DeEcEMBER 28, 1916] — 
NATURE 
CER) 
———— eee ee 
An interesting paper ‘On Plotting the Inflections of 
the Voice,” by Mr. B. Bradley, well known as a com- 
parative philologist, appears in the University of Cali- 
fornia Publications in American Archeology and 
Ethnology (vol. xii., No. 5). Vocal sounds, and more 
especially words, appeal to the ear with various inflec- 
tions, such as ‘‘ high” or ‘‘low,” “rising” or “‘ falling,” 
etc., and the inflection, both as regards “pitch” and 
“duration,” often gives a certain character and mean- 
ing to the word. ‘This is indicated in many languages 
by the use of ‘accents,’ as in Greek. Mr. Bradley 
has investigated the nature of such inflections by a new 
method, unlike the usual methods of the registration 
of sounds by those interested in phonetics. Recognis- 
ing that an inflection is determined by pitch and 
duration, he registers vocal sounds by Rousselot’s 
apparatus, and then he plots on co-ordinate paper, by 
an ingenious and most laborious method, the curve 
obtained by an examination of pitch and duration. 
The result is, to take an illustration from the Siamese 
language, with which Mr. Bradley is acquainted, that 
certain curves represent a rise, or a circumflex (rising 
and falling), or a more uniform mesial movement, or 
depression, or falling, all of which can be recognised 
by the ear. The remarkable thing, however, is that 
when such curves are studied with care, and with 
appropriate corrections, variations (often slight) may 
be observed in the wave-like movement which are not 
recognised by the ear, and the sound heard conveys a 
definite meaning, with a wave form different from that 
of the same word with different inflections. Thus, in 
Siamese, the syllable na, with a rising inflection, 
means thick; with a circumflex, uncle or aunt; with 
a middle, ricefield; with a depressed, indeed; and with 
a falling, face or front. Tonal inflections or modula- 
tions ‘tare essential features of every spoken word” 
in such languages as Chinese. The paper is accom- 
panied by interesting curves. 
In 1879 Capt. Kirby, of Gloucester, while fishing for 
cod and hake south of Nantucket, brought up a new 
fish, which has been named Lopholatilus chamaeleon- 
ticeps. Since then, from time to time, other speci- 
mens of the fish, popularly known as the ‘“‘tile-fish,” 
have been obtained. In the American Museum 
Journal for November Mr. G. H. Sherwood describes 
an expedition in search of specimens. The fiesh of 
the fish is said to resemble cod, and the remarkable 
discovery of a new edible fish seems likely to prove 
of some economic importance. 
In their third report on the improvement of indigo 
in Bihar (Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, Bulle- 
tin 67, 1916) Mr. A. Howard and Mrs. Howard again 
insist that sound scientific cultivation is the first 
essential in the resuscitation of the natural indigo 
industry. Regarding “indigo wilt,’ they explain that, 
though cure be impossible, prevention, under intelli- 
gent treatment, is not difficult. The occurrence in the 
indigo plant of two “nitrogen cycles’? makes the 
planter’s task something more than the harvesting 
from a given area of a maximum crop, a given weight 
of leaf of which shall yield a maximum of indican. 
The chemical advice under which during recent years 
this, without due regard to the physiological charac- 
teristics of the plant, has been the grower’s aim is 
unwittingly responsible for damage to the industry. 
Seed of single plants of a wild indigo, separately 
collected in Natal in 1913 for cultivation at Pusa, 
yielded a progeny more uniform than the Java indigo 
first introduced into Bihar in 1898. Colour, it is said, 
is thereby lent to the idea that Java indigo has arisen 
as a cross between the Natal plant introduced into Java 
three-quarters of & 
NO. 2461, VOL. 98] 
| 
| 
century ago and some species 1 degree square over the Indian Ocean. 
formerly cultivated in Java. The identity of the latter 
species is not suggested, nor is it stated where in 
Natal the seed imported in 1913 was gathered. When, 
shortly after 1898, attempts to import Natal seed into 
Bihar were first made, no dye-yielding indigo could 
be found in Natal; the seed then secured was that of 
the Zulu indigo plant. All those engaged in the 
natural indigo industry will welcome this report and 
look forward with interest to further information from 
its authors on this important subject. 
Tue only part of the British Empire that can be 
looked upon as a producer of thorium minerals in 
quantities of economic importance is the island of 
Ceylon, and a good account of their occurrence and 
distribution will be found in the September Bulletin of 
the Imperial Institute (vol. xiv., No. 3). The minerals 
in question are monazite and thorianite, the former 
containing about 8 per cent. and the latter about 
55 per cent. of thoria. The most profitable sources of 
the former appear to be certain of the beach deposits, 
where the monazite, together with much black sand, 
mainly ilmenite, has been concentrated by the action 
of the sea, whilst the thorianite is obtained from 
alluvial deposits in the river valleys, being often met 
with as a by-product in gem-mining ‘operations. Both 
these minerals have been traced to their parent rocks, 
their main source being apparently pegmatite veins or 
lenses in granite, granulite, and charnockite. Up to 
the present none of these primary occurrences have 
been found sufficiently important to be capable of 
economic exploitation; the minerals capable of being 
worked to advantage are all obtained from clastic 
deposits, resulting from the degradation of the primary 
deposits and the subsequent concentration by natural 
causes of the material thus broken down. 
THE meteorological observatory at the South Ork- 
neys, founded by Dr. W. S. Bruce in 1903, is still 
being maintained by the Argentine Government. Mr. 
R. C. Mossman, who was in charge of the observa- 
tory for the first two years of its existence, contri- 
butes some notes to Symons’s Meteorological Magazine 
for November (vol. li., No. 610) on the observations 
during 1915. The year was a remarkably cold one at 
the South Orkneys, the mean temperature (20-6° F.) 
being the lowest on record at the islands, and 3-4° 
below the average. In February, the warmest month, 
the mean temperature was 31:3°. Mr. Mossman 
points out that abnormally low temperatures were not 
prevalent during 1915 in the southern hemisphere; 
many observatories in middle latitudes showed mean 
temperatures above the normal. Other departures 
from the average conditions at the South Orkneys 
were the low rainfall and cloud amount, while the 
mean annual wind velocity was the lowest on record. 
These observations for 1915 will be of great value in 
conjunction with Sir Ernest Shackleton’s observations 
further south in the Weddell Sea at the same time. 
Tue Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands has 
published a revised edition of the oceanographical and 
meteorological observations in the Indian Ocean for 
the months of September, October, and November, 
which completes the series for the year. The observa- 
tions embodied are for the years 1856-1914. Results 
published by the English and French Meteorological 
Offices have been incorporated, and have added much 
to the value of the discussion. The work has been car- 
ried out under the superintendence of M. E. Van Ever- 
dingen, chief director of the Netherlands Meteorological 
Institute. The discussion is comprised in letterpress 
of 240 pages, which give the mean values of the 
principal meteorological élements for each  single- 
In a separate 
