OcTOBEU 5, 1S8:'.] 



SCIENCE. 



477 



similar disk in a similar telephone at a disUmt 

 station, causing it to vibrate in an identical man- 

 ner, and therefore to emit identical sound;*." 

 Here we have Reis spoken of as inventing • an 

 imperfect telephone,' while Bell inventeil ' the 

 articulating telephone.' Reis's instrument was 

 a ' contact-breaker,' and conveyed ' musical 

 tones.' Reis's instrument transmitted speech 

 ' very imperfectly,' and there is not the slight- 

 est suggestion of microphonic action in the 

 transmitter. Yet two years later we have 

 statements diametrically opposed to these. 



The least that can be said of such varying 

 and contradictory- evidence is, that it totally 

 destroys the credibilitj' of the witness, and 

 nullifies his claim to be accepted as a scientific 

 authority, unless good reason is shown for the 

 ditierent opinion. The documents quoted in 

 the book give no substantial reason for this 

 change of ground, as they add very little of 

 any importance to what was alread^y generally 

 known. The motive for the later opinions may 

 be more intelligibh' traced in the following 

 items, which will be found in the Telegraphic 

 journal and electrical review, vol. xii. p. 72, 

 Jan., 1883, and p. 317, April 14, 1883, in the 

 list of English patents : — "2578. Telephonic 

 instruments. Svlvasus P. Thoipsox. Dated 

 Maj- 31. Gd. This invention relates to tele- 

 phonic instruments, and chiefl}- to improve- 

 ments in receivers of a well-known form or 

 type, invented by I'hillip Reis." " 3803. Im- 

 provements in telephonic apparatus. Sylva- 

 NUS P. Thompson. Dated August 9. Gd. 

 Relates to telephonic transmitters based upon 

 the principle discovered b}' Philipp Reis in 

 18G1, namely that of employing current-regu- 

 lators actuated, either directly or indirectly, by 

 the sound-waves produced b}- the voice. B}' 

 the term ' current- regulator,' the inventor 

 means a device similar to that employed by 

 Reis, wherein a loose contact between two parts 

 of a circuit (in which are included a batter}' and 

 a telephonic receiver) offers greater or less 

 resistance to the flow of the electric current, 

 the degree of intimae\' of contact between the 

 conducling-pieces being altered b^- the vibra- 

 tions of the voice." 



For a contrast of colors, we raa^- put side by 

 side with these sentences the following, from 

 the preface to the book now under considera- 

 tion : "To set forth the history- of this long- 

 neglected inventor and of his instrument, and 

 to establish upon its own merits, without si)ecial 

 pleading, and without partialitj', the nature of 

 that much-misunderstood and much-abused 

 invention, has been the aim of the writer. . . . 

 He has nothing to gain by making Reis's in- 



vention appear either better or worse than it 

 really was." 



Further comment upon the value of such tes- 

 timony as is contained in this book is snrperflu- 

 ous. What Reis acconii)lislied, and what he 

 failed to do, are now familiar matters of his- 

 tor}'. His well-earned fame can only suffer 

 from such misstatement of facts, and the un- 

 just exaggeration of his actual achievements. 



OBLIGATIONS OF MATHEMATICS TO 

 PHILOSOPHY, AND TO QUESTIONS 

 OF COMMON LIFE.^ — I. 



SracE our last meeting, we have been Jepriveil of 

 three of our most distiiiguisbod members. Tbe loss 

 by the death of Professor Henry John Stephen Smith 

 is a very grievous one to those who Unew ami admired 

 and loved him, to his university, and to mathemalical 

 science, which he cultivated with such ardor and 

 success. I need hardly recall that the branch of 

 mathematics to which he had specially devoted him- 

 self was that most interesting and difficult one, the 

 theory of numljers. The immense range of this sub- 

 ject, connected with and ramifying into so many 

 others, is nowhere so well seen as in the series of re- 

 ports on the progress thereof, brought up, unfortu- 

 nately, only to the year 1805, contributed by him to 

 the reports of the associ.ition; but it will still better 

 appear, when to these are united (as will be done in 

 the collected works in course of publication by the 

 Clarendon Press) his other mathematical writings, 

 many of tliem containing his own further develop- 

 ments of theories referred to in the reports. There 

 have been recently or are being published many such 

 collected editions, — Abel, Cauchy, Clifford, Gauss, 

 Green, Jacobi, Lagrange, Maxwell, Riemann, Steiner. 

 Among these, the works of Henry Smith will occupy 

 a worthy position. 



More recently. Gen. Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., 

 for twenty-one years general secretary of the associa- 

 tion, and a trustee, president of the meeting at Bel- 

 fast in the year 18.52, and for many years treasurer, 

 and afterwards president of the Royal society, biis 

 been taken from us at an age exceeding the ordinary 

 age of man. Born October, 1788, he entered the 

 Royal artillery in 180.'), and conmiandod batteries at 

 the siege of Fort Erie in 1814 ; made magnetic and 

 other observations in Ross and Parry's north-polar 

 exploration in 1SIS-I9, and in a series of other voy- 

 ages. He contributed to the association reports on 

 magnetic forces in 18.30, 1837, and 1838, and about 

 forty papers to the Philosophical transactions ; origi- 

 nated the system of magnetic observatories, and other- 

 wise signally promoted the science of terrestrial 

 magnetism. 



There is yet a very great loss, — another late presi- 



' Inaugural arldrces by Anrnun Catley, M.A., D.C.L 

 T.L.D., F.K.8., Sndlerian profeeeor of pure malbcmaUcA in the 

 University of Cambridge, president of Uic British aBSOciation for 

 Iho advancement of science, for the Southport meeting. From 

 advance proofs kindly furnished by the eiiitors of Mature. 



