698 



NATURE 



{Oct. 31, 1878 



on the success obtained in the building of the lofty 

 mansion in which they were assembled, which is at a 

 little distance from the place where the Society Avas 

 founded in 1821. 



In his just-published report to the Foreign Office on 

 the trade and agriculture of French Guiana, Consul 

 Wooldridge forwards some information of considerable 

 interest in regard to the production of gold in that region. 

 The quarter of Mana, hitherto unknown as a gold-pro- 

 ducing territory, has, through the energetic endeavours of 

 adventurers, been prospected, and is speedily being 

 opened up ; indeed, it promises to be one of the richest 

 gold industrial quarters. The production of gold at a 

 few hastily-established placers, in the month of March 

 last year, gave 21,747 grammes of pure gold, and in April 

 39,662 grammes. It is to be feared, however, that the 

 gold-workings here and in other parts where the precious 

 metal is found to a large extent is having a disastrous 

 effect on the general prosperity of the colony, for Her 

 Majesty's Consul, quoting from the report of the Com- 

 mission which periodically proceeds to the various quarters 

 to inspect estates, draws a melancholy picture of the 

 abandonment and poverty of agricultural property in 

 French Guiana. 



The latest work of the leader of fthe Austrian North 

 Polar Expedition, Captain Karl Weyprecht, entitled 

 "Die Metamorphosen des Polareises," is now in course 

 of publication at Vienna (Perles). 



A CURIOUS statement appears in the foreign correspond- 

 ence of the Times, that Russian papers state that the Amu- 

 Darya has returned to its original bed. This may very 

 well be the case without any or much interference on the 

 part of man, as may be seen from Major Herbert Wood's 

 articles on the Aral region in vols. xi. andxii. of Nature. 

 About twenty years ago the Loodon Canal at Bend, 

 above the splitting up of the lower Amu, was dammed 

 up. This canal seems to have been connected with the 

 old course of the Amu into the Caspian, and a strong 

 flood breaking down the dam might easily cause the river 

 to resume its old course, especially as its present mouths 

 seem to be gradually filling up with the abundant matter 

 brought down by its waters. It is apparently at Bend 

 that the deviation has taken place. 



An able review of Geography at the Paris Exhibition 

 appears in the last number of the Revue Scientifiqtie. 



THE TELEPHONE, ITS HISTORY AND ITS 

 RECENT IMPRO VEMENTS ^ 



I. 



'T*HE appearance of the two works mentioned below 

 -■■ is indicative not only of the remarkable era of scien- 

 tific invention through which we are passing, but also of 

 the wide-spread interest in science which these inventions 

 have aroused. 



It will be noticed that neither of these works is pub- 

 lished in England : one reaches us from America, the 

 other from France. As a nation we are slow to appre- 

 ciate the value of new inventions — a conservatism which 

 arises less from caution than from popular ignorance of 

 science ; nor will an enlightened public opinion be pos- 

 sible until the first principles of science form an integral 

 part of the education of every English boy and girl. But 

 now that science is walking in the market-place, and 

 holds its own on the exchange, ignorance of its elements 

 becomes commercially perilous. A sound judgment on 

 the value of a new scientific discovery may at any 

 moment be indispensable to capitalists and very profit- 



The Speaking Telephone, Talking Phonograph, and other Novelties," 

 J^y p- B. Prescott. Illustrated. (New York: Appletons, 1878.)— -"Le 

 lelephone, le Microphone, et le Phonographe," par Le Comte Th. du 

 J»oncel. (Hachette, 1878.) 



able to shareholders. We venture to say that such a 

 conviction has been a prevalent idea on almost every 

 stock exchange during the recent panic in gas shares. 

 Scientific knowledge has presented itself in a new light : 

 it is now a commercial article ; and forthwith the British 

 public promptly recognises its value. In fine, the busi- 

 ness aspect of recent inventions may do more for the 

 future extension of science teaching than years of earnest 

 expostulation. 



The two works before us cover nearly the same ground. 

 They give the history of the invention of the telephone, 

 the methods that have been devised for electrically trans- 

 mitting and receiving speech, with the most recent 

 improvements down to a month or two ago ; they also 

 describe the phonograph ; and Prescott' s book, while 

 omitting the microphone, which is fully discussed by Du 

 Moncel, devotes its concluding chapters to quadruplex 

 telegraphy, electric call-bells, and electric lighting. 



Of the two works Count du Moncel' s is the more 

 scientific, comprehensive, and impartial, and will add to 

 the high reputation which its indefatigable author already 

 possesses as the historian par excellence of the applica- 

 tions of electricity. We can therefore most heartily 

 commend this treatise to our readers ; it is, moreover, 

 well printed, capitally illustrated, and withal published at 

 a very low price. 



Mr. Prescott' s work is larger, the typography and 

 illustrations are excellent, and in technical details and 

 recent information it leaves nothing to be desired. The 

 arrangement, however, is confusing. The body of the 

 work consists almost wholly of reprints from the various 

 papers, lectures and specifications of the workers at 

 electric-telephony, and the absence of marks of quotation 

 with the want of proper indication where one extract 

 ends and another begins not only puzzles the reader but 

 is apt to give rise to serious misapprehension. The 

 work has obviously been hastily prepared for the press, 

 repetitions are frequent, and the matter is arranged 

 with little regard to the reader's convenience or to chro- 

 nological sequence. Moreover, its author has an evident 

 bias towards American inventions in general and the 

 "Western Union Telegraph Company" in particular. 

 It is true the work professes to deal with speaking tele- 

 phones only, but as some American " tone telephones " 

 are described in detail, we are surprised at the entire 

 omission of the early and important telephonic experi- 

 ments by Cromwell Varley in London, and afterwards 

 by La Cour in Copenhagen. 



Nevertheless, with all its defects, Mr. Prescott' s book is a 

 useful and needed contribution to scientific literature, and 

 as each inventor is allowed to speak for himself, the 

 careful reader is enabled to form his own judgment on 

 certain disputed questions of priority of invention. 



It is time that the history of the articulating telephone 

 was written. Hitherto the English public have had little 

 more to guide them on this subject than the lectures 

 given in London by Prof. Graham I3ell, lectures delivered 

 with altogether admirable grace and diction. It is very 

 natural that an inventor should give more prominence to 

 his own ideas than to those of others, and hence the 

 impression generally derived from Prof. Bell's lectures is 

 that the sole credit of the first conception and successful 

 construction of the articulating electric telephone is due 

 to himself. There were, however, other workers in the 

 field of electric-telephony besides Mr. Graham Bell, and 

 it is to be regretted that Prof. Bell did not give sufficient 

 prominence to this fact in his discourses. Mr. Prescott, 

 indeed, brings some serious charges against Prof. Bell, 

 asserting that to another American, Elisha Gray, of 

 Chicago, is due the entire priority and merit Bell claimed 

 for himself. Here is what Mr. Prescott says : — 



" It was not till after Prof. Bell had substituted the 

 apparatus shown in Mr. Gray's caveat V'aaX he Avas enabled 



