640 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
tain some idea of a subject which is rarely treated in a simple and practical man- 
ner by its professed teachers. 
In reading these lectures it becomes more and more apparent to the reader that 
the author has constantly borne in mind the duties of the teacher of art as stated 
in the preface to the work, viz : the general pilotage of the schools through the 
quicksands and mud-banks with which the deep water channel leading to excel- 
lence is beset on every side, and secondly the alimentation of that subtle flame 
without which the architect degenerates into a builder, the sculptor into a statuary, 
and the painter into a handi-craftsman. 
Every lecture is practical, emphatic and pointed, as well as entertaining ; 
full of instruction to the ordinary reader as well as to the art student; bristling 
with historical allusions, incidents appertaining to art in all lands and among all 
well known painters, as well as pertinent suggestions as to color, style, choice of 
subject, manner of handling, etc. Without an atom of art talent in his composi- 
sition the reader will become interested in this book, and long to apply the lec- 
turer's common sense, practical rules and directions in person : the real art lover 
will unquestionably find mines of information and suggestions well worth working. 
The Organs of Speech: By Georg Herman Von Meyer. i2mo., pp. 349. 
D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1883. For sale by M. H. Dickinson. 
$i-75- 
This is the forty-sixth volume of Appleton's International Scientific Series, 
and is probably as practical and useful as any one of them. It is an attempt to 
to show that a true knowledge of the laws which govern the transformation of 
the elements of speech in the formation of dialects or derivative languages can 
only be obtained from a study of the physiological laws of the formation of artic- 
ulate sounds. Hence the importance of the philologists becoming thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the structure and formation of the organs of speech. 
The author is Professor of Anatomy at the University of Zurich, and the 
book is illustrated with some fifty wood engravings, prepared expressly for the 
purpose of demonstrating his views and theories. It is divided into three chap- 
ters, comprising respectively the formation of the organs of speech, the relation 
between the organs of speech and the formation of sound, and the formation of 
articulate sounds. 
The object of the work being to discuss the structure and functions of the or- 
gans of speech, with special reference to the requirements of the philologist, 
it will be found that the descriptions of the anatomy and physiology of these 
organs all have this object plainly in view, and that there are various new and 
unusual interpretations of both presented. 
So thorough a treatment of the subject is not found, so far as we know, in 
any other work, and musicians and public speakers, as well as philologists, will 
be especially interested in it from a business standpoint, if from no other. 
