288 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



ported by allusions to comparative anatomy. Attention was drawn to 

 intensity of voice, capacity, and also the tones in the male, female, and 

 boy. Articulation and speech were described as modifications of voice 

 and produced by the action of the pharynx, the nasal cavities, the 

 tongue, and muscles about the cheeks and lips. A child before it had 

 cut its teeth could only utter labial words, such as papa, mama, baby, or 

 in humble life daddan instead of father, the tongue being then pressed 

 against the palate. Dr. Pettigrew then alluded to the manner in which 

 ventriloquism was performed ; which was illustrated by Mr. Brook, who 

 imitated a man in the chimney ascending and descending. Mr. Rich- 

 mond was then introduced; who performed two airs, each as a duet, 

 synchronously. After a very careful examination, assisted by Dr. Mac- 

 donald, Prof. Bowman, and M. Garsin, the lecturer had arrived at the 

 conclusion that the two tones were thus accomplished ; the voice was 

 of course simple and produced in the larynx; the current of vibration 

 was split, as proved by the flame of a candle, — the bass notes being 

 modified in the upper part of the pharynx and nasal passages, the 

 treble being produced by the tongue forming with the arched roof of 

 the palate a tube, open by a very small aperture in front, the tube be- 

 ing altered in length by the nicest adjustment of its muscles, these lat- 

 ter acting more perfectly from the fixature to the os hyoides and the 

 roof of the mouth. 



3. The Aneroid Barometer, (from the Mining Journal, xix, 123.) 

 This elegant and truly philosophical instrument, which is proposed 

 as a substitute for the Torricellian tube, is the invention of a French 

 gentleman of scientific attainments, named Vidi ; and the public are 

 much indebted to Mr. Dent, of the Strand, for the publication of a pam- 

 phlet, entitled" A Treatise on the Aneroid Barometer, with a short 

 Historical Notice on Barometers in General — their Construction and 

 Use." The introduction of this new barometer has been entrusted 

 to this eminent chronometer-maker, which alone is a guarantee for 

 the excellence of the principle, and the perfection of the mechanical 

 construction. Mr. Dent commences the work with an historical de- 

 scription of the common barometer, which, although sufficiently com- 

 mon to form a general piece of furniture, is by no means generally un- 

 derstood ; from the period when Galileo first discovered the cause of 

 water rising in a pump from the exhaustion by the sucker 32 ft., to be the 

 pressure of the atmosphere, describes the experiments on mercury by 

 his pupil Torricelli in 1643, and the subsequent construction of the 

 common barometer; then proceeds to the wheel and dial barometer, 

 the invention of the late eminent philosopher, Dr. Hooke, which is 

 now the one generally in use, except for marine purposes, and con- 

 cludes with a description of the sympiesometer, also the invention of 

 Dr. Hooke. This latter kind of barometer consists of two tubes — one 

 containing spirits, the other colored water, and shows not only the at- 

 mospheric pressure, but its temperature also. On the subject of a va- 

 cuum vessel, to take the place of the mercurial tube for barometrical 

 measurement, we learn that M. Conte, Professor of the Aerostatical 

 School at Meudon, near Paris, was the first to call attention to the sub- 

 ject, as in his balloon ascents, during the war in Egypt, he found the or- 

 dinary barometer subject to so much oscillation as to be useless; he, 





