t

round again nearly to the same place. With gun or rifle agains a tree-stem, I have often been able to spot the intersection with my aim beforehand, lap by lap; the drift is to leeward.

I take it the explanation is, that in passing round with the wind, and by slightly falling, great impetus is gained, which is slowed down by turning to meet and rise on the wind like a kite (if near, this is seen). I have seen the albatross and gulls floating, but this case or these cases "exemplify a major problem of rising as well steadily and without effort; it is also a clearer problem, the solution of which more or less solves the minor problems of mere flotation.

Ir is stated in NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 589, that Faraday gave the name of Regelation to the phenomenon of two pieces of ice freezing together. Surely this is an error? It was in 1856 when Sir Joseph D. (then Dr.) Hooker, Professors Tyndall and Huxley, and the present writer were in Switzerland together. Prof. Tyndall asked us to suggest a suitable term for the process; and it was Sir Joseph Hooker who said he could think of none better than Regelation. Prof. Tyndall instantly accepted it as exactly conveying the meaning he required.

Agassiz, however, in writing upon the difficulties of ascertaining the temperatures of glaciers by introducing thermometers into borings, alludes amongst others to "la difficulté d'extraire les fragmens détachés qui se regelaient constamment " ("Études sur les Glaciers," p. 203). This shows that a similar expression had occurred to him as suitable for this phenomenon, as early as 1840, in which year his "Études" were published.

GEORGE HENSLOW

JOHANNES RUDOLF VON WAGNER WE E have already briefly alluded to the loss suffered by chemistry in the sudden death from heart-disease of Prof. von Wagner, which occurred at Würzburg, October 4. Johannes Rudolf Wagner was born February 13, 1822, at Leipzig. As a student in the university of his native city he made choice of chemistry as a profession, and supplemented the then somewhat limited advantages of the Leipzig laboratory by a course of study at Paris, whither students from numerous countries were attracted by the brilliant lectures and investigations of Dumas. His residence there was followed by a lengthy journey to the various centres of scientific interest in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, after which he returned in 1846 to Leipzig to accept a position as assistant in the chemical laboratory of the university. In 1851 he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Technical Chemistry at the Nürnberg Polytechnic. In 1856 he accepted a call to the Chair of Technology at the University of Würzburg, a position which he occupied until the time of his death. During this same time he also filled two important offices, that of Director of the Technological Conservatory at Würzburg, and (until 1868) that of Royal Examiner of the establishments for Technical Instruction in Bavaria. His peculiar abilities and wide range of experience led to his being frequently sent abroad by the Bavarian Government on scientific missions, notably in 1858 to England and Holland, and in 1861 to Paris. The same reasons led to his being called upon to play an important rôle in the International Exhibitions of the past twenty years. He was successively appointed on the juries for chemical products at the Exhibitions of London (1862), Paris (1867), and Amsterdam (1869). At Vienna (1873) he was the Chief Commissioner of Bavaria,

and at Philadelphia (1876) he was a leading member of the German Commission. The marked services which he rendered in connection with the Vienna Exhibition were recognised by his sovereign, who raised him to the nobility, and decorated him with the Order of the Crown. Prof. von Wagner was the recipient likewise of numerous decorations from most of the European countries.

The career of Wagner has been one of unusual and varied activity. Apart from the multifarious duties of an executive character which we have briefly enumerated, he found time to render to pure chemistry, and especially to applied chemistry, services of incalculable value. Like Poggendorff in physics and Kopp in pure chemistry, his inclination led him towards the literary side of his favourite studies, and it is on his accomplishments as an author that his fame chiefly rests. Still, as an investigator Wagner possessed remarkable and manysided aptitudes, and his name is associated with numerous researches, the majority of which aim at the practical application of scientific facts, or seek to ascertain the chemical nature of important industrial products. One of his first investigations (1847) was on yeast, and included a thorough study of its nature and growth, and especially of the influence exercised by the presence of foreign bodies on the phenomena of fermentation. In 1849 he commenced a research on the oil of rue, which was carried on at various intervals, and to which we owe much of our knowledge of the constituents of this important essence. In 1850 he assigned to the alkaloïd conine the structure of a dibutyryl-amine, a formula verified long after by Schiff's synthesis (1871) of paraconine, and by Michael and Gundelach's brilliant synthesis a few months since, of methyl-conine. Among other noteworthy theoretical results, mention may be made of his extensive monograph on polymeric isomor phism (1851), and his experiments in the same year establishing the nature of mercur-ammonium compounds as substituted ammonias-mercury replacing hydrogenby a distillation of the well-known "white precipitate" with amyl-mercaptan, which yielded sulphide of mercury and hydrochloride of amylamine. Shortly after he showed that the compounds imperatorin and peucedonine obtained from the roots of sulphur-wort and allied plants were identical, and established their chemical nature as angelate of the hydrate of peucedyle. One of Wagner's most important researches, commenced in 1850 and taken up several times since, had for an object the colouring-matters of fustic. In its course he discovered morin-tannic acid, which in company with morin gives to fustic wood its tinctorial properties. He studied carefully its reactions and its derivatives; and among the latter discovered pyrocatechin, the product of the destructive distillation of the acid. In 1853 he undertook a thorough examination of the oil of hops, separating. the different chemical components, and finding amongst them quercitrin and morin-tannic acid. At this epoch he succeeded in obtaining the remarkable alloy formed by the union of four parts of potassium with 24 parts of sodium, which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, and resembles mercury in appearance. In 1867 he contributed an interesting research on the rapid increase of solubility of carbonates in water containing carbonic acid under various pressures. At the same time he broached a theory of the formation of deposits of a graphite, in which he attributed it to a decomposition of cyanides in nature analagous to that occurring in the manufacture of soda. Among his more important analytical researches were the determinations (1860) of the quantities of oil present in the nuts and seeds of many forest trees. As an able deviser of analytical methods Wagner exhibited numerous proofs. Among these mention may be made of the use of the iodine reaction for analysing chlorides of lime (1859), the use of iodine likewise for the determination of the alkaloïds (1861), the volumetric deter

mination of tannic acid by means of sulphate of cinchonine (1866), the test for wool in silk fabrics by using nitro-prusside of sodium to show the presence of the sulphur contained in wool (1867), the application of ammonium vanadate to detect the presence of tannin in red wines (1877), and other tests for detecting methyleosine in the presence of eosine, nitrobenzene in the oil of bitter almonds, paraffine in bees-wax, stearic acid in paraffine, &c. Equally numerous were the improved methods of preparing chemical compounds and products introduced by him, including the preparation of pelargonate of ethyl, used extensively in perfumery, of finelydivided copper, of rufigallic acid, of calcium iodide, of precipitated alumina, of chloride of mercury, of arsenate of sodium, of benzoic acid, &c.

Among Wagner's purely technical researches reference may be made to the application of pyrocatechin for photographic purposes (1855), the determination of densities for technical use (1859), the method for purifying water for tinctorial purposes (1863), the use of paraffine for preserving sodium, and his important research (1877) on the reactions of vanadium compounds with a large variety of organic commercial products, in the course of which he obtained several important tinctorial results.

66

As an author Prof. von Wagner has manifested a degree of talent and a fertility surpassed by but few of his scientific contemporaries. An easy, lucid style, an intimate familiarity with the entire range of subjects touched upon, a fulness of detail united to a logical, systematic treatment of the matters in question, and a happy adaptation to the wants of even elementary knowledge, have rendered his works universal favourites. This is especially true of his "Handbook of Chemical Technology," which has survived a twelfth edition in Germany, and has been rendered accessible to French and English-speaking students by the masterly translations of Gautier and Crookes. It is doubtful whether in any other branch of applied science a manual exists which is so widely disseminated and has met with such practically universal success. Among Wagner's other works are: "Die Chemie" (1860; sixth edition 1873), "Theorie und Praxis der Gewerbe," 5 vols. (1857-64), "Die chemische Fabrikindustrie," second edition (1869), 66 Regesten der Sodafabrikation" (1866), and Studien auf der Pariser Ausstellung" (1868). The technical journals of the past thirty years contain numerous monographs from his pen on individual branches of chemical manufacture, full of valuable information and statistics obtained by Wagner from private sources, and replete with those fruitful suggestions natural to a mind familiar at once with the facts of science and with their widespread applications. Unquestionably Wagner's chief literary achievement is his celebrated "Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie." Started eight years after the appearance of Liebig and Kopp's well-known "Jahresbericht" for chemistry in all its departments, this work of Wagner's has for a quarter of a century kept the industrial and scientific world promptly, thoroughly, and accurately informed of the progress made in every branch of applied chemistry. In its fulness and exactness it is an admirable type of the annual review, now regarded as indispensable for every branch of human activity by the German mind; and the vast influence which it has exercised upon the development of chemical industries is impossible to measure. The "Jahresbericht" for 1879, recently issued, forms a portly volume of 1,300 pages, with over one hundred woodcuts, and in its reviews evidences at every step a critical spirit able to cope with the scientific and practical questions constantly evoked.

Personally Prof. von Wagner was of a most attractive disposition, admired by his students not only for his rare talents as a lecturer, but also for his amiable character. His loss is felt as severely in a widespread social circle as in the world of science.

T. H. N.

JAPAN II.

66

MISS BIRD'S work on Japan, as we have said, is cast in quite a different mould from that of Sir Edward Reed. With the exception of one or two chapters, she devotes her two volumes entirely to a record of her own experiences, casting them as in her well-known books on the Sandwich Islands and the Rocky Mountains, into the form of a series of letters. These have evidently been written in the midst of the experiences which they record, and this gives them a reality and a freshness which they could not have otherwise had. Her "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" has all the best characteristics of her book on the Sandwich Islands. Indeed it seems to us that for the majority of readers it will have far more of novelty and quite as much interest as any of her previous works, while we doubt if any other book on Japan yet published gives so full and real an insight into the everyday life and the condition of the bulk of the people. Her work well deserves the title it bears. Many of the districts into which she, amidst all sorts of difficulties, succeeded in penetrating were certainly never before visited by a European woman, if indeed by a European of either sex. Sir E. Reed speaks of the people along parts of his route rushing out to see the Chinese pass; but so strange and literally uncouth did Miss Bird's appearance seem in some districts that the people could only set her down as an "Aino." She of course saw all the usual sights in the usual tracks, all that Sir Edward Reed saw; and for this her intimacy with Sir Harry Parkes and his universally beloved lady procured her every facility. The result is not the almost unmixed admiration which we find in Sir Edward Reed's volumes; but then it should be remembered that she was not the guest of the Japanese Government, but practically of the representative of the English Government; and although Miss Bird is a thoroughly independent observer, still her opinions may have taken somewhat of their colour from her special surroundings. She states fully both sides of the question of Japanese progress, and while giving full credit to the Government for the best intentions, and admitting that vast progress has been made in recent years, still she has many drawbacks to point out. And no wonder; we fear that she, like some others who write on Japan, look for too much, and expect to find a Europe in the East, instead of a country struggling out of the bonds that swaddled it till only fifteen years ago. Still her criticisms are wholesome, and charitable, and good-natured, and we trust that they will come under the notice of those to whom, if taken in good part, they might be greatly beneficial. Miss Bird has much to say on the work of missionaries in Japan, but that is a subject into which we cannot enter here. She spent much of her time in the great centres among missionaries, and had ample opportunities of seeing the nature of the work they are doing. And her observations are of the greatest interest, and must be instructive to those who are hoping that the Japanese will ultimately put on the religious habiliments which have been shaped for centuries to the people of the West. One unfortunate result we may mention, and that is the deterioration of the manners of those who have been long under missionary influence. Surely this is not necessary.

Of course the great interest of Miss Bird's book is connected with her solitary journey, quite unhampered by official guidance, north through the centre of the Main Island, and most of all her sojourn in Yezo among the strange remnant of people known as Ainos. Her journey

"Japan: its History, Traditions, and Religions, with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879." By Sir Edward J. Reed, K.C.B., F. R.S., M. P. Two vols. With Map and Illustrations. (London: John Murray, 1880) "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan." By Isabella L. Bird. Two vols. With Map and Illustrations. (Same Publisher.) Continued from vol. xxii, p. 614.

through the Main Island gives us the other side of the picture to that seen in such well-known centres as Tokio, Yokohama, and Kioto-by far the finest city in Japan, the home of art and culture, according to Miss Bird. She gives very sad and sometimes very disgusting pictures of the condition of the people in some parts of the country through which she passed with her amusing and clever guide Ito. In one district the villages, she tells us, have reached the lowest abyss of filthiness; still she found the people here, as everywhere else, courteous, kindly, industrious, and free from gross crimes. Indeed, although naturally an object of intense interest wherever she went, and the centre of hundreds and sometimes thousands of eyes, she had rarely if ever to complain of discourtesy. Everywhere everybody was courteous and obliging, and except in the open towns, rarely was an attempt at extortion made. While part of the centre of the island is dreary enough, much of it is of the rarest beauty, with its fine mountains, rich woods, and rapid deeply cutting rivers. At Niigata and other open ports she notes with satisfaction the rapid spread of European medical treatment under the care of the medical missionaries, some of whom are doing excellent work. At Niigata, especially Dr. Palm's influence is wide-spread, and thousands of people have been weaned from the Chinese system of treatment to that offered by Dr. Palm and his numerous native assistants, most of them men of the best type, who have established among themselves a society similar to some of the medical societies which meet in London and elsewhere. At Niigata Miss Bird made the acquaintance of an interesting bookseller. "This bookseller, who was remarkably communicative, and seems very intelligent, tells me that there is not the same demand now as formerly for native works on the history, geography, and botany of Japan. He showed me a folio work on botany in four thick volumes, which gives root, stalk, leaf, flower, and seed of every plant delineated (and there are 400), drawn with the most painstaking botanical accuracy, and admirable fidelity to colour. This is a book of very great value and interest. He has translations of some of the works of Huxley, Darwin, and Herbert Spencer, which, he says, are bought by the young men attending the higher school. The Origin of Species' has the largest sale. This man asked me many questions about the publishing and bookselling trade in England, and Ito acquitted himself admirably as an interpreter. He had not a single book on any subject connected with religion."

In a letter from Kaminoyama, to the north-east of Niigata, she gives a graphic picture of the incongruities to be met with in the present transition state of the Country:-"We rode for four hours through these beautiful villages on a road four feet wide, and then, to my surprise, after ferrying a river, emerged at Tsukuno upon what appears on the map as a secondary road, but which is in reality a main road twenty-five feet wide, well kept, trenched on both sides, and with a line of telegraph poles along it. It was a new world at once. The road for many miles was thronged with well-dressed footpassengers, kurumas, pack-horses, and waggons either with solid wheels, or wheels with spokes but no tires. It

is a capital carriage-road, but without carriages. In such civilised circumstances it was curious to see two or four brown-skinned men pulling the carts, and quite often a man and his wife the man unclothed, and the woman unclothed to her waist--doing the same. Also it struck me as incongruous to see telegraph wires above, and below, men whose only clothing consisted of a sun-hat and fan; while children with books and slates were returning from school, conning their lessons." As far north as Kubota, quite 200 miles north of Niigata, Miss Bird found a normal school established, with

FIG. 1.-Ainos of Yezo.

twenty-five teachers and 700 pupils between the ages of six and twenty. "They teach reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, political economy after John Stuart Mill, chemistry, botany, a course of natural science, geometry, and mensuration." Indeed she found evidence everywhere of the schoolmaster being abroad all over the country, and of the purpose of the Government to make education, after the models of Europe and America, universal and compulsory; and among the educated classes, the familiarity with the works of the most advanced English scientific writers-Huxley, Darwin, and Spencer especially-struck her greatly.

To the ethnologist Miss Bird's notes on the Ainos, the

aborigines of the Island of Yezo, and possibly of all Japan, will prove of special interest. We already know much about the physique and the habits of these strange people; but Miss Bird's notes of what she saw and heard during the weeks she lived in their houses, saw their daily life, heard what they had to say of themselves, their history, and their superstitions, are a real addition to our

FIG. 2.-Aino Houses.

existing knowledge of them. As usual all sorts of things were said by people in Hakodaté to prevent her from trusting herself alone among these uncivilised people, but Miss Bird took her own womanly way, and was rewarded. These Ainos she found of fierce outer aspect, with their long shaggy hair and beards, broad faces, and rough bodies, but in speech and manner gentler than the

FIG. 3.-Ainos at home (From a Japanese sketch). gentlest Hawaiian. Their soft and feminine speech constantly struck her, and in genuine politeness they are not surpassed by the Japanese. Here is a picture of Aino domestic life :"I am in the lonely Aino land, and I think that the most interesting of my travelling experiences has been the living for three days and two nights in an Aino but,

and seeing and sharing the daily life of complete savages' who go on with their ordinary occupations just as if I were not among them. I found yesterday a most fatiguing and over-exciting day, as everything was new and interesting, even the extracting from men who have few if any ideas in common with me, all I could extract concerning their religions and customs, and that through

an interpreter. I got up at six this morning to write out my notes, and have been writing for five hours, and there is shortly the prospect of another savage séance. The distractions, as you imagine, are many. At this moment a savage is taking a cup of saké by the fire in the centre of the floor. He salutes me by extending his hands and waving them towards his face, and then dips a rod in the saké, and makes six libations to the god-an upright piece of wood with a fringe of shavings planted in the floor of the room. Then he waves the cup several times towards himself, makes other libations to the fire, and drinks. Ten other men and women are sitting along each side of the firehole, the chief's wife is cooking, the men are apathetically contemplating the preparation of their food; and the other women, who are never idle, are splitting the bark of which they make their clothes. I occupy the guest seat-a raised platform at one end of the fire, with the skin of a black bear thrown over it."

These Ainos drink enormous quantities of saké, the national liquor of Japan; they can drink three times as much as a Japanese without being affected by it, and the drinking of it is with them the chief act of worship to the rude gods, if gods they be, which are stuck up in various parts of their huts. Here is another picture:

"About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into lacquer bowls with wooden spoons. The men were served first, but all ate together. Afterwards saké, their curse, was poured into lacquer bowls, and across each bowl a finely-carved 'saké-stick' was laid. These sticks are very highly prized. The bowls were waved several time with an inward motion, then each man took his stick and, dipping it into the saké, made six libations to the fire, and several to the 'god,' a wooden post, with a quantity of spiral white shavings falling from near the top."

The intense fondness of the Ainos for their children is a marked feature in their character, and the instantaneous and implicit obedience of the latter to their parents is as great as with the Japanese themselves. Their hospitality is genuine, universal, and almost profuse. "In every house the same honour was paid to a guest. This seems a savage virtue which is not strong enough to survive much contact with civilisation. Before I entered one lodge the woman brought several of the finer mats, and arranged them as a pathway for me to walk to the fire upon. They will not accept anything for lodging or for anything that they give, so I was anxious to help them by buying some of their handiwork, but found even this a difficult matter. They were very anxious to give, but when I desired to buy they said they did not wish to part with their things. I wanted what they had in actual use, such as a tobacco-box and pipe-sheath, and knives with carved handles and scabbards, and for three of these I offered 2 dollars. They said they did not care to sell them, but in the evening they came saying they were not worth more than I dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that; and I could not get them to take more. They said it

was not their custom.'

All that Miss Bird tells us of her visit to the Ainos is well worth quoting; but we have space for only one more quotation, and that with reference to their physique:"After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted totter of the women, and the general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the appearance of the Japanese, the Ainos make a very singular impression. All but two or three that I have seen are the most ferocious-looking of savages, with a physique vigorous enough for carrying out the most ferocious intentions, but as soon as they speak the countenance brightens into a smile as gentle as that of a woman, something which can never be forgotten. The men are about the middle height, broadchested, broad-shouldered, 'thick-set,' very strongly built, the arms and legs short, thick, and muscular, the hands and feet large. The bodies, and specially the limbs, of many are covered with short bristly hair. I have seen two boys whose backs are covered with fur as fine and soft as that of a cat. The heads and faces are very striking. The foreheads are very high, broad, and prominent, and at first sight give one the impression of an unusual capacity for intellectual development; the ears are small and set low; the noses are straight, but short, and broad at the nostrils; the mouths are wide, but well formed; and the lips rarely show a tendency to fulness. The neck is short, the cranium rounded, the cheek-bones low, and the lower part of the face is small as compared with the upper, the peculiarity called a ‘jowl' being unknown. The eyebrows are full, and form a straight line nearly across the face. The eyes are large, tolerably deeply set, and very beautiful, the colour a rich liquid brown, the expression singularly soft, and the eyelashes long, silky, and abundant. The skin has the Italian olive tint, but in most cases is thin, and light enough to show the changes of colour in the cheek. The teeth are small, regular, and very white; the incisors and 'eye teeth' are not disproportionately large, as is usually the case among the Japanese; there is no tendency towards prognathism; and the fold of integument which conceals the upper eyelids of the Japanese is never to be met with. The features, expression, and aspect are European rather than Asiatic.

"The 'ferocious savagery' of the appearance of the men is produced by a profusion of thick soft black hair, divided in the middle, and falling in heavy masses nearly to the shoulders. Out of doors it is kept from falling over the face by a fillet round the brow. The beards are equally profuse, quite magnificent, and generally wavy, and in the case of the old men they give a truly patriarchal and venerable aspect, in spite of the yellow tinge produced by smoke and want of cleanliness. The savage look produced by the masses of hair and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is mitigated by the softness in the dreamy brown eyes, and is altogether obliterated by the exceeding sweetness of the smile, which belongs in greater or less degree to all the rougher sex.

"I have measured the height of thirty of the adult men of this village, and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches. The circumference of the heads averages 22'1 inches, and the arc, from ear to ear, 13 inches. According to Mr. Davies the average weight of the Aino adult masculine brain, ascertained by measurement of Aino skulls, is 45'90 ounces avoirdupois, a brain weight said to exceed that of all the races, Hindoo and Mussulman, on the Indian plains, and that of the aboriginal races of India and Ceylon, and is only paralleled by that of the races of the Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese Burmese. Mr. Davies says, further, that it exceeds the mean brain weight of Asiatic races in general. Yet with all this the Ainos are a stupid people !"

The coast Ainos, Miss Bird tells us, she found had

more hair on their bodies than those in the interior, and in some other respects differed in appearance, a difference probably to be accounted for by their mode of life and their surroundings. The Aino garments are often exceedingly handsome, being decorated with "geometrical" patterns in which the Greek fret takes part, in coarse blue cotton, braided most dexterously with scarlet and white thread. The modesty of the women is very remarkable, sometimes almost excessive even to European notions; nor do they seem to be the unmitigated drudges that most savage women are. The great hero of the Ainos is Yoshitsuné, who is also the most popular hero of Japanese history; the Ainos worship him, and Miss Bird was permitted to visit his shrine on a hill near Biratori, the Aino village at which she spent most of her time. He lived in the twelfth century, and was the brother of the Shôgun of the time, whose jealousy, according to some, compelled him to take refuge in Yezo. "None believe this more firmly than the Ainos themselves, who assert that he taught their fathers the arts of civilisation, with letters and numbers, and gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped by many of them under a name which signifies Master of the Law. I have been told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebungé, that a later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in which the arts were written, and that since his time the arts themselves have been lost, and the Ainos have fallen into their present condition! On asking why the Ainos do not make vessels of iron and clay as well as knives and spears, the invariable answer is, The Japanese took away the books."" This, combined with some other things which Miss Bird tells us of these Ainos, makes it seem quite possible that they are now a degenerate remnant of a people who formerly were comparatively cultured, and who may possibly have had "books" which "took the Japanese, their conquerors and masters, away." These strange people are certainly worthy of further study. The illustrations we are able to give, by the kindness of Mr. Murray, will give the reader some idea of their appearance and habits. We strongly recommend the reader to go to Miss Bird's volumes for further information of what she saw and heard while sojourning among them.

Again we commend these two works to all who desire to get, in comparatively short space, a very complete view of the past history and present condition of Japan.

BELL'S PHOTOPHONE

BY the courtesy of Prof. Graham Bell we are at length able to do somewhat ampler justice to his latest discovery than has hitherto been possible. He has supplied us with certain details not hitherto published, and has also furnished us with drawings of his apparatus and experiments. Prof. Bell is at present in Paris, and, as was mentioned in our columns last week, has there repeated some of his experiments.

Our readers are already aware that the object of the photophone is the transmission of sounds both musical and vocal to a distance by the agency of a beam of light of varying intensity; and that the first successful attempts made by Prof. Bell and his co-labourer, Mr. Sumner Tainter, were based upon the known property of the element selenium, the electric resistance of which varies with the degree of illumination to which it is exposed. Hence, given a transmitting instrument such as a flexible mirror by which the vibrations of a sound could throw into vibration a beam of light, a receiver consisting of sensitive selenium forming part of an electric circuit with a battery and a telephone should suffice to translate the varying intensities of light into corresponding varying intensities of electric current, and finally into vibrations of the telephone disk audible once more as sound. This funda