April 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



631 



Dr. Jordan was justified in regarding it 

 as representing a distinct family. Of gen- 

 eral interest the specimen certainly was, how- 

 ever, from its grotesque appearance. But the 

 feature which gave it especial value to the 

 student was its resemblance to a shark of the 

 Cretaceous period, Scaphanorhynchus, gen- 

 erally assumed to he extinct. Was it possible, 

 then, that this Cretaceous shark was still liv- 

 ing in Japanese waters? And if this were 

 true, might it not occur in other deep-sea 

 regions, like its more ancient relative, Ghla- 

 mydoselachus? Thus we find that Dr. Arthur 

 Smith Woodward, of the British Museum, 

 ■commenting (1899) upon Miisukurina, is dis- 

 tinctly of the opinion that the new genus was 

 but a synonym for the Cretaceous shark, and 

 he gives the evidence in favor of this view 

 in the Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory (7), Vol. ni., pp. 487-489, and makes 

 ■out a fairly convincing case of identity. 

 Nevertheless, we have to admit that the char- 

 acters of the fossil shark are as yet too im- 

 perfectly IcaovTn to warrant a definite judg- 

 ment, and the safer course, therefore, is to. 

 acknowledge for the present the validity of 

 the name Mitsukurina. 



The note in the Japanese paper announces 

 that more specimens of this shark have been 

 taken, and we have promise, accordingly, that 

 better anatomical data may be looked for. For 

 one thing it now appears that the specimen 

 first studied was an immature one, no examina- 

 tion of the soft parts having been made. The 

 latest specimen in the hands of Mr. Owston 

 measures, mirahile dictu, about twelve feet in 

 length and its weight is estimated as between 

 four and five hundred pounds. This extreme 

 size, it will at once be seen, ranks this shark 

 as one of the largest members of deep-water 

 ichthyic fauna, and it is possibly the most 

 formidable member of its community. 



The depth at which the specimen was taken 

 is not stated, but from the conditions of fishing 

 near Numazu, the fish was apparently taken 

 in water deeper than three hundred fathoms. 

 As a symptom of its living at a great depth 

 one notes in the latest description of the fish, 

 that its ' flesh and skeleton are extremely limp, 



folding like a wet rag.' The color of the 

 fresh specimen is described as ' light reddish- 

 brown, the fins darker brown; nuchal region 

 a little darker, and belly paler.' 



Bashfoed Dean. 



early ifstajsroe of tangible lip-reading. 



An interesting feature of the autobiography 

 of Miss Helen Keller is the account by her 

 teacher. Miss Sullivan, of her patient efforts 

 to train her young pupil to receive and com- 

 municate ideas by tangible lip-reading. Most 

 persons regard the education of blind deaf- 

 mutes as a development of modern philan- 

 thropy, and it will surprise many to learn that 

 the method of tangible lip-reading was in- 

 vented nearly two hundred and thirty years 

 ago. 



Bishop Burnet, the famous English histor- 

 ian and theologian, in a letter dated Eome, 

 December 8, 1685, and addressed to the 

 eminent scientist Hon. Eobert Boyle, wrote 

 as follows : 



There is a minister of St. Gervais — ^Mr. Gody 

 — who hath a daughter that is now sixteen years 

 old. At a year old the child spoke all those little 

 words that children begin usually to learn at 

 that age, but she made no progress; yet this was 

 not observed till it was too late, and as she grew 

 to be two years old they perceived then that she 

 had lost her hearing, and was so deaf that ever 

 since though she hears great noises yet she hears 

 nothing that one can speak to her. But the child 

 hath by observing the motions of the mouths and 

 lips of others acquired so many words that out 

 of these she has formed a sort of Jargon in which 

 she can hold conversations whole days with those 

 that can speak her own language. I could un- 

 derstand some of her words but I could not com- 

 prehend a period [sentence] ; for it seemed to me 

 a confused noise. She knows nothing that is said 

 to her unless she seeth the motion of the mouths 

 that speak to her, so that in the night when 

 it is necessary to speak to her they must light a 

 candle. 



Only one thing appeared the strangest part of 

 the whole narrative. She hath a sister with 

 whom she has practiced her language more than 

 with any other; and in the night, by laying her 

 hand on her sister's mouth she can perceive by 

 that what she says and so can discourse with her 

 in the night. It is true her mother told me this 



