May and, 1887.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEW^S. 



69 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 



THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 



ON the 24th ult. Professor Max MiiUer delivered, at the Royal 

 Institution, the second of his three lectures on "The Science of 

 Language." He reminded his audience that the object of his first 

 lecture had been to prove the simplicity of language, it being possible 

 to build up the richest language with about 800 roots and a small 

 number of demonstrative elements. He then proceeded to show that 

 these 800 roots expressed really no more than about 120 fundamental 

 concepts. Out of these every thought that had ever passed through 

 our minds had been formed by generalization, specialization, metaphor, 

 etc. There was nothing really new in language, but every new word 

 had been formed from old materials, and every new thought from old 

 concepts. Fashionable came irom /actio, the make or cut of a garment. 

 Qufer came from the German ijiier, across ; righteous from right, 

 straight ; gay from the German gahe, going it ; iiol'le from nobilis, worth 

 knowing. Whether we spoke of peculiar people, or of peace of mind, 

 of pagans, or of the piopagiilion of the Gospel, of a page of writing, or 

 of the Areopagus, of G'fngniss, prison, or of ein empfdngliches Thor, 

 every one of these words sprang from the same root — pak, to tether, 

 one of the 17 roots expressing the simple concept of joining or putting 

 together. The next point was to prove the simplicity of thought by 

 showing the identity of language and thought. Thinking, as Hobbes 

 had shown long ago, was no more than adding and subtracting. Our 

 judgments could be no more than either aflirmative or negative. The 

 question was, however, what we added or subtracted. We did not 

 combine and separate things as they might or might not exist apart 

 from us, nor our sensations, nor our precepts or presentations, nor our 

 concepts. We could only combine and separate what we had named. 

 We might distinguish between sensation, perception (presentation), 

 conception, and meaning, but the four were inseparable, and they were 

 fully realised in the process of naming only. That thought and word, 

 notio and nomen, were thus inseparable had been the teaching of some 

 of the most eminent philosophers. Hobbes had no doubt on the 

 subject, while in more modern times Kircher, W. von Humboldt, 

 Schleiermacher, Schelling, and Hegel all declared with one accord that 

 we thought in names, and in names only. Archbishop Whateley was 

 equally decisive on the subject, while other philosophers, such as 

 Locke, Leibnitz, and Kant, hesitated, and, while admitting that we 

 hardly ever thought without words, could not bring themselves to say 

 that we never did. Berkeley looked upon words as the greatest 

 impediments to thought, which, no doubt, they might be, and he pro- 

 mised in his future essays to abstain from them as much as possible, a 

 promise which he prudently withdrew in later editions. The lecturer 

 admitted that the belief in disembodied spirits would die hard, and pro- 

 tested particularly against the common expression of "mere words," 

 which was as absurd as if we were to call an egg-shell a mere egg, or a 

 corpse a mere man. We must be careful to define every word used by 

 us, particularly technical terms. We need not always use them in their 

 traditional meaning, which was generally vague, but we should clearly 

 state how much we put into every word, and not attempt to take more 

 out of it than we had put into it. The science of thought would thus 

 not only mark a new departure in the history of philosophy, but would 

 supply the only safe foundation which we wished to make honestly our 

 own. 



BRAIN SURGERY IN THE STONE AGES. 



■|\ TR. VICTOR HORSLEY gave a lecture on the 4th of March. 

 J_Vj. on " Brain Surgeiy in the Stone Ages." The title of this dis- 

 course fairly expressed its scope, for the practice by the people of the 

 neolithic period of resorting to surgery for the relief of mischief to the 

 brain was fully detailed. Whatever be its explanation, the instances in 

 which trephining was practised in the stone age occur more frequently 

 in the centre of France than anywhere else in Europe. The deliberate 

 nature of the operation, as exemplified in the skulls hitherto discovered, 

 was proved by the position of the openings, their being in the majority 

 of instances healed, and by the extremely interesting discovery of the 

 fact that the portions of bone cut out were not only preserved as amulets, 

 but also put back again into such a trephined head at the time of death. 

 From a comparison of the modes of trephining performed by savage and 

 mediaeval nations, it was proved that the stone age people opened the 

 skull either by drilling, scraping, or sawing, most probably by the last 

 method. Similarly it was shown from a study of the seat of operation, 

 that in all probability recourse to surgery was suggested by the symp- 

 toms of depressed fracture, and notably by the symptoms of traumatic 

 epilepsy. 



ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE usual monthly meeting of this Society was held on Wednes- 

 day evening, the 20th inst., in the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 25, Great George-street, Mr. W. Ellis, F.R.A.S., president, in the chair. 

 The following papers were read : — 



(I). — "The Storm and Low Barometer of December Sth and 9th, 

 1886," by Mr. C, Harding, F.R. Met. Soc. The violence of this storm 



was felt over the whole of the British Islands, as well as over a great 

 part of the continent of Europe. The highest wind force recorded by 

 any anemometer over the country was a velocity of eighty miles in the 

 hour, registered at Fleetwood, The most exceptional feature of the 

 storm was the extraordinary low-reading of the barometer, and the long 

 time that the mercury remained at a low level. The lowest authentic 

 reading w.as 27'38ins. at Belfast, and the barometer fell below 28ins. 

 over a great part of England, Scotland, and Ireland. At Aberdeen the 

 mercury was below 28ins. for eighteen consecutive hours, and below 

 29ins. for more than sixty hours, whilst in the North of England the 

 barometer readings were equally exceptional. 



(2). — "Report of the Wind Force Committee," drawn up by Mr. G. 

 Chatterton, M.A., F.R. Met. Soc. In this report, which is a prelimi- 

 nary one, the committee have dealt mainly with that portion of the 

 investigation relating to Beaufort's Scale of Wind Force, and the equiv- 

 alent velocity in miles per hour. The committee have compared the 

 velocities as recorded by the anemographs at Holyhead, Falmouth, and 

 Yarmouth, with the entries of Beaufort's Scalfe on the logs of the 

 neighbouring lightships and lighthouses for the year 18S1, and they give 

 the results in a table. After a careful consideration of the whole of the 

 results of this investigation, the committee are of opinion that the veloci- 

 ties shown by the Yarmouth anemograph, corresponding to Beaufort's 

 Scale as recorded on board the lightships, are too high, and that the 

 velocities shewn by the Falmouth anemograph are probably too low. 

 The committee, however, have not yet had before them sufficient data 

 to determine with any degree of certainty the relation between Beau- 

 fort's Scale of Wind Force, and the equivalent velocity in miles per 

 hour. Neither are they able to recommend any existing scale that can 

 be adopted or modified. 



(3). — " A new form of Velocity Anemometer," by Mr. W. H. Dines, 

 B.A., F.R. Met. Soc. In this instrument an attempt has been made to 

 measure the velocity of the wind by the rotation of a small pair of 

 windmill sails, the pitch of the sails being altered automatically, so that 

 the rate may always bear the same ratio to that of the wind. The 

 mechanical details are briefly as follows : — A helicoid is fixed at the 

 front, and a small pair of sails of variable pitch at the back of a steel 

 rod, and just behind the helicoid a light fan, which can turn on the 

 same axis, but is independent of the helicoid and sails. If the rotation 

 be too rapid, the fan turns in the same direction as the helicoid, and by 

 its motion alters the pitch of the sails so that their motion is retarded ; 

 if, on the other hand, the friction is increased, or from any other cause 

 the motion becomes too slow, the fan is turned in the other direction, 

 and the rate is increased. The motion is communicated to a vertical 

 rod, which passes down the hollow pivot on which the instrument turns ; 

 it is kept facing the wind by a vane. It is convenient to connect the 

 vertical shaft to the recording dial by a light flexible wire, all that is 

 necessary being to place the dial approximately beneath the anemome- 

 ter ; by this means the trouble of ascending a high tower or ladder is 

 avoided, except where oil is required. 



(4). — " Description of two New Maximum Pressure Registering Ane- 

 mometers," by Mr. G. M. Whipple, B.Sc, F.R. Met. Soc. The simplest 

 instrument is a modification of the Lind's, Hagemann's or Bitot's water- 

 pressure anemometers, provided with an apparatus for registering the 

 maximum height the water attained during the period which elapsed 

 since the last setting of the instrument. The second form of registering 

 maximum pressure anemometer is derived from the ordinary pressure 

 plate instrument ; a circular metallic disc of 9|ins. in diameter exposing 

 a surface of half a square foot is kept at right angles to the wind by means 

 of a suitable vane. This disc is perforated by eight circular .apertures, 

 each of l§in. in diameter. Behind each aperture a disc of I Jin. in 

 diameter is loosely held in situ by means of a bent lever loaded with a 

 weight. These weights are arranged so as to press upon the different 

 discs with pressures proportionate to the values usually assigned to wind- 

 pressures measured by the various degrees of the Beaufort Scale. 



THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 



AT the meeting on Tuesday, the 5th of April, a paper was read on 

 " Printing Machinery," by Mr. E. A. Clowes. The author com- 

 menced by stating that in the middle of the fifteenth century, printers 

 possessed an appliance which would print on one side of a sheet of 

 foolscap only ; and at the present time they have an apparatus that 

 prints on both sides simultaneously from reels of paper five miles long 

 at the rate of 100 yards per minute. The former worked at the rate 

 of less than 200 impressions per hour ; the latter gives lo,000 copies of 

 The Times per hour. 



The earliest representation of a 'press is dated 1507. There is a 

 simple screw, with a long pin for a lever. The wonderful degree to 

 which the apparatus of printing has been rendered automatic is shown 

 by a Table, fiom which it appears that to print a single sheet by the 

 hand-press ten separate and distinct operations are necessary ; on an 

 ordinary cylinder machine wilh flyers these are reduced to two, while in a 

 rotary web-machine the whole operation is performed by the self-acting 

 mechanism. 



After referring to early inventions, at some length, the author went 



