June 5, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



non-volcanic origin, caused, it is suggested, by the displacement 

 of masses of land beneath the ocean. The voUime concludes 

 with various reports and papers by Professor Milne, such as dia- 

 grams of earthquakes recorded in Tokio, a report on earthquake 

 observations made in Japan during the year 1889, and an essay 

 on the connection betveeen earthquakes and electric and magnetic 

 phcDomena, which is full of matter of an interesting and sugges- 

 tive kind. 



— Elementary organic analyses are commonly effected in labora- 

 tories by what are known as combustion processes. The substance 

 to be analyzed is placed in a long glass tube and heated in prox- 

 imity to copper oxide, etc., and tlie products of combustion are 

 then examined. Electricity has been applied to the analysis of 

 gases in the eudiometer, and also in many cases of what are called 

 electrolytic separations. We are not aware, however, says the 

 London Electrical Review, that it has been applied to the analysis 

 of organic substances until quite recently. J, Oser has just 

 worked out an entirely new method, which may be described as 

 electro-thermal. The new method partakes of the nature of the 

 old combustion process, of which it is really, perhaps, a modifica- 

 tion. The substance to be burnt is placed in a small porcelain dish 

 which is surrounded by a coil of thin platinum wire, and is con- 

 tained in an ordinary hard combustion tube. A stream of pure 

 oxygen gas is allowed to flow steadily along the tube, and at the 

 same time the platinum wire is heated to redness by means of an 

 electric current, the wires being kept insulated by passing through 

 narrow apertures in a porcelain cylinder fitting into the tube. In 

 order to insure perfect combustion, all the products of combus- 

 tion, togetlier with the excess of oxygen, are led through a narrow 

 aperture in the porcelain cylinder filled with granular copper 

 oxide and heated to a high temperature by an electrically ignited 

 platinum wire which also passes through this aperture. A num- 

 ber of precautions appear to be necessary in order to insure satis- 

 factory results by this method, and these, together with a table of 

 numerical results which Oser has obtained, are given in the original 

 paper. Oser is engaged in attempting to develop his method so 

 that in one apparatus may be determined both the elementary 

 analysis and the heat of combustion of any given organic sub- 

 stance. 



— As it is desirable that uniform usage in regard to geographic 

 nomenclature and orthography should obtain throughout the ex- 

 ecutive departments of the Government, and particularly upon 

 the maps and charts issued by tlie various departments and bu- 

 reaus, the following persons, who have heretofore co-operated for 

 a similar purpose under the authority of the several departments, 

 bureaus, and institutions with wliich they are connected, have 

 been appointed by the President as a Board on Geographic Names. 

 Professor Thomas C. Mendenhall, United States Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, chairman; Andrew H. Allen, Department of State; 

 Capt. Henry L. Howison, Light-House Board, Treasury Depart- 

 ment; Capt. Thomas Turtle, Engineer Corps, War Department; 

 Lieut. Richardson Clover, Hydrograpbic Office, Navy Department ; 

 Pierson H. Bristow, Post Office Department; Otis T. Mason, 

 Smithsonian Institution; Herbei't G. Ogden, United States Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey; Henry Gannett, United States Geological 

 Survey; and Marcus Baker, United States Geological Survey. 

 This board has just issued a bulletin in which it lays down the 

 following principles, adopted for guidance in determining the 

 official form or rendering of geographic names {A. — Within the 

 United States) : (I) That spellingand pronunciation which is sanc- 

 tioned by local usage should in general be adopted ; (2) Where 

 names have been changed or corrupted, and such changes or cor- 

 ruptions have become established by local usage, it is not in gen- 

 eral advisable to attempt to restore the original form; (3) In cases 

 where what was evidently originally the same word appears with 

 various spellings, sanctioned by local usage, when applied to dif- 

 ferent features, these various spellings should be regarded as in 

 effect different names, and, as a rule, it is inadvisable to attempt 

 to produce uniformity; (4) Where a choice is offered between two 

 or more names for the same place or locality, all sanctioned by 

 local usage, that which is most appropriate and euphonius should 

 be adopted; (5) The possessive form should be avoided whenever 



it can be done without destroying the euphony of the name or 

 changing its descriptive application. {B. — In foreign countries) : 



(6) Geographic names in countries that use the Roman characters 

 should be rendered in the form adopted by the country having 

 jurisdiction, except when there are English equivalents already 

 fixed by usage. In cases where the English equivalent is so dif- 

 ferent from the national form that the identity of the latter with 

 the former might not be recognized, both forms may be given; 



(7) The spelling of geographic names that require transliteration 

 into Roman characters should represent the principal sounds of the 

 word as pronounced in the native tongue, in accordance with the 

 sounds of the letters in a system published by the board. An ap- 

 proximation only ^o the true sound is aimed at in this system. 

 The vowels are to be pronounced as in Italian and on the conti- 

 nent of Europe generally, and the consonants as in English. 



— Platinum and palladium crystals may be made by placing 

 topaz dust on a ribbon of the metal heated to a white heat by an 

 electric current, the crystals appearing on the topaz. 



— According to the Colonies and India, Mr. Alexander McPhee, 

 a West Austi-alian bushman, who has steadily been earning fame 

 lately by his explorations in the central regions of Australia, started 

 inland from Roeboume in July last on another tour of discovery, 

 taking back at the same time an albino aboriginal whom he found 

 and brought to Melbourne a couple of years since. News has 

 been received from which it appears that Mr. McPhee, with the 

 albino, Jun Gun, and a "black fellow"' named Timothy, went 

 along the coast some 250 miles to a station called Yinadong, when 

 the party turned inland in an easterly direction. After travelling 

 about 350 miles, Mr. McPhee came upon another albino, a boy of 

 fourteen years, whom he describes as the most extraordinary 

 specimen of humanity he ever saw. One old man in this camp 

 told Mr. McPhee that when he was a boy he heard of a party of 

 whites and horses dying a long way inland. The old fellow could 

 give no particulars about this party, but Mr. McPhee feels certain, 

 owing to his acquaintance with the habits and customs of the 

 blacks, and being thoroughly conversant with their dialect, that a 

 pai'ty of white men perished about forty years ago somewhere in 

 the interior. He heard of Warburton's party, and saw a native 

 who told him that he guided them to water. He also heard of 

 two parties of whites who had lately been in the desert, but turned 

 back. From bis turning point to the coast of La Grange Bay, Mr. 

 McPhee reckons he was about 250 mUes in a south-east direction 

 from that bay. He found the natives very friendly, and on no 

 occasion was it necessary to keep a watch. The country is de- 

 scribed as very poor. The only birds observed during the journey 

 were an odd crow and a few sparrows about the water. Not a 

 track of a kangaroo or emu was seen. 



— The settlement of a purely philological question (that, namely, 

 as to the position of the French accent), by a physical method, has 

 been recently attempted by Dr. Prigsheim of Berlin. According 

 to Nature, the instrument used was KOnig and Scott's phonauto- 

 grapb, into which a number of Frenchmen were required to speak, 

 tlie measurement of the record being aftewards made by means of 

 a timing-fork curve running parallel with it. Tliis instrument 

 renders possible a determination of the duration, pitch, and inten- 

 sity of each syllable, and Dr. Prigsheim discusses its indications. 

 As a preliminary result be finds that two-syllable words have the 

 vowels pronounced with equal length and strength. Noteworthy 

 differences appear in the curve of a word according as it occurs 

 in the middle or at the end of a sentence. In the latter case, there 

 is added to the characteristic word curve a terminal curve with 

 declining pitch and strength, which is nearly the same for different 

 words, and corresponds to the sinking of the voice before a pause. 

 The vowels and consonants show characteristic curves ; and notably 

 long wave-lengths occur with n, I, b, and rf. The duration of 

 syllables varies between 0.1 and 0.5 second ; and between the sylla- 

 bles of a word there are often pauses of 0.03 to 0.2 second. The 

 shortest syllable i- in iti', with rather slow pronunciation, consisted 

 of 22 vibrations; yet the ear is capable of not only hearing the 

 tone, but of detecting fine shades and differences in the mode of 

 pronunciation. Further experiments in this direction, with an 

 improved apparatus, are contemplated. 



