NOVEMBEB 2G, 1900] 



SCIENCE 



111 



however, that there is a possibility that the 

 variety found off the Virginia coast, where 

 Ryder made his observations, may show vivi- 

 parity; but this is hardly likely to be the case. 

 Two possible explanations suggest them- 

 selves. Either Eyder dealt with another 

 species, which he considered to be F. majalis, 

 or he mistook for ovarian embryos some of the 

 latter that had been eaten by the female under 

 observation and had passed through the ali- 

 mentary canal undigested. These fish have 

 been observed to eat large numbers of their 

 own eggs. The latter may pass through the 

 alimentary canal without suffering the loss of 

 anything but the gelatinous envelope. The 

 embryos, however, that have passed through 

 this experience are always dead. It seems 

 scarcely likely that so excellent an observer as 

 Ryder should have been led into a mistake of 

 this sort ; yet this appears to be the most likely 

 explanation of the discrepancy. 



H. H. Newman 

 Austin, Texas 



devices for changing the timbre of 

 musical instruments 

 Enclosed is a rough sketch of a curious 

 bridge, used on a Hindu stringed instrument, 

 whose strings are picked. Fig. 1 shows top of 

 bridge, and Fig. 2 an end view. There is a 

 slight ridge near the lower side. Five grooves 



Fig. 1 



are cut on this ridge for as many wire strings, 

 whose relative position with the bridge is 

 shown in Fig. 2. A represents the vibrating 

 part of the string; C the part attached to the 

 tail piece. The yibrations of the string 



against the bridge produce a burring sound, 

 which seems to be favored by the orientals. 



In the " ti-tzu," a Chinese transverse flute, 

 there is a hole, about the same size as the 

 mouth-hole, half-way between the latter and 

 the upper finger-hole, which is covered with a 

 thin tissue, making a sympathetic drum, 

 which changes the reedy timbre of the flute. 



In a bamboo horn of the Filipinos, the 

 lower end of the bamboo is split into strips 

 about three eighths of an inch wide, produ- 

 cing a similar sound or result. 



In Africa, the negro xylophones, marimbas, 

 those that have a gourd resonator ■ suspended 

 beneath each sounding bar, have some of the 

 gourds perforated and covered with a thin 

 piece of cocoon, thus forming a sympathetic 

 drum, and likewise changing the timbre of the 

 instrument. 



Would not such instruments have anything 

 but a soothing effect on the nerves of our 

 musicians? But it was not always so. Ac- 

 cording to Mersenne, the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century saw bands of four or five 

 all playing on onion flutes, which met with 

 great favor all through western Europe. This 

 flute consisted of a straight wooden conical 

 tube, with conical bore, the mouth hole on the 

 side, and the open, small end of the tube cov- 

 ered with a thin skin of an onion; hence the 

 name. The player sung or hummed the tune 

 into the instrument, which resembled our 

 modern kazoo or zobo, the change of timbre 

 due to onion skin being pleasing at that 

 period. 



I have just come across the following article 

 by A. C. Moule in the North China branch of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society, 1908, page Y8: 



Rev. F. W. Galpin, of England, informs me that 

 the device of covering a hole with membrane was 

 not characteristic of the English recorder, as is 

 sometimes stated; but that in the early part of 

 the eighteenth century a transverse flute, called 

 the voice flute, was produced in London with a 

 membrane exactly like that of the Ti (the ti-tzu). 



An advertisement of " a rare concert of 

 four trumpets marine, never before heard in 

 England," appeared in the London Gazette, 

 of February 4, 1674. Some authors claim that 



