September 8, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



135 



its appearance in American teaching. Precisely why 

 these numbers should lie as they do, I was never able to 

 see, although for many years I have been conscious of this 

 arrangement and have wondered what its origin might be. 

 The letters of the alphabet arrange themselves for me 

 in a visual way which is easily esislainable. This is in three 

 rows of eight each with Y, Z and Ampersand together be- 

 low. The reason for this, I think, is that I learned to read 

 without the preliminary of learning my letters, and after 

 having been reading for several years, in my eighth year, 

 my teacher made the agonizing discovery that while I was 

 reading pretty miich anything I pleased I did not know 

 the order of my letters. I was, accordingly, set to work 

 mastering au order which I will admit I have found most 

 useful for every purpose except reading and writing. 

 I learned the alphabet in this summary fashion out of a 

 j^rimer which had the ali^habet disposed on its second 

 page at the tojj of the page in the order which I have 

 mentioned, and in all the manifold use of the alj^habet for 

 purjjoses of classification with which we are all familiar, 

 but which we are apt to forget as a comparatively modern 

 invention, the alphabet always seems to me to be in the 

 three lines I have mentioned. 



Talcott Williams. 



Columbian Congresses on Science and Philosophy. 



At least eight congresses were held during the week of 

 August 21-26, and six are announced for Aug. 28-Sept. 2. 

 The International Electrical Congress awakened much 

 general interest, Professor Helmholz being a prominent fig- 

 ure. Au illustrated lecture was given on the evening of 

 Aug. 25, by Mr. Nikola Tesla, on Mechanical and Elec- 

 trical Oscillators. This took -place within the Exposition 

 grounds, where about 70 per cent of the total horse- 

 power of steam engines is used for electrical purposes. 

 The Chamber of Delegates made their report on the 

 sjsecial work entrusted to them. 



The Congress on Psychical Science, with suggestions of 

 sj)iritualism and hypnotism, also awaked some popular 

 interest. 



The Congress of Chemistry has been carefully worked 

 up by Br. H. W. Wiley, and 77 j^apers were announced. 

 These were arranged in sections, as Analytical, Agricul- 

 tural, Technological, etc. 



Among the foreign chemists present, were Prof. Otto 

 N. Witt, of Berlin; Prof. George Thoms, of Eiga; Prof. 

 H. E. Proctor, of Leeds; Prof. E. Engier, of Caiisruhe; 

 and Prof. George Lange, of Zurich. X. 



Palenque Hieroglyphics. 



It is gratifying to learn that Dr. Valentini, after a long 

 absence from the field of jjaleographic investigation, is 

 about to return to it. There is one statement, however, " 

 in his communication to Science, Aug. 18, which needs 

 correction. He saj's "Mr. Forstemann's theory of reading 

 double columns is untenable." Now if he will refer to 

 my "Study of the Manuscript Troano," printed in 1882, 

 pp. 199-203, he will find this theory there set forth, as I 

 think, for the first time, and, also, evidence of its correct- 

 ness, which has apparently satisfied most students who 

 are devoting attention to the Central American inscriptions 

 and codices. 



His statement that no month symbol appears on the 

 tablets is made in face of evidence to the contrary, which 

 seems to be conclusive. 



I may add here that Dr. Briuton's accej)tance {Science, 

 Aug. 11) of the rendering given by me of the month name 

 Kayah, necessarily forbids its derivation from Kaij "to sing 

 or warble." A compound of ah and yah cannot be a de- 

 rivative of Kay. The ok may be obtained from the sym- 

 bol on the rebus method of Aubin, which Dr. Brinton has 



rechristened by the name "Ikonomatic," but it is diflicult 

 to explain the symbol representing the last syllable yah by 

 this method. If the name was formed as I suggested, and 

 as admitted, [Ak-yah) the signification, with the month de- 

 terminative added, is "the month when turtles abound." 



Cyrus Thomas. 



Frederick, Md., Aug, 31. 



Color Vision. 



I AM very much surprised to see that Professor Ebbing- 

 haus, in the last number of the ZeitHchrift fur Psychologie, 

 announces as new a discovery which has a critical bearing 

 upon Hering's theory of color-vision, — the fact, namely, 

 that two greys composed the one of blue and yellow and 

 the other of red and green and made equally bright at 

 one illumination do not continue to be equally bright at 

 a diiierent illumination. If two complementary 

 colors were purely antagonistic, that is, if the color pvoo- 

 esses simply destroyed each other, as processes of assim- 

 ilation and dissimilation must do, and if the resulting 

 white was solely due to the residual white which accom- 

 panies every color and gives it its brightness, then the 

 relative brightness of two greys composed out of dif- 

 ferent parts of the spectrum could not change with change 

 of illumination. The fact that they do change is there- 

 fore completely subversive of the theory of Hering, or of 

 any other theory in which the complementary color-proc- 

 esses are of a nature to annihilate each other. This 

 consequence of the fact, as well as the fact itself, I stated 

 at the Congress of Psychologists at London in August, 

 1892, and it was printed in the abstract of my paper 

 which was distributed at the time and also in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Congress. 



Professor Ebbinghaus's discovery is apparently inde- 

 pendent of mine, for he sujjposes that the phenomenon can- 

 not be exhibited ujjon the color-wheel. This is not the 

 case; with fittingly chosen papers (that is, with a red and 

 green which need no addition of blue or yellow to make a 

 pure grey, and with a corresponding blue and yellow) it is • 

 perfectly evident upon the color-wheel. The same paper 

 circles which I used to demonstrate it in Professor 

 Konig's laboratory, in Berlin, are, at the request of Pro- 

 fessor Jastrow now on exhibition at the World's Fair at 

 Chicago. While Professor Ebbinghaus's discovery of the 

 fact is therefore doubtless independent of mine, I allow my- 

 self to point out that mine is prior to his in point of time. 

 Cheistine Ladd Franklin. 



Myology OF THE Cat; or the M. Flexor Accessorius of the Human 

 AND Feline Foot. 



The supposed new muscle in the cat's foot [Science, 

 Aug. 18, 1893, p. 97,) is, so far as Mi-. Thomi^son's des- 

 cription allows of identification, probably no other than 

 the 



Accessoire du grand flechisseur (Bich.) of the Cat, 

 Accessoire du j)erodactylus (Str.-Dur.) of the Cat, 

 Caput plantare fiexoris digitorum (Caro quadrata 

 Sylvii) of Man, 

 or the M. flexor accessorius of human and feline 

 anatomy 



The flexor accessorius muscle in man originates by 

 means of a muscular (internal and larger) head from the 

 inner border of the calcaneum, which may be entirely absent, 

 and by a tendinous slij) which comes from the outer face 

 of the Os calcis, just in front of the external tubercle, and 

 from the long plantar ligament. As it has two quite con- 

 stant sources of origin, so it has two insertions, one of 

 which, however, is not constant. The usual insertion is 

 that into the external border and ujjper surface of the M. 

 flexor longus digitorum pedis, just where it divides into 

 the four branches for the toes. (Most of the fibres of this 



