1888, ] 225 : | Brinton, 
gation shows that it was the sense of sight rather than of hearing 
which was the prompter to vocal utterance. But the consideration 
of the source of primitive significant sounds lies without the bounds 
of my present study. 
It will be seen from these remarks that the primitive speech of 
man was far more rudimentary than any language known to us. It 
had no grammatical form; so fluctuating were its phonetics and so 
much depended on gesture, tone, and stress, that its words could 
not have been reduced to writing, nor arranged in alphabetic 
sequence ; these words often signified logical contradictories, and 
which of the antithetic meanings was intended could be guessed 
only from the accent or a sign; it possessed no prepositions nor 
conjunctions, no numerals, no pronouns of any kind, no forms to 
express singular or plural, male nor female, past nor present; the 
different vowel-sounds and the different consonantal groups conveyed 
specific significance, and were of more import than the syllables 
which they formed. The concept of time came much later than that 
of space, and for a long while was absent. 
Obituary Notice of Philip H. Law, Esq. By Daniel G. Brinton, M.D. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 19, 1888.) 
In one of the conversations of his later life, Goethe said, that some of 
the most remarkable men whom he had met in his career had never ac- 
quired distinction in any line of effort. Something of the same kind is 
stated by Hugh Miller, the geologist, in his ‘‘ Autobiography.’’ I am re- 
minded of these expressions in preparing a biographical notice of our late 
member, Mr. Philip H. Law. Those who knew him best will, I think, 
agree with me in pronouncing him a remarkable man ; although it is diffi- 
cult to point to anything that he accomplished which would justify the 
epithet. This lack of accomplished deeds may in part be explained by the 
circumstances of his life. He was the only son of parents enjoying pecu- 
niary ease, and as he never married he lacked that potent stimulus to 
effort—necessity. : 
His birth took place in Baltimore, February 17, 1839. When he was 
about eight years of age, the family removed to Philadelphia, where Mr. 
Law resided the rest of his life, rarely leaving the city even in summer 
fora single day. Some of his youthful experiences were in the office of 
his father, who was a broker, and the glimpses he there obtained of Third 
street methods were never forgotten by him. 
