pee Nee. 
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
Mr. A. Grawam BELL’s recent communica- 
tion to the Washington philosophical society, 
discussing various common fallacies as to the 
dumbness of deaf children, is a clear and con- 
vincing presentation of the arguments for 
teaching deaf children with no defects in their 
vocal organs to speak, though they cannot 
learn as other children do, being unable to 
hear. To teach lip-reading is certainly practi- 
eable in many such cases, if not in all; and 
- therefore it would seem that the attempt ought 
_ to be made in every case, to the exclusion of a 
purely conventional language of signs. Mr. 
Bell points out the real nature of the problem 
and its difficulties, indicating, among other 
things, the importance of the context to the deaf 
lip-reader in distinguishing words which look 
alike to his eye, such as pat, bat, mat, because 
he cannot see the workings of all the organs of 
speech, and laying emphasis on the fact that 
even very imperfect speech, if intelligible, is 
far better than no speech at all. 
After reading his communication and the 
discussion which followed, especially his an- 
swer to objections and to arguments for the 
use of signs in teaching the deaf, we must give 
full assent to all the essentials of his arguments. 
Any student of linguistic science realizing the 
importance of a clear conception of the nature 
of language, and the value of careful phonetic 
analysis, will find this paper of interest, and 
must hope for the spread of such views as those 
here expressed, in the interest of his own 
studies as well as of the deaf-mutes, who may 
yet be taught to speak. 
THERE is an entertaining field for some lin- 
guistic geographer to cultivate in this country 
by mapping out the distribution of the various 
No. 51.— 1884. 
kinds of town, county, river, and other names 
according to their origin and derivation. ‘The 
great bulk of newer names has no significance 
in this regard, being purely local, personal, and 
commonplace; but places of older date often 
give an interesting clew to the former homes 
of their first settlers. Distinctively English 
names have but a slight penetration beyond 
the Atlantic coast, except in Canada. The 
French follow a well-marked line up the St. 
Lawrence and down the Mississippi. Dutch 
and German names give local color to the 
Hudson valley and parts of eastern Pennsyl- 
vania; and the Spanish have a broad occur- 
rence in the far south-west. Indian names 
occur everywhere, from the euphonious Min- 
nesota to the doubtful Tuscaloosa and the 
abrupt Oshkosh. The proper sorting-out of 
these last would require a rarer knowledge, as 
it would give more valuable results than the 
rest of the work; but all might be graphically 
shown with great clearness. 
Tue hydrographic office of the U.S. navy 
department has issued the Pilot chart of the 
North Atlantic for January, on which are given 
the latest reported positions of floating wrecks. 
The number of such wrecks which were re- 
ported as seen from Nov. 22 to Dec. 25, and 
of which the positions are charted, is twenty- 
two. Nine of them were along the eastern 
coast of the United States, from Maine to 
Cape Hatteras; seven were on the Atlantic, 
in the track of vessels going from the United 
States to England; two were near the West 
Indies; and three off the coast of Spain. 
Some months ago the more or less impractica- 
ble suggestion was made, of employing naval 
vessels to chase these dangerous obstructions, 
and blow them to pieces. The navy depart- 
ment has done good work in locating their 
positions ; but, on account of the winds and 
ocean-currents, the results can only have value 
for a short time. It is desirable that some 
