G2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



President Powell said that in consequence of the infinite variety 

 of possible sounds, it was impossible to classify them except by 

 types. No two persons speak alike ; no two voices are alike ; and 

 instrumental tests have shown that the same person cannot pro- 

 nounce the same vowel twice in precisely the same way. Prof. 

 Bell had frequently demonstrated this by means of the telephone. 

 The effect on the instrument was different with each attempt, and 

 having made a sound once he found that he could never exactly 

 repeat it. The passage of a vibration of air through the complex 

 mechanism of the human voice is so heterogeneous in its character 

 that it is impossible for two men to utter precisely the same sound. 

 Two sounds thus made may be very nearly but cannot be exactly 

 the same. 



In the course of his work during several years past, in endeavor- 

 ing to devise an alphabet with which to write the sounds embraced 

 in various Indian languages, he had come to the conclusion that he 

 could not describe sounds by describing the way in which they are 

 made ; that, in the present state of the science of phonology, it 

 was only possible to compare them with those by which they would 

 be recognized. He could only describe the way in which some- 

 thing like the sound is made. He therefore thought that a com- 

 mon system of pronunciation for all languages was a physical 

 impossibility. 



Forty-Second Regular Meeting, June 21, 1881. 



Prof. G. Brown Goode read a paper entitled The Fishermen of 

 the United States. The following is an abstract : 



For every man engaged in the fisheries there is at least one other 

 man who is dependent to a considerable extent upon his labors 

 for support. To the class of "shoresmen " belong (1) the capital- 

 ists who furnish supplies and apparatus for the use of the active 

 fishermen ; (2) the shopkeepers from whom they purchase pro- 

 visions and clothing ; and (3) the skilled laborers who manufacture 



