February 5, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



129 



importance to relieve them by using the printed 

 symbols which can be read with the least ef- 

 fort and strain. Experiments are not necessary 

 to show that books (especially school-books) 

 should be printed in large, clear type ; but 

 experiments may lead us to determine the most 

 favorable type. It seems probable that the use 

 of two varieties of letters, capital and small, is 

 more of a hurt than help to the eye and brain. All 

 ornaments on the letters hinder : consequently the 

 German type is injurious. The simplest geometri- 

 cal forms seem the easiest to see. The lines must 

 not be too thin. We seem to judge the letters 

 from the thick lines, and it is doubtful whether 

 it is advantageous to use thin and thick lines 

 in printing. From all these considerations, it 

 seems that our printing-press has not improved 

 on the alphabet used by the Romans. "Our 

 punctuation-marks are hard to see, and, I think, 



quite useless. It seems to me far better to replace 

 (or, at all events, supplement) them by spaces 

 between the words, corresponding in length to 

 the pauses in the thought, or, what is the same 

 thing, to the pauses which should be made in 

 reading the passage aloud. Such a method of 

 indicating to the eye the pauses in the sense would 

 not only make reading easier, but would teach us 

 to think more clearly. 



"As I have already stated, not only are some 

 types harder to see than others, but the different 

 letters in the same alphabet are not equally 

 legible." It was found that certain letters were 

 usually correctly read, whereas others were usu- 

 ally misread or not seen at all. Fifty-four series 

 were made with the capital Latin letters : conse- 



quently each letter was used 270 times. Out of 

 this number of trials, W was seen 241 times, E 

 only 63 times. The relative legibility of the dif- 

 ferent letters is clearly shown in the figure, in 

 which the ordinates are taken proportional to the 

 number of times each letter was read correctly 

 out of the 270 trials. 



Certain letters, as S and C, are hard to recognize 

 in themselves ; others are mistaken for letters 

 similar in form, as in the case of O, Q, G, and C. 

 The great disadvantage of having in our alphabet 

 letters needlessly difficult to see will be evident 

 to every one. " If I should give the probable time 

 wasted each day through a single letter, as E, 

 being needlessly illegible, it would seem almost 

 incredible ; and, if we could calculate the neces- 

 sary strain put upon eye and brain, it would be 

 still more appalling." Now that we know which 

 letters are the most illegible, it is to be hoped that 

 some attempt will be made to modify them. Our 

 entire alphabet and orthography need recasting : 

 we have several altogether useless letters (C, Q, 

 and X), and there are numerous sounds for which 

 no letters exist. In modifying the present letters, 

 or introducing new forms, simplicity and dis- 

 tinctness must be sought after, and experiments 

 such as these will be the best test. 



" Experiments made on the small letters show a 

 similar difference in their legibility. Out of a 

 hundred trials, d was read correctly 87 times, s 

 only 28 times. The order of distinctness for the 

 small letters is as follows ; d, Jc, m, q, h, b, p, w, u, 

 I, j, t, v, z, r, o, f, n, a, x, y, e, i, g, c, s. 

 As in the case of the capital letters, some letters 

 are hard to see (especially s, g, c, and x) owing 

 to their form ; others are misread, because there 

 are certain pairs and groups in which the letters 

 are similar. A group of this sort is made up of 

 the slim letters i, j, I, f, t, which are constantly 

 mistaken the one for the other. It would not per- 

 haps be impossible to put 1 in the place of I, and 

 the dot should be left away from i (as in Greek). 

 It seems absurd, that, in printing, ink and lead 

 should be used to wear out the eye and brain. I 

 have made similar determinations for the capital 

 and small German letters, but these should be 

 given up. Scientific works are now generally 

 printed in the Latin type, and it is to be hoped 

 that it will soon be adopted altogether. At 

 present, however, it is impossible to get the books 

 most read (Goethe, for example) in Latin type." 



BLONDES AND BRUNETTES IN GERMANY. 



Within the last few years the German govern- 

 ment has authorized a commission, at the head of 

 which is Professor Virchow, to collect statistics in 



