July 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



167 



The graphic method has been applied, to a certain 

 extent, in this science ; but I do not remember to have 

 seen curves showing the history of a given phenomenon, 

 in which the high points represent late dates and the low 

 points early dates. 



Thus, we might draw a curve of the cuckoo. Having 

 found, in CM et Terre (IGth October, 1894), a list of the 

 dates of return of that bird at a place in the heart of 

 France, I have indicated these in the curve a. (For con- 

 venience, each date is first translated into the number of 

 the day in the year.) The dates range from 23rd March 

 to 14th April, the mean being 2nd April. 



In the smoothed curved a' , traversing the other, each 

 year point represents an average of five. A similarly 

 smoothed curve for Devonshire is given above, and it 

 agrees very well, so far, with the French one. The bird, 

 of course, comes later to Devon — about the end of AprO. 



It seems to me that curves of this kind might throw 

 useful Ught on seasonal changes. 



Alex. B. MacDowall. 



CAX THE DEAF APPRECIATE MUSIC ? 

 To the Editors of Knowledge. 



SrRs, — -In connection with the statement made by 

 Dr. J. G. McPherson in his interesting article in the June 

 Number of Knowledge, that sensations of sound affect those 

 of colour, I should like to draw attention to the fact that 

 colour sensations caused by sound may in a great many 

 instances be referred to associative ideas. But that a 

 correlation of the senses, in the case of our sensations of 

 sound and colour, actually exists is maintained by very 

 many. A very interesting work has lately appeared here 

 by Eichard Hennig,' which deals largely with this subject, 

 and which has awakened considerable interest in musical 

 circles. Though he has been unable to arrive at any very 

 satisfactory explanation of the matter, Herr Hennig cites 

 very many well-authenticated examples where the sensation 

 of colour was produced by sound, and in a considerable 

 number of cases a remarkable amount of agreement is 

 shown. These cases, however, are not of the same order 

 as that mentioned in Dr. McPherson's article, where it is 

 related that Raff compared the sound of the flute with the 

 colour blue. A case of this kind can, as Herr Hennig 

 points out, be more easily explained by association, wood 

 wind instruments being in general used for pastoral effects, 

 which might by association call up the idea of a blue sky. 

 Or, again, an agreeable sound may be compared with an 

 agreeable colour and vice verso. For instance, the sound 

 of a trumpet has been compared with scarlet — the one a 

 lively sound and the other a vivid colour. 



In the examples cited by Herr Hennig, however, the 

 sensation of various colours was called up by various keys. 

 Thus, several individuals independently compared F sharp 

 major with yellow. Professor Cart, of Lausanne, is men- 

 tioned as having established the following table : — ■ 

 C major . Brilliant white. 



D minor ... Grey. 



E major . ... Red. 



A flat major . '... Deep violet. 



Whether there can be in these appearances any objective 

 reality or not is certainly a question demanding close 

 attention in scientific inquiry. 



Certain it is that in very many cases these colour 

 sensations can be referred to purely associative causes — 

 prove, in fact, on strict examination to be purely psycho- 



* " Die Charakteristik der Donarten," by Eichard Heniiig. (Berlin, 

 1897.) 



logical and not physiological phenomena. It should also 

 be borne in mind that the fact of such sensations occurring 

 as a rule among musicians, naturally highly imaginative, 

 may go largely towards pointing to their psychical origin. 



W. Alfred Pare. 

 Nettelbeckstrasse, 6, Berlin, W. 

 June loth, 1897. 



"LATHER" AVD « DILLIIfG." 

 To the Editors of Knowtledge. 



Snts, — Apnipos of Mr. Morley's article on " The Lan- 

 guage of Shakespeare's Greenwood' in your last issue, 

 which I have read with much interest, I venture to point 

 out that the substitution of the sound of " th " for that of 

 " d ■' in certain words, is not quite confined to Warwick- 

 shire. Mr. Morley will, perhaps, hke to know that I have 

 frequently heard "ladder" pronounced as "lather" 

 (to rhyme with " father "), and " fodder " as " fother," 

 by natives of coimtry villages in the Weald of Kent. The 

 word "dilling," too, would be well understood by the 

 denizens of Caxton's country, though it is sometimes 

 pronounced " dawling." 



Ashford, June 5th, 1897. A. W. Busbeidge. 



Sffetwt Notfs. 



Me. Howard Saunders is preparing a revised edition of 

 his well-known " Manual of British Birds.' This is very 

 gratifying news, and we venture to say that a new edition 

 of this book brought up to date, say every ten years, would 

 be far more useful to the ornithologist than many of the 

 multitude of books on British birds nowadays published. 



Reunion du Comiti' International Permanent pour I'execu- 

 tion de la Carte Photographique du del, tenue a. V Observatoire 

 de Paris en Mai, 1896. It is just ten yeai-s since the late 

 Admiral Mouchez, then Director of the Paris Observatory, 

 convoked the first congress to discuss the basis on which the 

 " International Chart and Catalogue of the Heavens" should 

 be carried out. Two more conferences were held at succes- 

 sive intervals of two years, in which the general principles 

 and methods of the enterprise were laid down. The 

 following five years, from 1891 to 1896, were fully occupied 

 by the eighteen co-operating observatories in taking the 

 plates for the catalogue, and also, to some extent, those of 

 longer exposure far the chart series. Many questions, 

 however, were now become ripe for discussion, not only 

 dealing with the preservation of the large number of 

 plates already obtained, but also with the instruments and 

 methods of measuring and publishing the resultant places 

 of the star-images. Accordingly, when the conference again 

 met, on May 11th, 1896, they quickly nominated a sub- 

 committee to report on the necessary precision to be attained 

 in the measurement of co-ordinates and in the determina- 

 tion of magnitudes. In connection with this question 

 the Savilian Professor at O.^ford submitted the measuring 

 instrument used in the University Observatory to the 

 sub-committee. On their behalf M. Duner reported that 

 the majority of the observatories attained an accuracy such 

 that the probable error of a single co-ordinate did not 

 exceed 0-15"; but, since it was also most important that 

 the work should be executed in as short a time as 

 possible, they proposed to fix the maximum probable 

 error admissible of a single co-ordinate as 0-20". The 

 conference finally decided on 0'20" as a superior limit 

 for the measured co-ordinates, and on 0'20 mag., or at 

 most 0'25 mag., for the probable error in magnitudes. 



