184 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 108. 



fact that the soft palate is raised during articulation, 

 swallowing, and coughing, can thus be readily demon- 

 strated, and the length of its periods of ascent and 

 descent measured. The palate is seen to be raised 

 once only for some words, twice for others, three 

 times for others. The numbers of these motions are 

 invariable within a narrow range of individual vari- 

 ation. The instrument offers a ready means of de- 

 tecting paralysis of the soft palate; and it has been 

 suggested that it may be made available for the com- 

 parative study of phonetics, for the instruction of 

 the deaf, and for the formation of a system of logog- 

 raphy. One curious result we select to mention 

 from the many details of the paper: less motion of 

 the palate occurs in saying 'mamma' than 'papa.' 

 Dr. Allen suggests that the smaller effort required may 

 be one cause of children usually learning the former 

 word first. Like all Dr. Allen's work, this also is 

 excellent. 



— In the series of manuals of technology edited by 

 Professor Ayrton and Dr. Wormell, and published by 

 Messrs. Cassell & Co., will soon be published a work 

 on watch and clock making, prepared by Mr. David 

 Glasgow, the vice-president of the British horological 

 institute. 



— We understand that Papllio, which was re- 

 moved a year ago from New York to Philadelphia 

 with a change of editor, is now practically to return 

 to New York, as it is to be merged into the Bulle- 

 tin of the Brooklyn entomological club. Both these 

 names will be dropped at the close of the seventh 

 volume of the Bulletin, in April next, and a new 

 series commenced under the title of ' Entomologica 

 sic Americana,' a monthly journal of twenty pages. 



— The Journal of the Iron and steel institute sums 

 up the known distribution of iron ore in north-west 

 Africa as follows: "In Morocco there are beds of 

 hematite of considerable size, and their continuity 

 and re-appearance westwards is now an ascertained 

 fact. Commencing from the Tunisian frontier, the 

 Mediterranean seaboard offers an abundance of pay- 

 able ore at various points, and these deposits were 

 very extensively worked by the Romans, forming in- 

 deed their main supply. The most productive Alge- 

 rian mines furnish a spathic carbonate containing 

 sixty per cent of ferrous oxide, and a hematite con- 

 taining ninety-two per cent of ferric oxide. The com- 

 position of the Algerian ore is exceedingly uniform, 

 and.it is almost entirely free from sulphur and phos- 

 phorus. These beds re-appear as far west as the con- 

 fines of the provinces of Rihamina and Dukkala in 

 South Morocco. The deposits consist of red hema- 

 tite, and show an outcrop of very extensive area. 

 Specimens brought from the Sahara caravan route 

 either to Tafilelt or Timbuctoo prove the re-appear- 

 ance of these iron-ore beds south of the Atlas ranges." 



— The Brookville (Ind.) society of natural history 

 proposes soon to issue a bulletin containing articles, 

 by members of the society, on the natural history of 

 south-eastern Indiana. Mr. W. H. Fogel of West 

 Columbia, W. Va., has presented the society a large 

 collection of archeological specimens, including one 



of the finest series of hematite implements in the 

 United States. The society is continuing this win- 

 ter the courses of free lectures, devoted to scientific 

 subjects of popular interest, which it has formerly 

 supported. The second of these lectures, on the an- 

 cient vegetation of the globe, was given by Joseph F. 

 James of Cincinnati, on Jan. 13; and the third, on 

 poisons, by Mr. J. U. Lloyd of Cincinnati, on Feb. 3. 



— Mr. J. J. Thomson is to succeed Lord Rayleigh 

 as professor of physics at the university of Cambridge. 



— Mr. D'Arcy W. Thompson, formerly of Trinity 

 college, Cambridge, has been elected professor of bi- 

 ology in University college of Dundee. 



— With the number for 1885, the management of 

 the JSfeues jahrbuch fur mineraloc/ie, geologie, und 

 palaeontologie passes into the hands of M. Bauer of 

 Marburg, W. Dames of Berlin, and Th. Liebisch of 

 Konigsberg. 



— The modern mathematician finds the space of 

 three dimensions, in which our visible universe is 

 contained, entirely too contracted for his conceptions, 

 and is obliged to imagine a space of n dimensions in 

 order that his fancy may find room to disport itself. 

 But it is a new idea, on the part of the novelist, to 

 make the conceptions of transcendental geometry 

 the basis for an amusing story. ' Flatland, a romance 

 of many dimensions, by A. Square ' (Boston, Roberts 

 brothers, 1885), is in substance a description of life 

 as a geometer might imagine it to be in space of one, 

 two, or n dimensions. Readers of 'Alice behind the 

 looking-glass ' will not fail to notice the resemblance 

 of the present work to that singular play of fancy. 

 Curiously enough, a ' scientific romance ' on the fourth 

 dimension is just now announced in England by C. 

 H. Hinton. 



— A new application of the electric light, devised 

 and used by W. E. Waters of Orange, N.J., is an 

 improvement on the old style of illumination in the 

 astronomical observatory. It consists of a small in- 

 candescent lamp-bulb, about three-quarters of an 

 inch in diameter, placed in the end of a cylindrical 

 hard-rubber handle, four inches long, with a push- 

 button on the side. A flexible wire cord connects 

 the apparatus with the battery-wires, and enables the 

 operator to carry this ' electric lantern ' about in the 

 hand, ready for use at any moment. This lamp has 

 been used by Mr. Waters about two years, and has 

 proved entirely satisfactory. 



— It is announced that Mr. William Cameron, who 

 has given much time to the exploration of Malayan 

 countries, has just prepared at Singapore, on a scale 

 of half an inch to the mile, a large and elaborate 

 map of districts recently explored by him in Selan- 

 gor, Ulu Selangor, Sungei Ujong, and other parts 

 of the Malay peninsula. 



— Dr. R. Neuhauss, a young German physician, has 

 returned to Berlin after extensive explorations among 

 the South-Sea Islands, and has read a report of his 

 researches before the Berlin anthropological society. 

 Part of his ethnological collection he has presented 

 to the Berlin museum. 



