154 
REPORT-1847. 
injects a little oil into llie step for lubrication j the pump is worked by a 
slow motion from the machinery. 
In all cases it is necessary that the foot of the spindle shall be made hol¬ 
low, and run upon a fixed jiivot. The spindle must never run in a hoUo* 
step. The pivot should be quite cylindrical, and it should truly lit the 
spindle, with as little play as possible; the top of the pivot should Ik bat 
very slightly convex. The w.iter and mud must be carefully excluded, 
and the parts regularly oiled. 
Plate XXIV. shows a quadrant or fourth part of the wheel, with the guide 
curves, and the sluice or regulator of the Turbine of St. Blasier, of the 
natural or full size of the machine itself ; the bent arrow shows the directic* 
in which the wheel revolves. 
On the present state and recent progress of Ethnographical Pkilok^- 
By R. G. Latham, M.D.* 
Part I.— Africa. 
The author has found it necessary to divide his Report upon the present 
state and recent progress of Ethtiogra])hical Philology into separate parts; 
a process which the nature of the subject reiidej's easy and convenient. 
By the term Laugnnges of Africa arc nu'unt the languages of coutinenl^ 
Africa and the Can.ary Isles. The island of Madagascar is exeluded;it 
being a weiUknowji fact that the philological affinities of tlie dialects there 
spoken are with the M.nlay languages of Malacca, the Moluccas, and Polym* 
sia: so that for philological purposes Madagascar is a part of Polynesia. 
Furthermore, it should be r(*marke<l that no cognizance will be taken of tbfi 
different Moorish dialects, sjwken in northern and eastern Africa, awl 
lieved to have been introduced since the time ofMahoniet; it being considerfl 
^at these are only Afrioun iu the way that tJie English of the Cape, or the 
1 ortuguese of A ngola is African, *. e. that they are languages iutrodnccd 
within the historical period, and not the indigenous tongues of the country- 
Hence all fonus of the modern Arabic of Arabia, and, aforHori, all forws of 
the Turkish of Turkey are omitted. On tho other hand, the Arabic clement* 
of the languages of .Abyssinia, although they will not be investigated in tlw 
present paper, are proper objects of consideration, inasmuch as they are re¬ 
ferable to a period anterior to history, and bear upon the theory of the origioa! 
population of the continent. 
In asubject like tho present, capable of being thrown into as many natoral 
divisions as there arc quarters of the world; asulnect, moreover, whereof iW 
several portions have been studied with the most different degrees of attcDtioo; 
the term recent fm>gress has by no means a uniform signification. It t^^*^** 
with the group of languages to which it is opplied. A year's research 
* A few day* before the foil .winp pa«e» were pin into the hands of the printer. I met 
tho ijewaml reyued edidan of Vitet>6 lilltraUr ,i^r CronnuatVcen, &c., by B. 
1847 J. Ihe bibllngraphn al notlLV*, which I was thus enabled to add to those previously 
tneraled by myself, urc each iimrked JiUg. To the majority of these I have not bad 
opporiuniiy to refer} go that It U poidblo that they may not all contain eidier nrst-han'id^ 
or voeabulariea diflhreiit from some previously mentioned. The eencral character of Dr. Jnj 
‘ '* "‘‘uute and exhaustive. Of the more important materials for African pm’®' 
Vocab 1 two, Crowiher’s Yarriba Vocabulary, and Dr. Beke’s Abyssiiua® 
