580 
in her short journey up country with Mr. Bock, she, being an 
intelligent child, picked up a few words of Laos; the joints of 
her arms and fingers possess, it is true, according to European 
ideas great flexibility, but really they have it to no greater degree 
than those of ordinary Siamese ; it is also true that she is able 
to use her toes, grasping things between the big toe and the next 
one in a way that is surprising and amusing to Europeans, but 
this is a faculty which all Siamese, being a barefooted people, 
possess to a greater or less degree ; the child was looked upon here 
as even a greater natural curiosity than she is considered to be in 
England, her parents being in the habit of taking her about and 
showing her for a small reward, and the price they obtained for 
her (in native currency equal to 60/.) being twice that of an 
ordinary child of the same age. A strange mistake has been 
made about the child’s name, “ Krao” being merely the Siamese 
name for whiskers, a very natural nickname for the child to 
obtain. As far as I can ascertain from those who knew the 
child well, she is endowed with the average intelligence of 
Siamese children of her age and class, and beyond her abnormal 
hairiness presents no peculiarity. 
To sum up, “‘she is,” as you rightly remarked, “‘ merely a 
lusus nature, or a sport, possessed rather of a pathological than 
an.anthropological interest. I may add that I have carefully 
verified all the foregoing statements. A RESIDENT 
Bangkok, Siam, March 3 
[From information that has siice reached me I am able fully 
to confirm the particulars here supplied by ‘‘A Resident.”— 
A. H. K.] 
Singing, Speaking, and Stammering 
In Nature, vol. xxvii. p. 532, in the report of Dr. Stone’s 
lecture on ‘‘ Singing, Speaking, and Stammering,” there appears 
a Classification of Vowels, which is described as an abstract of 
Mr. Melville Bell’s scheme. I shou'd like, however, to point 
out that the system which Mr. Bell has advocated for the last 
fifteen years is hardly represented in the Classification referred 
to. On turning to p. 63 of Mr. Bell’s ‘‘Souads and their 
Relations,” which is a new exposition of ‘‘ Visible Speech,” it 
will be seen that the vowels /r and 4/ are not described as 
labio-lingual, and that the threefoli arrangement of the vowels 
as lingual, labio-lingual, and labial is abandoned as incorrect. 
The lecturer does not appear to have mentioned the phonetic 
researches of Mr. A. J. Ellis and Mr. Henry Sweet. In many 
important points, however, they supplement the system of Mr. 
Bell, and their works cannot be overlooked in the scientific 
study either of etymology or pronunciation. The student of 
language can hardly do better than begin with Mr. Ellis’s 
“Speech in Song,” and Mr. Sweet’s ‘‘ Handbook of Phonetics.” 
JAMEs LECKY 
5, Alexandra Road, Wimbledon, S.W., April 10 
Tue classification of vowels to which Mr. Lecky refers is 
taken fron Mr. Melville Bell’s ‘‘ Principles of Elocution,” 
which I obtained with much difficulty from a publisher in Salem, 
Massachusetts. It is dated 1878, and may, I suppose, be held to 
represent the author’s system at that date, I am well acquainted 
with the other works named by Mr, Lecky. W. H. STONE 
As an illustrative instance of the peculiarities akin to stammer- 
ing, referred to in Mr. Stone’s lecture in last week’s NATURE 
(p. 559), I may mention the case of an old Scotch lady whom 
I knew some years ago, and who was in the habit of interpola- 
ting at frequent intervals in her talk the wholly irrelevant 
words ‘‘This that here there ye ken.” She herself evidently 
made ue of the words with perfect unconsciousness of their 
irrelevancy ; indeed I doubt whether, if challenged, she would 
have admitted using them at ail. kK, 
A Curious Case of Ignition 
“A cuRIOUS case of ignition,” quoted in NATURE, vol, xxvii. 
p- 509, reminds me of a similar circumstance that came under 
my own observati n when serving in H.M. despatch vessel 
Psyche, 1862-66. We were moored ‘‘head and stern” in Port 
Napoleon, Marseilles, ona bright summer day. A strong smell 
of burning was traced to the saloon skylight. Ou bursting open 
the door of the saloon it was found that a scuttle glass (a plano- 
convex lens) through which the solar rays were admitted and 
NATURE 
[April 19, 1883 
) 
focused on a rep curtain (which was smouldering) had been 
substituted for a broken one, but through an oversight had not 
been ground on the plane surface (as is usual). The case was 
reported by letter, and an order issued to insure all scuttle glasses 
used in men-of-war for the purpose being ground. 
BERTRAM GWYNNE 
Fibreballs 
I HAVE seen balls of vegetable fibre, such as those referred to 
by Mr. G. H. Darwin in his letter of March 23 (NATURE, 
vol. xxvii. p. 507), in great abundance on the sea-beach at 
Cannes ; there however they are not spherical like those de- 
scribed by Sir A. Musgrave, but cylindrical, two or three inches — 
in length, finely and closely matted, and all wonderfully similar — 
in appearance. In one place they had been collected and 
employed, if I remember rightly, to form a kind of wall. Some — 
balls of a similar kind, but more nearly spherical and much 
coarser in texture, were found, on draining a pond, by 
Dr. Fitton, and sent by him to Sir J. Herschel, these were 
three or four inches across, and looked almost llke small hedge- 
hogs rolled up. 
Benevolence in Animals 
Mr. Geo. J. RoMANEs, in a lecture delivered in Manchester, 
March 12, 1879, on ‘‘Animal Intelligence,” points out the 
following emotions which resemble human intelligence as occur- 
ring in animals below the human species, namely : fear, affection, 
passionateness, pugnacity, jealousy, sympathy, pride, reverence, 
emulation, shame, hate, curiosity, revenge, cruelty, emotion of 
the ludicrous, and emotion of the beautiful, and gives some 
remarkable instances in support of his statement. To this I can 
add benevolence on the part of our household cat, who was ob- 
served to take out some fish bones from the house to the garden, 
and, being followed, was seen to have placed them in front of 
a miserably thin and evidently hungry stranger cat, who was 
devouring them ; not satisfied with that, our cat returned, pro- 
cured a fresh supply, and repeated its charitable offer, which was 
apparently as gratefully accepted. This act of benevolence over, 
our cat returned to its customary dining-place, the scullery, and 
ate its own dinner off the remainder of the bones, no doubt with 
additional zest. OsWALD FITCH 
Woodend, Fortis Green, N., April 12 
The Zodiacal Light (?) 
Last Friday evening about 7 p.m. my attention was called to 
a peculiar appearance in the western sky. The sun had set not 
long before. No clouds were visible but one long thin streak, 
and there were the usual mists near the horizon. Above where 
the sun might be, a pillar of light faintly red in colour, with soft 
edges, but fairly well defined, rose vertically from near the horizon 
to the height of perhaps a few degrees. It did not look like an 
illuminated cloud nor like rays of light shot up through a cloud, 
nor like anything local ; in fact I am told that it moved north- 
wards with the sun. Was this the zodiacal light, or merely some 
sunset effect? It began to grow dim about 7.10 p.m, but was 
visible later than this. Sieh fe 
New Kingswood School, Lansdown, Bath, April 10 
Braces or Waistband ? 
THE writer has for the last thirty years dispensed with the use 
of either braces or a belt, having had his waistcoats made with 
short elastic straps attached inside and with holes to button on 
to the trousers Jike braces, one on each side and a third in 
front. 
- They answer as well as braces in conjunction with the ordinary 
waistband and buckle of the trou-ers, and the wearer is saved the 
feeling of strain across the shoulders or round the waist con- 
nected with the use of braces or a belt. G. H 
April 13 
THE TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY 
MECHANICS * 
At the recent Annual Meeting of the Association for 
the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching held, as 
has already been noted in our columns, at University 
* Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, Ninth 
General Report, January, 1883. 
