August 3, 1882] 



N* 1 Ti 'RE 



33i 



they may be liquefied with about equal facility. It should be 

 noticed that the thermal change accompanying the formation of 

 I [CI, for example, is not a true measure 

 of the attraction between the atoms, since it also includes the 

 heat employed in separating the atoms of the original molecules 

 II, and CI,'. 



j also find a confirmation of the above views in the 

 many homologous series of organic chemistry. In the alcohols 

 of the ethyl series, for example, the larger the molecules the 

 greater must be the attraction between them, and consequently 

 the higher the boiling-point ; this, as is well known, is in 

 accordance with fact. In the case of isomeric alcohols, the 

 influence of the position of the atoms comes conspicuously to 

 the fore. It is clear that if the atoms of carbon of two different 

 molecules cannot approach each other so nearly in the ca-e of 

 one isomer as in another, the attraction between the molecules 

 will be less, and the boiling-point con-equently lower. Now in 

 v and tertiary ale ihols the carbon atoms are more shel- 

 tered by each other, are, as it were, mure removed from the 

 exterior of the molecule than in primary alcohols ; at the same 

 time the boiling-points are lower, which is as it should be. 



If we replace two atoms of hydrogen in an alcohol by one of 

 oxygen we increase the attraction of the molecule-, since we 

 substitute a certain number of attractions (/( ) and (c o) for the 

 relatively small attractions (hh) and (c A) ; the increase of boil- 

 ing-point which we should expect is confirmed by experiment. 

 Many other examples might be brought forward, were it not 

 that their discussion would transcend the limits of this article. 



Before concluding I should like to draw attention to one ques- 

 tion which is of importance. The use of the above hypothesis 

 renders it difficult at first sight to account for the formation of 

 definite chemical compounds ; it seems that if any number of 

 atoms of hydrogen are equally attracted by one of chlorine, the 

 combination of on: of them with that atom would not prevent 

 the adherence of a second and a third forming H 2 C1, H 3 C1, &c. 

 This difficulty is avoided by supposing that the chlorine atom is 

 of such a form that only one atom of hydrogen can approach suffi- 

 ciently closely to adhere permanently ; such forms are difficult to 

 imagine, though it may be remarked that an atom in the form 

 of a ring offers in a certain sense a unique position to another 

 which instals itself inside it. The existence of molecular com- 

 pounds proves that the permanent adherence of other atoms is 

 sometimes possible, and thus affords material support to the 

 notion that the chemical affinity of an atom is not only exerted 

 upon those atoms with which it is combined, but upon all others 

 in its vicinity. Fred. D. Brown 



The Museum, Oxford 



THE GESTURE SPEECH OF MAN 1 

 A NTIIROrOLOGY tells the march of mankind out of 

 "■ savagery, in which different peoples have advanced in 

 varying degrees but all started in progress in civilisation from 

 a point lower tha-i that now occupied by the lowest of the tribes 

 now found on earth. The marks of their rude origin, retained 

 by all, are of the same number and kind, though differing in 

 distinctness, showing a common origin to all intellectual and 

 social development, notwithstanding present diversities. The 

 most notable criterion of difference is in the copiousness and 

 precision of oral speech, and connected with that, both as to 

 origin and structure, is the unequal survival of gesture signs, 

 which it is believed once universally prevailed. Where sign- 

 language survives it is, therefore, an instructive vestige of the 

 prehistoric epoch, and its study may solve problems in philology 

 and psychology. That study is best pursued by comparing the 

 pre-eminent gesture system of the North American Indians with 

 the more degenerate or less developed systems of other peoples. 

 North America showed more favourable conditions for the 

 ent of gesture signs than any other thoroughly explored 

 part of the world. In the pre-Columbian period the population 

 was scanty, and so subdivided dialectically that the members of 

 but few bands could readily converse with each other. The 

 sixty-five families of the Indian language now known to have 

 existed within the territory of the United States differed among 

 themselves as radically as each differed from the Hebrew, 

 Chinese, or English. In each of these families there were some- 

 times as many as twenty separate languages, differing from each 



1 Address by Col. Garrick Mallery, U.S.A., Chairman of the Sub-Section 

 <.f Anthropology at the American Association (Cincinnati). 



other as the Engli-h, French, German, and Persian divisions of 

 the Aryan linguistic stock. 



The conditions and circu nstances attending the prevalence, 

 and sometimes the disuse, of sign-language in North America 

 were explained. The rep «'t of travellers, that among Indians, 

 as well as other tribes of men, some were unable to converse in 

 the dark, because they could not gesture, is false. It is the old 

 story of aglossos and ban by the Greeks to all who 



did not -peak Greek, repeated by Isaiah of the " stammering " 

 Assyrians, and now appearing in the term s/av (speaker) as 

 contradistinguished by the Russians from the Germans, whom 

 they stigmatise as njemn (tongueless). 



The theory that sign-language was the original utterance of 

 mankin I does not depend upon such tales or prejudices. After 

 the immeasurable period during which man has been upon the 

 earth, it is not probable that any existing peoples can be found 

 among whom speech has not obviated the absolute necessity for 

 gesture in communication between themselves. The signs survive 

 for convenience used together in oral language, and for special 

 employment when language is unavailable. 



The assertions made that ,the sign language of Indians origi- 

 nated from some one definite tribe or region supposes its com- 

 paratively recent origin, whereas the conditions favourable to its 

 development existed very long ago and were co-extensive with the 

 territory of North America occupied by any of the tribes. Such 

 a solution would only be next in difficulty to the old persistent 

 determination to decide upon the origin of the whole Indian race, 

 in which most people of antiquity in the eastern hemisphere, in- 

 cluding the lost tribe of Israel, the gypsies, and the Welsh, had 

 figured conspicuously as putative parents. Numerous evidences 

 were presented as to its antiquity and generality. But the signs 

 are not now, and from the nature of their formation never were, 

 identical and uniform. 



An argument for the uniformity of the signs of Indians was 

 derived from the fact that those used by any of them were gene- 

 rally understood by others. But signs might be understood 

 without being identical with any before seen. There was evid- 

 ence that "here sign language was found among Indian tribes it 

 had become more uniform than ever befcre, simply becau-e 

 many tribes had for some time past been forced tu dwell near 

 together at peace. The process of the formation and introduc- 

 tion of signs was the same among Indians as often ob- 

 served among uninstructed deaf-mutes when associated to- 

 gether. There was a similarity of development between the 

 sign language of mutes and Indians. The longer and closer 

 the contact between Indians while no common tongue was 

 adopted, the greater would be the uniformity of signs. The 

 inference that there was but one true Indian sign language, just 

 as there was but one true English language, was not correct, 

 unless it could be shown that a much larger proportion of the 

 Indians who use signs at all, than present researches show to be 

 the case, used identically the same signs to express the same 

 ideas, and also because the signs are not absolute and arbitrary, 

 as are the words of English. 



Are these signs conventional or instinctive? Sign language, 

 as a product of evolution, had been developed rather than in- 

 vented, and yet it seemed probable that each of the separate 

 signs, like the several steps that lead to any true invention, had 

 a definite origin arising out of some appropriate occasion, and 

 ths same sign might in this manner have had many independent 

 origins due to identity in the circumstances, or, if lost, might 

 have been reproduced. In regard to arbitrary or natural sounds, 

 no signs in common use were in their origin conventional, 

 and what appeared to be conventionality largely consisted 

 in the form of abbreviation agreed upon. When the signs of 

 the Indians had from ideographic become demotic, they might 

 be called conventional, but still not arbitrary. Vet, while all 

 Indian-, as well as all gesturing men, have many signs in 

 common, they Use many others which have become conventional 

 in the sense that their etymology and conception are not now 

 known or regarded by those Using them. The conventions by 

 which such signs were established occurred during long periods 

 and under many differing circumstances. Our Indians, far from 

 being a homogeneous race and possessing uniformity in their 

 language, religions, and customs, differ from each other more 

 than all the several nations of Europe, and their semiotic concep- 

 tions have correspondingly differed. To insist that sign language 

 was uniform were to assert that it is perfect. He next went on 

 to prove the general ancient use of the system in North America. 

 This fact might be recognised among tribes long exposed to 



