May 8, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



3 75 



a result of these comparisons, it may be concluded 

 that the hypoglossal nerve of the Sauropsida and 

 Mammalia is not a separation from the anterior roots 

 of the vagus, but is formed by the coalescence of a 

 number — probably three — of anterior spinal nerves. 



Since the completion of my manuscript, the last 

 number of the Archiv fitr anatomie und physiologie 

 has been received ; and therein is a paper by Professor 

 Froriep of Tiibingen, dealing, among other things, 

 with this very point as to the origin and morphological 

 relations of the hypoglossal. His observations were 

 carried on by means of sections through very young 

 sheep and cow embryos; and he was able to perceive 

 that the hypoglossal at an early stage consisted of 

 three distinct parts, which eventually unite; the 

 union occurring first near the origin of the nerve, 

 and proceeding centrifugally. To emphasize the 

 similarity between Froriep' s results based on embry- 

 ological data, and my own deduced from anatomical 

 facts, it will be well to quote a sentence from his 

 paper. In summing up, he says, " The hypoglossus 

 is formed by the union of a number of segmental 

 spinal nerves, each of which is composed of two 

 roots, — a ventral and a dorsal, — exactly like spinal 

 nerves." J. Playfair McMurrich. 



Johns Hopkins university, Baltimore, Md. 



The "Wisconsin bill relating to the instruction 

 of deaf-mutes. 



In Science (vol. v. p. 324) you state, that, until the 

 present year, no special provision had been made in 

 Wisconsin for the education of deaf-mutes. This is 

 a mistake. The Wisconsin institution at Delavan, 

 one of the best in the country, has been in successful 

 operation since 1852, and two private schools are also 

 in existence. The returns of the recent census, how- 

 ever, have shown that a large number of the deaf 

 children of Wisconsin are growing up in ignorance, 

 and that existing provisions for their instruction are 

 inadequate. The bill that has just passed the Wis- 

 consin legislature is an attempt to remedy the evil by 

 a change in the policy of the state towards her deaf 

 and dumb. The new plan may be tersely described 

 as the policy of decentralization. The old policy 

 of centralization — that is, the policy of collecting 

 into one school all the deaf-mutes of a state — 

 has everywhere failed to bring under instruction a 

 large proportion of the deaf-mutes of school age. 

 For example : there were in the United States in 1880, 

 according to the last census, 15,059 deaf-mutes of 

 school age (six to twenty years) ; while the total num- 

 ber of deaf-mutes returned as then in the institutions 

 and schools of America was only 5,393, and many 

 of these were beyond the school age. A similar re- 

 sult is obtained when we examine the statistics of 

 each state taken separately. 



Parents have a natural reluctance to part with their 

 deaf children, who, more than others, require home 

 care and attention. But education in an institution 

 involves separation from home. Some parents will 

 not part with their children excepting on compulsion ; 

 ■others delay the separation until the most impression- 

 able period of life has been passed; and still others 

 deprive their children of education on account of the 

 value of their labor at home. 



The nearer the school can be brought to the home 

 of a deaf child, the less likelihood is there that he 

 will escape instruction. The promoters of the Wis- 

 consin bill believe that in many of the incorporated 

 cities and villages of that state the deaf children 



could, with limited state aid, be educated in the local- 

 ities where they reside ; and that, if day-schools were 

 established wherever possible, the institution at Del- 

 avan would be able to accommodate all who could 

 not attend a day-school. 



The bill grants state aid to any incorporated city or 

 village supporting a school for deaf-mutes, to the ex- 

 tent of a hundred dollars per annum for every pupil 

 instructed. The state appropriation alone will prob- 

 ably be sufficient to provide a teacher for a school of 

 four or five deaf children ; but even a school contain- 

 ing only one deaf child, which, of course, would have 

 to be supported mainly from local sources, may, by 

 complying with the provisions of the bill, receive 

 state aid to the amount of a hundred dollars per an- 

 num. 



Under such a law, there should be no excuse for 

 lack of instruction. Public opinion will probably 

 compel the education of deaf-mutes: for, if allowed 

 to grow up without instruction, they very easily be- 

 come dangerous members of society; while, if edu- 

 cated, they become good citizens, amenable to the 

 laws of society, and sources of wealth to the state. 

 If only as a measure of economy, the Wisconsin 

 bill demands consideration; for the average per capita 

 cost of the education of a deaf child in an American 

 institution exceeds two hundred and twenty-three 

 dollars, whereas the cost to the state, on the Wiscon- 

 sin plan, is limited to a hundred dollars. 



But other considerations are of still greater im- 

 portance. It certainly seems reasonable to expect 

 that the Wisconsin plan, consisting of a central 

 institution and a large number of small day-schools 

 scattered throughout the state, will bring under in- 

 struction a larger percentage of the deaf children 

 of school age than would be possible on the institu- 

 tion plan alone. Instruction can also be com- 

 menced in the day-schools at an earlier age than 

 heretofore; so that many pupils could receive pre- 

 paratory instruction in a day-school before entering 

 the institution, and thus be enabled to receive from 

 the institution a higher and better education than 

 they could otherwise hope to obtain. 



Alexander Graham Bell. 



Washington, D.C., April 27. 



A complete fibula in an adult living carinate- 

 bird. 



The only known bird with a complete fibula is the 

 Jurassic Archaeopteryx (Marsh, Dames). The fibula 

 of all birds is complete during the early life of the 

 embryo. I find in an adult Pandion carolinensis of 

 Prof. O. C. Marsh's collection an entire fibula, but 

 with the distal end of it not in front of the tibia, as in 

 Archaeopteryx (Marsh). It would be interesting to 

 examine the embryos of this bird ; and I will be very 

 much obliged to anybody who can send me any of 

 them. Dr. G. Battr. 



Yale-college museum, New Haven, Conn. 

 April 24. 



Digestion experiments. 



I have read with some surprise the comments by 

 Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant in Science, April 24, upon 

 my article on ' Errors in digestion experiments,' inas- 

 much as I had no intention, in that article, of assert- 

 ing or implying any thing whatever in regard to other 

 experiments of that character in this country. The 

 purpose of the article was to call attention to the 



