April 10, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



589 



phone tlie records made on wax cylinders can 

 be used for making metal molds; from these 

 indestructible molds copies in hard wax can 

 be made. The gramophone method likewise 

 furnishes metal molds from which hard 

 discs are produced; but the talking machine 

 requires an expert. This gramophone method 

 was lately used on three expeditions sent out 

 by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. The 

 new methods furnish records that are per- 

 fect in recording every detail of 'the voice. 

 There is not the slightest loss even of the 

 most difficult consonants. Criticisms stat- 

 ing the contrary are derived from, acquaint- 

 ance with methods that are now out of date. 

 From the gramophone records the curve of 

 speech can be traced off with great accuracy; 

 whereby every detail of the voice can be meas- 

 ured. A similar method can be applied to 

 phonograph records. It was urged that the 

 fast disappearing dialects and languages 

 should be recorded and preserved in one of 

 these ways. It was pointed out that such 

 records could be made and delivered at 

 smaller cost per word than in the case of 

 Guilleron's ' Atlas.' It was stated that the 

 various talking machine companies have 

 shown self-sacrificing interest in such work, 

 and that the Victor Talking Machine Com- 

 pany would be willing to loan its record-tak- 

 ing car when it is finished. Exhibits of vari- 

 ous material and speech curves were made. 



' Correlations of Measurements of Growth,' 

 Dr. Clark "Wissler. (Read by title.) 



' Correlations in School Children,' Dr. J. H. 

 Bair. The measurements were taken on 

 Worcester school children. A high coeffi- 

 cient of correlation was shown between 

 stature and height-sitting, stature and weight, 

 and height-sitting and weight. Between 

 stature, height-sitting, weight, with length of 

 head and width of head the amount of corre- 

 lation was much less and much more irregular 

 than between the measurements first named. 

 This irregularity was partly due to the small 

 number of cases examined. 



' Apparent Motion in Stereoscopic Vision,' 

 Professor J. E. Lough. Stereoscopic pic- 

 tures may be united without the aid of a 

 stereoscope, {. e., by direct fixation, whenever 



the distances between similar objects in the 

 two pictures is not greater than the inter- 

 ocular distance. "When pictures are so 

 united — giving a direct perception of the 

 third dimension — any movement of the pic- 

 ture from side to side gives the impression 

 that objects in the background are moving 

 through a greater distance than are the ob- 

 jects in the foreground. This ' slipping ' of 

 the background is perceived with still greater 

 vividness when the picture remains stationary 

 and the head is rotated or moved from side 

 to side. In bringing a stereoscopic picture 

 nearer the eyes the background seems to ap- 

 proach more rapidly than the foreground, and 

 in moving the picture away from the eyes 

 the background seems to move away more 

 rapidly. The apparent motion in stereoscopic 

 pictures seen under the above conditions is 

 probably due to the fact that the angle of 

 parallax remains constant, while the line of 

 direction varies, with every movement of the 

 head or of the picture. 



'An Experiment in Facial Vision,' Pro- 

 fessor Robert MacDougall. The paper sup- 

 plements and in three resjiects aims to correct 

 the reports of previous experiments on facial 

 vision. In the perception of objects in prox- 

 imity to the face independently of the sense 

 of sight, the nature of the sensory impression 

 upon which perception depends is not com- 

 monly discriminated. In the present investi- 

 gation the percentage of correct perceptions 

 was found to lie between 50 and Y5, that is, 

 within the subliminal region. This result 

 is contrary to previous work in which the 

 percentage lay clearly above the threshold of 

 75. If a true perceptual process be involved, 

 the percentage of correct responses should be 

 a function of the absolute differences between 

 the objects discriminated. This was found 

 to be the case in the present set of experi- 

 ments, but not in preceding investigations. 

 In work jiublished heretofore the perception 

 was reported to be mediated solely by sensa- 

 tions of sound, but in the present investiga- 

 tion the shutting ofE of auditory stimulation 

 made practically no rediietion in the percent- 

 age of correct responses. 



