches on the division of cyclamine into 

 glucose and mannite, by M. S. de Luca. — On parasitic isopods 

 of the genus Entoniscus, by M. Alf. Giard. — On the changes of 

 colour of Nika edulis, by M. S. Jourdain. — Importance of the 

 partition of vegetable cells in the phenomena of nutrition, by 

 M. Max. Comu. — On the part of stipules in inflorescence and in 

 the flower, by M. D. Clos. — On the fall of avalanches, by M. 

 Ch. Dufour. 



CONTENTS Pace 



British Barrows. By W. Boyd Dawkins . . ' 429 



The Eclipse of the Sun 430 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Watson's Suspected Planet 433 



A Companion of a Lyrse 434 



Schmidt's " Charte der Gebirge des Mondes " 434 



Geographical Notes 434 



Notes 434 



The British Association 437 



Reports 438 



Section A. — Mathematical and Physical 440 



Section B. — Chemical Science. — Opening Address by the President, 



Prof. Maxwell Simpson, M.D., F. R.S 441 



Section C. — Geology 443 



Section D. — Biology 445 



Section E. — Geography. — Opening Address by the President, Prof. 



Sir C.Wyville Thomson, F. R.S 448 



Section G. — Mechanical Science. — Opening Address by the Presi- 

 dent, Edward Easton, C.E . . 452 



The Phonograph and Vowel ISounds, III. By Prof. Fleeming 



Jenkin, F.R.S., and Prof. J. A. Ewing {}Vith Illustratioii) . . 454 



University and Educational Intelligbnck 456 



Societies and Academies 456 



