March 20, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



163 



otherwise exist. From this poiut of view, the marriage is 

 undesirable. 



On the other hand, from the point of view of the person 

 born deaf, such a marriage is extremely desirable, for it will 

 diminish the hereditary tendency in his family. In such a 

 case, the friends of one party would probably favor the 

 union, and the friends of the other advise against it; and 

 the mutual friends of both could only say, "It is desirable 

 to one, and undesirable to the other: we cannot advise; your 

 own hearts must decide the matter." 



Now, I have come before you to-night to show you that 

 there may be something in my researches of benefit to you; 

 I want also to assure you that there is nothing of harm. I 

 want to disabuse your minds entirely of the idea that I in- 

 tend or desire to interfere with your perfect liberty of choice. 

 I claim the right to advise you as I would advise my own 

 children, or any young people in whom I feel an interest. 

 In this matter my views coincide very closely with those 

 recently expressed by President Gallaudet through the col- 

 umns of Science. You have to live in a world of hearing 

 and speaking people, and every thing that will help you to 

 mingle with hearing and speaking people will promote your 

 welfare and happiness. A hearing partner will wed you to 

 the hearing world, and be of inestimable value to you in all 

 the relations of life. Not only will your own success in life 

 be thereby increased, but the welfare of your children will 

 be materially promoted. It is surely to the interests of chil- 

 'dren, both deaf and hearing, that one at least of their parents 

 should hear. 



I would therefore hold before you as the ideal marriage a 

 marriage with a hearing person. Do not let any one place 

 in your minds the idea that such a marriage cannot be a 

 happy one. Do not let any one make you believe that you 

 cannot find a hearing person who will treat you as an equal. 

 The chances are infinitely more in your favor that out of the 

 millions of hearing persons in this country you may be able 

 to find one with whom you may he happy than that you 

 should find one among the smaller numbers of the deaf. 



I think the sentiment is hurtful that makes you believe 

 you can only be happy with a deaf companion. That is a 

 mistake, and, I believe, a grave one. I would have you be- 

 lieve that the welfare of yourself and your children will be 

 greatly promoted by marriage with a hearing partner, if you 

 can find one with whom you can be happy. 



And now, my friends, I must thank you very much for 

 the attentive way in which you have listened to me, and I 

 hope that you will all dispel from your minds any idea that 

 I intend to interfere with your liberty of marriage. I know 

 that very grave misconceptions of my position and views 

 have been circulated during the past few years among the 

 deaf. I have before me to-night an audience composed of 

 the brightest and most intelligent minds among the deaf, 

 and I want you to help me in dispelling these ideas. 



These misconceptions have arisen chiefly, I think, from 

 too great reliance upon newspaper stories and second-hand 

 information. The newspapers seem to know a good deal 

 more about my opinions and views than I do myself, and I 

 am constantly seeing items about myself that have utterly 

 no basis in fact. Only a few weeks ago I read in a news- 

 paper a long report of an interview with me that never took 

 place. The substance of that article has since been copied 

 from paper to paper all over the United States. I happened 

 to be suffering from a slight headache when the reporter 

 called at my hotel, and I thought this would afford a good 

 excuse for avoiding an interview. I therefore sent my com- 



pliments to the reporter, and begged to be excused. He went 

 away, and I thought that that was the end of the matter. 

 Alas, no ! Next morning I found myself in the paper, in 

 large capitals, giving forth opinions relating to the education 

 of the deaf that I had never expressed. 



Now, I would impress upon your minds the fact that if 

 you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a 

 man says himself rather than what people say he says. There 

 is no man in America, I think, who has been more inter- 

 viewed by newspaper reporters than I have, and I can assure 

 you that I have never yet seen a report of an interview with 

 me that was free from error. 



But now I begin to be afraid of you; for you are the inter- 

 viewers in this case, and I wonder how I shall be reported 

 by you in the newspapers of the deaf. I am talking to you 

 by word of mouth, while my friend. Professor Fay, is trans- 

 lating what I say into the sign-language. Then by and by 

 you will translate it all back again into English for the bene- 

 fit of your deaf friends in distant parts. You are the inter- 

 viewers this time, and I fear you are just as liable to make 

 errors of statement as the ordinary newspaper reporter. I 

 have therefore brought with me to-night a gentleman who 

 has taken a stenographic account of all that I am saying to 

 you. I will look over his notes and correct them, and then 

 it will afford me pleasure to present every member of the 

 Literary Society with a printed copy of my remarks. Allow 

 me, therefore, to request the correspondents of distant papers 

 kindly to reserve their notes of my remarks until they can 

 get my own words in black and white. 



I must thank you very much for the attention with which 

 you have listened to me, and in conclusion I would simply 

 say, that, if any one here desires to ask me questions upon 

 the subject of my address, I shall be happy to do my best to 



reply. 



( 



BRITISH NEW GUINEA.. 



Mr. J. P. Thomson read a paper in December last, on " The 

 North-east Coast of British New Guinea, and some of the Adja- 

 cent Islands," before the Queensland Branch of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society of Australasia, an abstract of which appears in 

 Tlie Scottish Oeographieal Magazine for March. He remarked on 

 the absence of information regarding this coast before the estab- 

 lishment of the British authority in New Guinea, which he ac- 

 counted for by the fact that this part is less accessible from 

 Australian ports than the south-eastern coast. The mountain- 

 ranges, when viewed from a distance, seemed to rise abruptly 

 from the shore, leaving no margin of cultivable land, and the na- 

 tives bore the reputation of barbarous cannibals. Moreover, the 

 indentations of the coast, such as Goodenough, Collingwood, Dyke 

 Acland, and Holincote Bays, are too exposed to afford safe an- 

 chorage for ships in stormy weather. Sir William Macgregor, 

 therefore, could not fail to bring back a large fund of information 

 from his expedition to this coast in July, 1890. 



The Anglo-German boundary is defined on the coast by Mitre 

 Rock, a mass of conglomerate rising upon, or near to, the 8th 

 parallel of south latitude, to a height of 60 feet above the water, 

 with an opening about 13 feet high and 1 yard broad extending 

 through it from north to south. Within a quarter of a mile of 

 this rock. Boundary Gape, so named by Su- Peter Scratchley, pro- 

 jects into the sea, a promontory of low forest-clad hills rising to a 

 height of 400 to 500 feet. No natives were discovered until the 

 expedition had advanced as far south as Caution Point, where a 

 large village on the coast is inhabited by a powerful tribe. The 

 men ornament their chins with false beards extending from ear 

 to ear, and decorate their heads with cassowary feathers, shells, 

 and fibres; but tattooing seems not to be in fashion among them. 

 The largest tribe met with inhabits a district of hilly ground and 

 sago swamps lying to tlie south of Boundary Cape, behind which 



