16 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 79. 



heat to the cylinder wall to check that ini- 

 iial loss. It has no thermodynamic value, 

 in a proper sense, as it does not increase the 

 range of adiabatic expansion. The economi- 

 cal value of superheating and of ' reheat- 

 ing ' between the cylinders of the multiple- 

 cylinder engine was discussed, and illus- 

 trations were given from the reported results 

 of engine trials, showing that superheating 

 is more effective than other expedients for 

 the prevention of internal waste. By refer- 

 ence to experiments reported in large num- 

 bers on the value of heat transferred to the 

 steam by steam-jackets for the same pur- 

 pose, the conclusion was drawn that for each 

 unit of heat expended in the prevention of 

 this waste several could usually be saved 

 in the engine. For simple engines this ratio 

 of saving to expense amounted to an average 

 of six and seven ; for compound engines, to 

 between three and four, the gain being the 

 less as the engine is the more economical 

 originally. Experience in Europe, far more 

 than in the United States, affords fact and 

 datum for the conclusions reached. The 

 Schmidt superheating engine, reported upon 

 by Schroeter, of Munich, gives the horse 

 power on but 10.2 pounds of steam per hour; 

 the pressure being about 125 pounds and 

 the engine one of moderate size. The little 

 twenty-horse-power engine of Sibley College, 

 operated with 300 to 500 pounds of steam, as 

 elsewhere described, is here stated to give 

 the horse-power, the steam being saturated 

 at the high-pressure cj^inder and reheated 

 between cylinders with ' less than ten 

 pounds, 11,000 B. T. U., per horse power 

 per hour.' The conclusion is reached that 

 " This is, to-day, the greatest of all the prob- 

 lems presented to the designing and con- 

 structing engineer, with the possible excep- 

 tion of that of finding a system of effectually 

 rendering the interior of the working cylin- 

 der non-conducting in such manner as to en- 

 tirely prevent the occurrence of initial con- 

 densation ; thus conforming the ' ideal case ' 



to the real, and making the steam engine 

 a purely thermodynamic machine." 



A number of papers were read describing 

 details of practical engineering work and a 

 set of 'topical questions ' was propounded; 

 both papers and questions eliciting much 

 interesting discussion bearing upon practi- 

 cal, rather than scientific, points in engi- 

 neering. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 



Within the compass of about 300 duo- 

 decimo pages, Prof. Giacomo de Gregorio, 

 of the University of Palermo, has com- 

 pressed an admirable survey of the ele- 

 ments of the science of language, a task by 

 no means easy. ( ' Glottologia.' Ulric 

 Hoepli, Milan, 1896.) 



He divides the subject into three parts, 

 glottology, language in general, and par- 

 ticular languages. In the first he discusses 

 the place of the study of language among 

 the sciences, and rapidly sketches its his- 

 toric development, naming the most prom- 

 inent students and their works. The sec- 

 ond part enters fully into the phonetics and 

 the physiology of articulate sounds, and in 

 a second chapter reviews the theories of 

 linguistic radicals aud the origin of speech. 

 The third part presents an able chapter on 

 the various proposed classifications of lan- 

 guages, and a summary of the principal 

 linguistic stocks of the globe. An excellent 

 bibliography of linguistic writings precedes 

 the text. 



The author is much more than a com- 

 piler. He is an independent and acute 

 critic, and threads his way with clear vision 

 through the dust and fog of conflicting hy- 

 potheses and averments. He is not a sup- 

 porter of any ' school,' but claims for lin- 

 guistic science the high and right place 

 that it deserves among the natural sciences 

 relating to man, and his method is that of 

 those sciences. 



