176 



NATURE 



[November i, 1917 



tion of a wider appreciation of the value in industry of 

 education of university rank ; (2) the maintenance of a 

 central bureau where parents and educationists can 

 obtain accurate and comprehensive information relat- 

 ing to the industry, and the proper course to be pursued 

 by boys entering it; and (3) the promotion of scholar- 

 ships and other means by which the best talent may 

 receive adequate educational opportunity. 



In the ensuing discussion general approval of the 

 proposals was expressed. 



Among those who took part were Sir Dugald Clerk, 

 Mr. Michael Longbridge (president of the Institution 

 of Mechanical Engineers), Mr. C. H. Wordingham 

 (president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers), 

 Mr. W. H. Ellis (the Master Cutler), Mr. H. B. 

 Rowell (president of the North-East Coast Institution 

 of Engineers and Shipbuilders), Mr. R. T. Nugent 

 (Federation of British Industries), Prof. W. E. Dalby, 

 Lieut.-Commander C. F. Jenkin (Oxford University), 

 Sir A. Selfoy Bigge (Board of Education), and Sir 

 Wilfred Stokes (British Engineers' Association). 



Finally, the following resolution was proposed by 

 Sir John Wolfe-Barry, seconded by Dr. W. H. Hadow 

 (principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), 

 supported by Mr. Arthur Dyke Acland, and carried 

 unanimously: — "That this meeting of engineers and 

 educationists is of the opinion that a_ need exists for 

 improvement in and better co-ordination of engineer- 

 ing training, and considers that some form of central 

 organisation is a desirable means to this end. It is 

 therefore resolved that a representative committee, 

 with powers to add to its numbers, be appointed 

 to initiate means that will give effect to this principle 

 of a central organisation." The first members of this 

 committee are to be representative of twenty-six insti- 

 tutions and other bodies named. 



Pending further developments, communications 

 should be sent to Mr. A. Berriman (chief engineer, 

 Daimler Co., Ltd., Coventry) or Mr. A. P. M. Flem- 

 ing (British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing 

 Co., Ltd., Trafford Park, Manchester), who were 

 appointed to act as hon. organisers of the meeting. 



THE OFFSPRING OF DEAF PARENTS. 



WE have received from Dr. Alexander Graham 

 Bell an interesting publication by the Volta 

 Bureau, Washington, entitled "Graphical Studies of 

 Marriages of the Deaf." Under Dr. Bell's direction, 

 Mr. A. W. Clime has prepared about a hundred pages 

 of graphical index to the marriag'es reported in Dr. 

 E. A. Fay's well-known work on " Marriages of the 

 Deaf in America," and likewise 301 pedigree charts 

 of the marriages of the deaf that resulted in dteaf 

 offspring. Mr. F. De Land contributes two pages of 

 introduction, which might have been expanded to 

 great advantage. From Fay's 4471 marriages Dr. 

 Bell has eliminated 974 in regard to which there was 

 no information as to offspring, 419 where the mar- 

 riage had taken place within a year of the date of 

 report to Dr. Fay, and 434 that were childless when 

 reported. The removal of these 1827 marriages left 

 2644 marriages of a year's standing or more, and with 

 children. 



The number of children recorded was 6782, of which 

 588, or 8-66 per cent., were deaf. These 588 deaf 

 children were the offspring of only 302 of the mar- 

 riages. After deducting two marriages (which resulted 

 in three deaf children and " several " hearing children) 

 because the total number of children born was not 

 stated, Dr. Bell was left with 300 marriages the off- 

 spring of which, were in varying proportions affected 

 by deafness. The total number of children born was 

 1044; the number of deaf children among these was 



NO. 2505, VOL. 100] 



585. The proportion of deaf is thus more than half, 

 56 per cent. 



Another result worthy of note is that of the 2642 

 marriages considered the average number of children 

 per marriage in the 300 marriages that resulted in deaf 

 offspring was 3-48, while an average of only 244 per 

 marriage was reported in the 2342 marriages resulting 

 in no reported deaf offspring. 



It may be recalled that in 1883 Dr. Bell presented 

 a memoir to thte National Academy of Sciences entitled 

 " Up>on the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human 

 Race." His recent graphical studies clearly show that 

 although the total percentage of families with deaf 

 children, out of 2642 marriages where deafness marked 

 one or both parents, was not extremely high, being 

 about 12 per cent., the proportion of affected members 

 of the 300 families with deaf offspring was very high, 

 about 56 per cent. 



That all the children of two deaf parents are not 

 deaf is probably because the two parents are deaf in 

 different ways, but Dr. Bell has in this publication 

 rtef rained from any interpretations. In looking over 

 individual cases, one is struck to see some where there 

 was deafness in the husband and wife and in the relatives 

 of both, but none in the children ; other cases where 

 there was deafness on both sides of the house, but 

 only in half of the offspring; others in which there 

 was deafness in one parent and none in the offspring ; 

 and others again in which the defect was in one parent 

 only, but in all the offspring, or, say, in six out of 

 seven. 



One would have liked some discussion of the very 

 interesting variety of results, which must surely mean 

 that even after we have set aside deafn'ess due to 

 otosclerosis and to catarrhal weakness, the kind of 

 deafness called deaf-mutism is not a homogeneous 

 physiological condition. But some discussion would 

 have been very welcome. As one looks over the charts 

 one is struck by the rarity of the symbol which stands for 

 "partially deaf," and the suspicion arises that it has 

 not been sufficiently differentiated in the printing from 

 the symbol for "deaf." 



There is much obscurity in regard to the inheritance 

 of deafness, and Dr. Bell's painstaking presentation of 

 different family histories will enable experts to study 

 individual cases. It must be Impossible in many cases 

 recorded to get medical opinion as to the nature of 

 the deafness, but In the oresent-day accumulation of 

 more data like Fay's an endeavour should be made to 

 sift out varieties of deafness more radically than Is 

 involved in merely distinguishing between adventitious 

 and congenital. 



THE UTILITY OF THE USELESS .->^ 

 "C^OR several reasons it is a profitable exercise to 

 -*■ trace back a modern Invention, or commercial 

 appliance, to the fundamental discoveries from which 

 it sprang. In the first place, the debt of commerce to 

 pure science Is thus demonstrated; for it Is safe to say 

 that none of the numerous inventions and devices 

 which are of such immense commercial importance at 

 the present day could have come into existence had it 

 not been preceded by one, or possibly many discoveries 

 arising out of research pursued in a purely academic 

 spirit. But, as being of far more Importance from the 

 point of view of the ardent beginner in scientific re- 

 search, the tracing of the germinal discoveries upon 

 which an invention is based Is of value as showing 

 how all academic research, remote though It may 

 appear from the service of mankind, may contain 



1 Presidential address delivered to the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh' 

 hy Br. O. Charnock Bradley. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society 

 for March, 1917. 



