TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 973 
to call them so, because the Zatin grammar forbids it. It is clear from their 
function that the best phones for vowels must always be the strongest phones. 
The strongest phones all belong to Class 1, because here only does the larynx 
vibrate with perfect freedom. But there are wide differences within this class. 
The sounds of m, n, and 2g, issuing only through the nostrils, are obstructed by 
insufficiency of exit, and the same applies to the sounds of J, untrilled 7, conso- 
nantaly, and w, Thus good vowels are limited to glottal phones possessing a 
sufficient exit. 
There is still a further limitation. The number of possible vocalic articulations 
is infinite. The number of articulations which produce vowels possessing a definite 
individuality of timbre is very few. These are the useful vowels, the cardinal 
vowels of human speech [Diagrams of the articulations of English long vowels 
were here exhibited]. Vowels produced in other positions are much more feebly 
differentiated to the ear. In a paper read at the Cardiff meeting in 1891, the 
author laid down as the first law of vowel-production Like articulations produce 
itke vowels in all organisms, great or small. He now discussed the converse pro- 
position, and showed its limitations: (1) in different individuals, (2) in the same 
individual on different occasions. He then discussed the differences between 
sung and spoken vowels, and concluded by pointing out the occasional effects of 
the uvula, the nose, and the trachea on vowels. 
2. The Interpretation of the Phonograms of Vowels. 
By R. J. Luoyp, D.Lit., WA. 
Following up his papers ‘On the Analysis of Vowel-Sounds,’ read at Cardiff in 
1891, and ‘On the Genesis of Vowels,’ read at the present Meeting, the author 
proceeded to discuss the phonographic evidence which has become accessible in the 
last five years, and the right principles of its interpretation. Their general result 
is to confirm the theory then advanced by the author, that a given vowel is 
essentially distinguished by the interval or ratio between its resonances and not 
by their actual pitch. Detailed results were exhibited in a table. The figures of 
actual pitch therein given are true only of full-sized male organisms, articulating 
widely, as in singing. In actual speech the air-spaces are more or less compressed 
and the resonances are higher. This is especially true of the middle members, 
marked c in the series. This letter c (=circa) indicates also in the same vowels 
a resonance which spreads some distance both ways from the value given. The 
identification of the 8-resonances with those of the mouth is fairly certain; that of 
the a-resonances with those of the pharynx is more tentative, and subject to 
certain qualifications, especially in the latter half of the table. The y-resonance 
seems special to the a vowels, and is perhaps due to the trachea, 
3. Report on Physiological Applications of the Phonograph. 
See Reports, p. 669. 
4. On a New Method of Distingwishing between Organic and Inorganic 
Compounds of Iron in the Tissues. 
By Professor A. B. Macatium, V.B., Ph.D., Toronto. 
The reagents hitherto at the service of the physiologist for distinguishing 
between organic and inorganic iron compounds have not enabled the investigator to 
determine whether iron compounds in the foetal liver, the placenta and spleen, 
which react almost immediately with ammonium sulphide, are of inorganic or 
organic nature. An additional reagent is to be found in an absolutely pure 
aqueous solution of hematoxylin, which gives a yellow colour to all preparations of 
tissues, but when inorganic iron compounds are present these change the colour 
to blue or bluish-black. Organic iron compounds have no effect on the reagent, 
