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is stamped on the ground, as when the animal is impatient.

As may easily be imagined, the gesture language has no more inflections than the Chinese, and the same sign stands for walk, walker, walking, walked, walkest, &c., hence, theoretically, the various parts of speech may be supposed to be not easily distinguishable, but this is rarely the case, as words or signs are understood by the context. The deaf mute arranges his sentences somewhat after the manner of the Latins, always putting first the word which he considers the most important. Thus, the sentence "I should die of starvation if I had no food," would be "Food (imitation of eating)-no (shake of head)-I (point to self)-dead (relaxation of muscles and leaning back with eyes closed). Questions are asked by the deaf mute by means of inquiring glances, as: Have you any bread? would be "Bread (imitation of act of cutting it)—you (pointing to the person addressed)-and a look of interrogation. That we ourselves ask questions in this way by facial expressions is a matter of everyday experience.

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Dr. Steinthal has said that the verbs "to have, to be, to be able, and similar signs, are wanting to the natural sign-language of the deaf and dumb, and, he adds, without the help of these abstract signs, the whole play of ideas is obscure;" but, although a great authority on the subject, Dr. Steinthal is wrong in the present instance. Of course, as above remarked, there is no regular conjugation of the verb; but none the less does it exist for practical purposes. If asked, " Can you ?" or Will you do so and so?" the deaf mute answers with a nod or a shake of the head, "I can" or "I won't." When he wishes to be more emphatic, emotional expressions come into play. If he wishes to say "I will fight," he rolls his fists with a look of much meaning, not likely to be mistaken. To prefer the request "May I go out?" he points out of doors with a look of entreaty. The imperative with shall and must are expressed by volitional gestures. To have, the subject is pointed at with a nod of affirmation, or a shake of the head in case of negation. Thus, "I have eaten," I (point to self) eat (act of eating), yes (nod). "He has the meat," he (point to him, or, if absent, describe characteristic mark, as the man with a long beard) meat (pinch up flesh on back of hand), yes (nod). All the signs hitherto mentioned are natural signs common to all, but there is a very widespread sign for "done," "already," &c., which is apparently conventional: this is to strike the outside of the right hand on the flat palm of the left, as in the action used to signify cutting bread, but without the sawing movement, hence it seems to mean "cut off," "finished with." This sign is generally used for the past tense, as "I-cry-done,' for "I cried." If a boy were to point first to himself, then to another boy, make the action of biting, place his hand at the level of his knee, and make the sign above described, I should put it into words as follows, "When I was as high as my knee I bit him."

There is an inherent logic in this gesture-language, for while our words are conventional and require to be defined to those who do not understand them, its words are in themselves definitions. Thus spring is the beautiful time when the sun is warm, the ice and the snow have gone, and the flowers and grass come. Rain is the wet that falls from the sky; the dumb child wets the tips of his forefingers, and makes a movement from above downwards with both hands. The Turk is the man that wears a turban.

Uneducated deaf-and-dumb children, being cut off from participation in the more complex thoughts of

others, are, as already said, limited in their ideas to their own experience of men and things, like ordinary children who have not been taught better, and, like savages, they attribute to things they do not understand causes and characteristics most analogous to their previous experience. They are at the myth-making stage. For them the stars are candles in the sky, and the horizon is a dome which touches the ground, and they long to reach it and climb into the sky. One big boy, who had probably seen his mother making bread, told me that before he learnt on the oral system he used to think his mother made his little brothers and sisters out of flour; and another said he thought she bought the baby from a shop. They think rain is caused by somebody pouring water out of a water-can, an idea in which they agree with the ancients, who believed in Jupiter Pluvius. From all this it may easily be imagined that the deaf and dumb possess few, if any, abstract ideas. Thus their ideas of space and time are very crude. Their ideas of time are marked by their physical experiences: mid-day is when they eat with spoons, knives, and forks; night is when it is dark and they go to sleep. The past, by a mode of thought similar to that expressed in our own word, is what they have passed by, while the future is what they will come to. Thus the dumb person expresses present by "here," past by "behind me," and future by "in front of me." Yesterday before I slept once. For the day before yesterday he puts two fingers over his shoulder. But he gains other simple abstract ideas from his own observations, and communicates them accordingly, thus:-To mean everyone, he describes with both arms as large a circle as he can in the air; while for many, he holds up his ten fingers over and over again with a look of astonishment. To indicate shame, he points to himself, then to his lips (red), and afterwards to his cheeks, and turns his lowered head from the person with whom he is conversing, making up a pictorial representation of the facial expression which accompanies shame.

The deaf and dumb in like manner soon get ideas of propriety. propriety. A boy visiting a deaf and dumb school indicated the word black by pointing to his dirty fingernails, an action which drew from the children the comment that his language was ugly, and disgusted them extremely. From their experience of life they gather also ideas of the value of truth. Thus, a dumb person, when talking of a lie, makes an action as if speaking, and moves his hand downwards with an expression of contempt, while for to speak truth the action of speaking is imitated, and the hand laid on the heart. This action used to imply truth is, of course, an indication of belief, and a curious analogy may be drawn between it and our word creed. Creed is derived from the Latin credere, to believe, which is itself a compound of cor(d), Greek kardia, our heart, and the root dha, to place; compare Sanscrit 'srad-dadhâmi. So that to believe is to feel at heart; to speak truth is to speak from or with the heart. An interesting point in the growth of the deaf mute's sign language is that since his signs are derived from aspects of things, he is liable to choose as characteristic signs of a class, properties which that class possesses in common with other classes hitherto unknown to him. Thus, he soon finds some of his expressions to be too general. For example, he has named the goat from its property of butting; but he afterwards finds that other animals also butt with their horns, then he specialises by adding some other attribute, and signifies goat as the butter with a beard. After using the general sign of drinking to mean water, he discovers that other liquids,

such as beer and wine, are drunk, and then water becomes for him the liquid that is drunk, and also used for washing. In a similar way the ordinary child learning to speak, uses words in a more general sense than that in which they are used by his teacher. A baby who has learnt the word papa does not use it to signify his own father only, but applies it to all men, and I believe that the reason of this is that he has associated the word papa with certain characteristics, such as the wearing of trousers, &c., the pcssession of a deep voice, and having hair on the face. Thus the word means to him certain aspects which many have in common; he does not distinguish at first the special characteristics which mark off his father as an individual from all other individuals. The lower we go in intellect the greater is the tendency to see likenesses to the exclusion of differences. This is equally so with the young child and the savage. Thus a young language is chiefly figurative. But as the mind, by increased experience and the logical development brought about by this, becomes more analytical, differences are attended to in the degree that they merit, and the likenesses which formerly found expression are apt to be overlooked, and even the origin of the words to which they gave rise forgotten. Who at first sight would imagine that creed in its etymological meaning is a something given from the heart. Professor Sayce has beautifully expressed this tendency in the words, "Language is the treasure-house of worn-out similies-a living testimony to the instinct of man to find likeness and resemblance in all he sees."

MR. H. R. GOODWIN, of the North Manchester B.C., has recently completed perhaps the most remarkable ride ever yet accomplished on the bicycle. Leaving Land's End on June 1, he rode to John o' Groats; having reached which point in seven and a-half days, he at once turned southward, and arrived again at Land's End on the 16th, having completed the double journey from one extremity of England to the other, or about 1,800 miles, in less than sixteen days. From Land's End Mr. Goodwin rode to London, where he arrived on the 19th, the total distance ridden being 2,050 miles, in exactly nineteen days, or an average of about 108 miles per day. He rode a 40 in. "Facile," which carried him well from start to finish, and he arrived in London fresh and well.

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THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC AND PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPANY, LIMITED.— For many years this well-known photographic business has existed as a Company "-in the ordinary acceptation of the word-in name only. It has latterly been pretty generally understood that the enterprise was a proprietary one, carried on by the late Lord Mayor, with the assistance of his son, Mr. Charles G. Nottage, Mr. Howard Kennard also being a partner. The recent death of the first-named gentleman, however, has induced the surviving partners to convert the business into a 66 Company," in the fullest financial sense, and a prospectus (which appears in another part of this number) has been issued, setting forth that the required capital is £90,000, to be realised by the issue of 18,000 shares of £5 each. We are not particularly concerned with the financial aspect of the question, but, considering the growing increase in the numbers of amateur photographers, and the fact that the business of the proposed Company would largely consist in supplying their wants, it would seem to be a speculation sufficiently sound from an investor's point of view, and one offering to the amateurs before-mentioned the opportunity of forming themselves, as shareholders, into a selfsupply association on advantageous terms. The vendors are reliant as to the immediate success of the undertaking; and although promoters are often over-sanguine in prospectuses, yet in this case the reliance is justified, inasmuch as the profits of the business are actually existent, not merely estimated. The vendors take a third of the purchase-money in shares, and agree to accept no remuneration for their services as directors until 7 per cent. has been paid to ordinary shareholders; this, at any rate, testifies to their own faith in the successful working of the Company. But, as we have before said, we have no concern bere with questions of purely financial interest, and call attention to this matter in these pages only because we knowingly include amongst our readers a large number of amateur photographers, who may be specially interested, and pleased to have their attention directed to the prospectus alluded to.

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7. Ursa Major, the Greater Bear (a, ß, the Pointers).

8. Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs (a, Cor Caroli). 9. Coma Berenices, Berenice's Hair.

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22. Cancer, the Crab (the

cluster is the Beehive).

23. Ieo, the Lion (a, Regulus). 24. Virgo, the Virgin (a, Spica). 25. Libra, the Scales.

26. Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder.

27. Aquila, the Eagle (a, Altair). 28. Delphinus, the Dolphin. 29. Aquarius, the Water Carrier. 30. Pisces, the Fishes. 31. Cetus, the Sea Monster (o, Mira, remarkable riable).

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32. Eridanus, the River. 33. Orion, the Giant Hunter (a, Betelgeux; ẞ, Rigel). 34. Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog (a, Procyon).

35. Hydra, the Sea Serpent (1, Alphard).

36. Crater, the Cup (a, Alkes). 37. Corvus, the Crow.

38. Scorpio, the Scorpion (a, Antares).

39. Sagittarius, the Archer. 40. Capricornus, the Sea Goat. 41. Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish (a, Fomalhaut).

42. Lepus, the Hare. 43. Columba, the Dove. 44. Canis Major, the Greater Dog (a, Sirius).

45. Argo, the Ship.

Gossip.

BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

I HAVE read letter 1,740, by "Commentator," with intense pain-chiefly because it was my own action in forwarding an extract from the New York Tribune which elicited "Commentator's" ill-judged remarks. I cannot understand how anyone can imagine that the expression of an opinion, no matter how far that opinion may differ from his or her own, can justify personal objurgation in any form. "Commentator would not, I presume, have ventured to say to George Eliot herself what he (or she) has unfortunately been allowed to say in these columns. At least, I hope not, for his (or her) own sake. What opinion was formed by all whose opinion was best worth considering, "Commentator" knows. It is a matter of small moment that George Eliot was honoured by the conventionally noblest in the land, from the Queen downwards (conventionally) — it is more important to note that she was esteemed by the wisest and the best. Less Her philosophy was kindly, gentle, and honest. original than most readers of her works imagined, she had learned in the best schools; and she taught more effectively than those from whom she had in reality derived the larger portion of her doctrine.

Or the relations between George Lewes and George Eliot it becomes none to judge, unless it can be shown

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that any one was personally wronged in the matter. Even then judgment by an outsider would be improper. A teacher, whom "Commentator" appears to accept, has expressed very strong condemnation of such judgments as his (or hers). The manner which "Commentator" views the matter, is, however, too outrageous to be harmful, save to himself (or herself). Even those who most regretted George Eliot's decision, even those who in her lifetime openly condemned her conduct in this matter, applied no such epithet, directly or indirectly, as "Commentator" with amazing fatuity has attempted to fasten on her. One might as well apply such a term to a second wife who was a sister of the first,

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July 18 at 9 o'clock. July 22 at 9 o'clock.

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because the law pronounces such a marriage illegal. all intents and purposes, save as regards the letter of the law, George Eliot was George Lewes's wife. The relation contemplated in marriage has seldom-perhaps neverbeen more beautifully fulfilled. The law would have made Mr. Lewes a criminal had the legal ceremony been performed, whether by priest or magistrate; and to persons with the opinions (I may say the faith) of George Lewes and George Eliot the legal ceremony would have had no intrinsic value. The only point they had to consider was whether the tie was binding on each, and whether each could trust the other to regard it as such. No one who knew either, certainly no one who under

stands the meaning of George Eliot's life, can doubt that they were united by a tie which was to them perfectly❘ sacred. Whether, the world being what it is,-most easily offended where it offends most readily-George Eliot and George Lewes should have sacrificed themselves rather than offend the worse minded (I mean most literally sacrifice themselves, because they would have sacrificed the better part of their life work, of what the world now owes to them) is another matter. It would not have been just to have so sacrificed themselves, though it might justly have been regarded as sublime.

BUT would the world-meaning its worse part-have understood them if they had done so ? I think not. The world would have judged and condemned them more foully than it has condemned them already.

THERE is a case in point. I will not mention names; I can hardly touch on facts; yet the facts are well known to a few. In the case I have in my thoughts, the woman is married, and has suffered grievous wrong. The sacrifice which the world's worse part (making no sacrifices itself in such things) would have claimed from George Eliot and George Lewes has been made by this woman and the man, who loves her as his life, and esteems her as the bravest of her sex. Thus have two lives been embittered. Has the world's worse part understood-nay, but neither name of these two can be mentioned, before all but a few who know, and a few more who can understand goodness, without the foulest abuse from those who only know and only really understand that they themselves are incapable of self-sacrifice in such matters,-or even of self-sacrifice in what, to persons of the class to which George Eliot belonged, is not held worthy of a thought.

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I OBSERVE that my friend the Editor considers he has seen lightning-flashes passing from the ground to the storm-cloud. His words are that "pace Professor Tait," he has "distinctly seen lightning strike upwards." Professor Tait did, I know, assert this to be impossible, in a lecture in which he was good enough to reproduce my own reasoning (in an article on "Electric Lighting," published in the Cornhill Magazine a few months before) not only on this point, but on the actual brightness of the electric flash, and some other points respecting which I had presented some rather novel points. I was particularly struck by this because, shortly before, he had criticised a work of mine in that back-stabbing manner for which he first acquired renown in Professor Tyndall's case. The point of this stiletto method consists in avoiding anything like direct correction or any statement as to why, where, or how, particular passages may be erroneous, the crafty critic simply quotes such passages with the remark, If this is right, I am all wrong, the innocent reader imagining this last alternative to be impossible or it would not be suggested. Another way is

to quote a passage and exclaim, "These be thy Gods, O Israel," or the like, leaving the reader to suppose-incorrectly-that there is something very wrong.

WITH all respect for my friend the Editor's keenness of observation, and (I need hardly say) the most perfect reliance on his account as presenting what he thought he saw, I venture to say that no human being can really see whether a lightning-flash goes one way or the other. I would invite the Editor to consider the evidence derivable from what is called "personality" in transit observations. We know, by comparing the work of different observers that no observer can be trusted to tell within the tenth of a second, surely, the instant when a "wire" (so called) reaches a star, i.e., no one can tell whether at the particular instant when the wire actually does reach the star, it has really reached it, or has already passed it, or is short of it, by one-tenth of a second's apparent motion of that star. Now let us see what an observer really claims to do when he undertakes to decide whether the earth end or the cloud end of a flash appeared first. Suppose the flash to be fifteen miles long, which for a flash whose whole course is visible is a goodly allowance. Then it is known that the flash takes less than the 10,000th part of a second in traversing that distance, whether it passes from cloud to earth or from earth to cloud or both ways simultaneously. Actual timing of the duration of the light indicates a much shorter time, usually, even than this, (it is well known that Talbot photographed fine printing on a rapidly whirling wheel, illuminated by an electric flash, so minute was the change in the position of the wheel's rim while the light lasted). In claiming, then, to know which way an ordinary lightning-flash travelled, the observer claims a keenness of perception more than a thousand times greater than that of our most experienced astronomical observers. All that has really happened

when a lightning flash has been seen to strike upwards, has been that the observer has chanced to be looking towards the earth when the flash appeared, so that he has been first conscious of the appearance of the earthend of the flash.

I HAVE not been content to let this be a mere theory, though I take it the reasoning, rightly understood, is convincing. I have tested the matter repeatedly. Let several observers (a family of them will do) watch the progress of a thunderstorm. (In America, where I am now writing, the opportunities are almost too good, thunderstorms being very frequent, and in many of them the lightning flashing continuously.) Let half the observers direct their attention to the storm-cloud or clouds, the other half to the horizon. It will be found that the self-same flash will be distinctly seen by one set to strike downwards, while by the other half it will be as distinctly seen to strike upwards. In like manner the self-same horizontal flash will be distinctly seen to pass from right to left, and as distinctly seen to pass from left to right, according to the way in which the observer chances to be looking at the instant.

COL. TUPMAN, commenting at the Astronomical Society, on my theory that meteors and comets were originally projected from the interior of suns or of planets in the sunlike state,—a theory advanced thirteen years ago before Mr. Denning had discovered meteors of long-lasting radiants, moving therefore with immense rapidity-argued that the theory is contradicted by the circumstance that the average velocity of meteors is

that due to parabolic orbits. That was the belief of astronomers when my theory was first published and till Mr. Denning made his important discovery. All I did in the paper on which Col. Tupman supposed he was commenting, was to show that my theory accounted for the enormous velocities which Mr. Denning's discovery absolutely demonstrates, if accepted and Colonel Tupman it was who first maintained that it must be accepted, being established by incontrovertible evidence. The argument, then, stands thus: I advance a certain theory about meteors and comets, when as yet moderate velocities only had been observed; Colonel Tupman brings before the Astronomical Society decisive evidence of enormously greater velocities; I show that my theory will account for them (which no other theory will do); he replies (?) "the theory cannot be sound, for no such velocities exist!" It seemed to me as though a more marvellous bull had scarcely ever been managed.

Reviews.

SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE.

Text-book of Structural and Physiological Botany. By OTTO W. THOMÉ and ALFRED W. BENNETT. Fifth edition. (London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1885.)-Whether we regard this as a text-book for the student, or as a hand-book of reference for the advanced botanist, it really seems as though it would be difficult to improve upon it. In fact, the mere mention of the appearance of five editions of Professor Thomé's work in its English dress in eight years will suffice to show how thoroughly it has filled something approaching to an absolute void in its own department of botanical literature, and how valuable it has been found by the numerous class which it addresses. And assuredly its success has been deserved, inasmuch as it is devoid of "cram" in any sense, and is educational in the highest. The histology, external form, structure, morphology, and classification of plants are successively treated in detail. Their pedigree, so to speak, is traced from the dim indications of Alge in the Silurian rocks, down to the vegetation of to-day. A chapter on botanical geography exhibits in succession the leading botanical features of all the known parts of the earth, while a first-rate glossarial index completes the volume, which is further illustrated by something like 600 woodcuts and a coloured map. We may pretty confidently assume that this fifth edition will be very far indeed from being the last one.

The Nomenclature of Diseases. Drawn up by A JOINT COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON. 2nd Edition, being the first revision. (London: Harrison & Sons. 1885.)-"In order," says J. S. Mill, in his "Logic" (Book IV., Chapter 4), "that we may possess a language perfectly suitable for the investigation and expression of general truths, there are two principal, and several minor, requisites. The first is that every general name should have a meaning, steadily fixed and precisely determined;" and assuredly it is essential that the name of any given disease and all that such name connotes should be of the most definite possible character. Of course, without some generally-recognised nomenclature of Diseases, statistics worthy of the name in connection with them become impossible; and on the value of trustworthy statistics of disease extending over a sufficiently wide area, it is wholly needless to insist here. But the difficulty or impossibility of tabulating such

records (save in a limited and imperfect manner) where three or four different names are employed to designate the same complaint must be apparent at once; and hence the necessity for an authoritative and admitted nomenclature. As far as our examination has extended, the Committee seem to have done their work ably and conscientiously; the sole slip--and that is in all probability a printer's error-that we have detected occurring on p. 135, where "spasomdic" occurs for "spasmodic." A notable and valuable feature in the book is the furnishing of the Latin, French, German, and Italian synonyms of every disease comprised in the list. As a matter of course, every physician and surgeon in the United Kingdom will provide himself with this indispensable book, which, it is to be hoped, in the interest of science will obtain a large Continental circulation too.

How to Draw a Map from Memory. By P. E. SWINSTEAD, B.A. (London). (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.)-We are a little afraid that Mr. Swinstead gives his readers credit for the possession of a particular kind of memory which is by no means common among students. He employs a novel and remarkable system of co-ordinates, consisting of straight lines and more or less complex curves, the ensemble of which has all to be remembered. These co-ordinates are printed in red, and the outlines following them are subsequently drawn in black. It may be the novelty of the idea, or, of course, our own stupidity, but it seems to us that the outline of Europe or Africa could be fixed in the mind in considerably less time than the complicated, and seemingly meaningless, pieces of geometrical construction which are to form its substratum.

Denudation of the Two Americas. By T. MELLARD READE, C.E., &c. (Liverpool: C. Tinling & Co. 1885.) This is a reprint of Mr. Mellard Reade's Presidential Address to the Liverpool Geological Society, and essays to make a quantitative determination (at all events, approximately) of the amount of solid matter annually removed from the continents of the New World by various forms of denudation. Mr. Reade insists, as we think justifiably, on the importance of chemical action as a denuding agent.

Pattern Making. By a FOREMAN PATTERN-MAKER. (London: Crosby Lockwood & Co. 1885.)-Articles, be they large or small, from the framing of a Nasmyth hammer to the cylinder of the toy steam-engine, which are made in cast-iron or brass, are 66 cast,' "that is to say are formed by running the metal of which they are composed in a liquid form, into a mould of the size and shape of the object to be produced, such mould taking the form of a hollow or depression in a tightly rammed mass of peculiar sand known as moulding-sand. But obviously, in order to form such a mould, an original pattern of the article to be cast must be made; and the construction of some of these patterns often presents extraordinary examples of ingenuity. The work before us is of an eminently practical character, and gives the most detailed instructions for the production of the patterns of the component parts of every type of mechanism which are formed by casting. No book with which we are acquainted goes into such minute details on this subject as the volume on our table; in fact, it supplies the apprentice or beginner with a complete course of instruction in his art. Much of the work has seemingly appeared in a detached form in the columns of our contemporary, the English Mechanic. In the interests of mechanical art, it is to be hoped that its readers in its book form will be as numerous as they

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