262 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 377 



sounds of p b in, t d n. k g ng, — depicted in the "Visible 

 Speech " symbols, — are entirely invisible in the substituted sym- 

 bols for the sounds of m n ng. So. also, for the symbols of s sh th, 

 — which form a related series in '• Visible Speech,"' — the " modifi- 

 cations" depart altogether from the original plan of symljoliza- 

 tion by substituting a set of merely arbitrary forms. 



In some few points Mr. Sweet disputes the correctness of the "Vis- 

 ible Speech '" analysis; for example, in the sound of ah, the " low 

 back wide" vowel which Mr. Sweet says should be the 'mid 

 back wide." Such difference of opinion is of course legitimate, 

 but each opinion should be attributed to its proper author. In 

 the preface to this bnok llr. Sweet says, "I feel convinced that 

 the path of progress lies through the ' Visble Speech ' analysis, and 

 that the first duty of the very few who have a practical command 

 of it is to do what they can to spread the knowledge of it." Yet 

 in the above case Jlr. Sweet gives his own analysis only, and 

 mak(S no refeience to its divergence from that oi'iginally made, 

 and still upheld, by the author of "Visible Speech." The same 

 procedure is further manifested in the introduction of symbols 

 for the teeth, turned in different directions — as, surely, never 

 teeth were turned -to represent the sounds of th and /. In ref- 

 erence to tliese symbols, Mr. Bell says, in bis " Lectures on Pho- 

 netics," " The symmetry of the system has been deformed in re- 

 publications which have been njade without leave asked or given. 

 One emendator, it seems, had supposed the system wanting in 

 symbols for the teeth, and accordingly he actually provided it 

 with a set. ' Visible Speech' was certainly not born with teeth; 

 or, lather, teeth (jcing in the mouth, their presence is implied as 

 a matter of course, and requires no symbolizing — as they are not 

 in tlie habit of shifting their root-fast positions. The teeth, like 

 the hard palate, are only passively employed; and it will be time 

 enough to call in dental aid wlien the teeth are shown to be the 

 active agents in forming any oral tound." 



In spite cf this protest. Mr. Sweet brings in his symbols for the 

 teeth, without a word to show that they form no part of the origi- 

 nal system. This is altogether indefensible. " Visible Speech," 

 as we learn from the inaugural volume, cost its author the labor of 

 twenty years: and, although its inventor might be scientifically glad 

 to see his system superseded by a better, no person can look with 

 equanimity on winton interference with so elaborate a plan. All 

 that Mr. Sweet has to say in his " Primer " might have been said 

 — if not better said — within the limits of the symbolism that has 

 not, we are told, been found wanting in means to discriminate 

 the phonetics of any language. Mr. Sweet's "modifications" 

 cannot be accepted as legitimate; far less can they be .considered 

 as improvements: but the chief objection to them is that they 

 are mixed up with the true "Visible Speech," as if they formed 

 part of the system. In it, yet not of it, they misrepresent it, and 

 mislead the learner. 



Simple Elements of Navigation. By Ltjcien Yotjng. New 

 York, Wiley. 16". 

 To the yachtsman who annually, and about this time of 

 year, goes down to the sea in a schooner, or a sloop, or a 

 cutter, or perchance in a steam or naphtha launch, this 

 little pocket-volume will prove invaluable; and to the naval 

 apprentice, the petty officer, or the ambitious able seaman, it 

 will be of greater immediate assistance on the road to promo- 

 tion than more pretentious works intended for the use of 

 accomplished mathematicians and experienced navigators. The 

 treatise is not intended to take the place of any other work, 

 for we know of no other of similar scope; nor does it aim to 

 supply any real or imaginary deficiency in previous works 

 on the subject. It is put forth as a compendium or epitome 

 of the simple elements of navigation, containing every thing 

 necessary to enable a man of ordinary intelligence, with a 

 little "seafaring education," to navigate a vessel to any port 

 in the world; but it does not aim to supplant more compre- 

 hensive works on navigation. All complicated mathematical 

 formulas are omitted, and also all calculations not readily and 

 easily comprehended and performed. About one-half the 

 volume is of necessity given to the tables of difference of lati- 

 tude and departure; refraction, dip, and jiarallax; declination 



of the sun; equation of time; sines, tangents, and secants? 

 etc. ; without which no work of the kind is complete. 



But, good as the book is, it has serious defects, which we 

 hope to see remedied in later editions. These defects, how- 

 ever, while marring the literary value of the work, do not 

 interfere with its value for the main purpose the author had 

 in view. They arise from the attempt to condense into a few 

 pages matter which, from its nature, does not readily lend 

 itself to condensation. As a consequence, there are many- 

 sentences in the book which must be carefully studied, readl 

 over and over again, before the meaning is apparent. To the 

 author, of course, familiar with the subject, all is clear; but 

 to the student, to whom navigation may be "all Greek,"' the 

 translation into plain English of puzzling obscurities, pro- 

 duced by ultra-condensation, may be a distasteful task. Then. 

 there are occasional lapses in grammar and in diction, whicli 

 would not be so noticeable were they not in so noticeable a 

 work. As a whole, the treatise is a good one, the need of 

 such a work was felt, and we have no doubt that it will have 

 a cordial reception. 



A Century of Electricity. By T. C. Mendenhall. Boston and 

 New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1890. 13°. $].25. 



This is a second edition, with additions, of this book, which 

 was first published in 1886, — with additions, we note, as the 

 progress of electrical science, which has been made mostly in the 

 last hundred years, did not cease four years ago, but has made- 

 further strides Man}' of these advances have been in the appli- 

 cations of electricity to the production of light, and, in a broad 

 way, to the transmission of power. Four years ago electrical ap- 

 pliances were pojaping up on every side, each putting forth a. 

 claim to great usefulness and to perfection. This activity in a 

 new industrial field gave rise to the inevitable fever of specula- 

 tion, which could but result in great disappointments, as the in- 

 completeness of the novel inventions as they then stood was. 

 shown by experience. Then, again, the use of so powerful an-^ 

 agent in methods most crude led to disasters to human life and 

 property, that aroused hostility to the new force. Our author 

 traces all this matter of history, and shows how even the much. 

 talked of alternating currents have been gradually made more 

 amenable to human wants, and records the general settling-dowit 

 to really useful work of the electrical industries. 



But it is on the side of theory also that enormous advances 

 have been made recently in electrical science. Many know that 

 a connection between electricity and light was suspected a dozen 

 or twenty yeai-s ago by Clerk Maxwell. Now, in his additions. 

 Professor Mendenhall records the experiments of Hertz, which 

 show the suspicion of twenty years back to be true. 



Many are interested in the display of electrical energy on every 

 hand, and yet know little of how it has come to pass that there 

 are electric cars, electric lights, electric printing-presses. For 

 these Mendenhall's "Century of Electricity" is intended, and 

 that they may rely upon it is shown by the fact that in two years 

 only two errors have. been pointed out in the text; and one -of 

 these dates back to Faraday himself, who overlooked a misstate- 

 ment of one of the laws lie discovered in his own publication of 

 theai. — an error which was inadvertently copied. 



Tlie Elements of Laboratory Work: A Course of Natural Sci- 

 ence. By A. G. Earl. London and New York, Longmans. 

 1S°. 

 The author is a late scholar of Christ's CoUege, Oxford, and 

 now science master at Tonbridge School. The book is for use in 

 laboratory work, and presupposes a fairly well stocked room for 

 the instruction of beginners in physical science. The field of 

 work is somewhat more limited than is frequently the case with 

 books of this class, experiments on the physical and to some ex- 

 tent on the chemical properties of matter being made most 

 prominent. Electrical measurements, which lend themselves ad- 

 mirably to higher laboratory work in physics, are but sparingly 

 referred to. For ourselves, we do not approve of the minuteness, 

 with which the primary facts in regard to matter are supposed to- 

 be observed by the student using Earl's methods, but we are 



