subject has at last succeeded in making a position for itself, and its existence is recognised in the chief universities of England and Scotland. Its further progress will certainly be assisted by this able account of the methods and accomplishments of the science. SPEECH. The Science of Speech, an Elementary Manual of English Phonetics for Teachers. By Benjamin Dumville. Pp. xii+207. (Cambridge: University Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1909.) Price 2s. 6d. THIS HIS is a concise, accurate, and interesting little manual, written by one who is evidently a master of the subject of phonetics, and knows how to communicate information. Nowhere have we seen so good an account of the muscular movements and the positions of the articulating apparatus. The book is intended for teachers, who often, in these days, are required to teach the elements of phonetics. or, at all events, to train children in the art of correct pronunciation and good reading. It is not a book to be read hastily. It requires a careful experimental study of the movements described, with the aid of a mirror, but the descriptions are so clear and the methods so simple and convincing that the accurate knowledge acquired will well repay all the trouble. The nature of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, digraphs, the distinction between voice and whispering, the various kinds of whispers, and the nature of the aspirate are fully explained. There is an interesting chapter on the sounds in connected speech, such as accent, emphasis, intonation, assimilation, and variations in pitch. The author, perhaps, scarcely attaches the importance to pitch, or rather to variations in pitch in the words or syllables of a spoken sentence, which we are inclined to do, and which is brought out in a striking way when the vibrations of the sounds of a sentence are recorded on a rapidly moving surface. We are much interested in the chapter on The Organic Basis of English," which must appeal to physiologists, the point being that, by repetition, during the early period when speech is acquired, a kind of habit is imposed on the articulating organs, and, we would add, on the nerve centres involved; this will be determined by the sounds the child imitates, or is taught to pronounce. There will thus be a kind of organic habit for each language, a consideration that may explain how difficult it is for one trained from early days in the English language to acquire, in later life, the true intonation of good French. The author gives a striking illustration, p. 141, of the difference between the English t and its French equivalent, so that an Englishman uttering the sentence Ton thé t'a-t-il ôté ta toux? (Has your tea taken away your cough?) would probably not give the t the peculiar softness or quality that can only be obtained by pronouncing the t, as the French do, by starting with the tip of the tongue from the back of the front teeth, instead of a little behind, as is done in English speech (see Fig. 27). The last two chapters deal with spelling reform and with the important pædagogic question of whether a phonetic training is helpful to children who are learn ing to read. We will not follow the author here, but be content with stating that he presents his arguments forcibly but with fairness. Children must at first be taught by the ear alone, and by frequent repetition; sounds that are distinctly bad, like the peculiar tone of many resident in London or in the south, or the nasal drawl of the west of Scotland, must be got rid of; and the ear of the child must hear, at all events during school hours, the tones of pure English. In not a few cases, probably, the work of the teacher may be undone by the sounds of the child's home. The author refers briefly to the use of the phonograph. The intonation of the gramophone is far superior, and we would advise that the Gramophone Company should be induced to take, say, a dozen records from highly trained and correct voices, illustrating the tones of pure and undefiled English. These would be of immense service to teachers. The Gramophone Company has a record of the voice of the late Canon Fleming, uttering some of the prayers in the Morning Service of the Church of England, which fully illustrates what we mean. It is a pity that a better set of symbols for phonetic speech sounds has not been invented. Some are very grotesque, but, still worse, with a weak eyesight, some of the symbols are difficult to discriminate. The symbols of Graham Bell seem to us to be better than those mostly in vogue, and it is only right to mention that these are used by so high an authority as Mr. Sweet in his "Primer of Phonetics." Mr. Dumville is to be congratulated on having produced an excellent book on what is truly the science of speech. JOHN G. MCKENDRICK. A TEXT-BOOK OF OTOLOGY. Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde für Ärzte und Studierende. By Dr. Paul Ostmann. Pp. viii+533(Leipzig: Verlag von F. C. W. Vogel, 1909.) Price 18 marks. THE HE name of Dr. Paul Ostmann is well known to otologists, not only in Europe, but in the British Islands and the United States. A text-book upon diseases of the ear from his pen is, therefore, welcome, even though it be disappointing. Like all text-books which hail from the German Empire, however, it is marked by that peculiar German conceit which, whilst giving ample prominence to the work of compatriots, ignores, or, at the most, dismisses with curt comment, that of equally prominent scientific labourers of other countries. Dr. Paul Ostmann's text-book abounds with references to German aural surgeons, but in all its 533 pages only some seventeen British or American otologists receive mention, and the names of some of these are spelled incorrectly. Picking out, from motives of curiosity, the names quoted from among those surgeons who belong to our own country, we find that Handfield Jones, Toynbee, Hinton, Ogston, Macewen, Walker Downie, Dundas Grant, and Yearsley alone receive acknowledgment for their work, whilst Cheatle, Pritchard, Barr, and many other names of equal lustre in the domain of diseases of the ear are ignored completely. In a work issued at the present time, when so much that is of lasting For the work as a text-book we can speak with moderate approbation. There is no dissertation upon anatomy to swell the book, but the author plunges straightway into methods of examination and diagnosis. This portion is not too much padded with unnecessary pictures of instruments, and the diagrams are.adequate, with the exception of Fig. 13, which is exaggerated and wholly unnatural. A considerable number of pages is devoted to the functional testing of the ears, and this appears to be treated very fully and exhaustively. In dealing with anomalies of the hearing, a series of useful charts is given from actual cases. In treating of the various diseases of and operations upon the ear, we can find no mention of the use of the hand-gouge in place of the chisel and mallet in performing operations upon the mastoid, an improvement in technique which we owe to British surgery. We fully approve of the classification of otosclerosis with diseases of the bony labyrinthine capsule. This is a distinct advance upon those textbooks which continue to describe it as a middle-ear condition. An excellent section deals with the effects of general diseases upon the ear, and another is devoted to the toxic effects of quinine, the salicylates, iodide of potassium, arsenic, aspirin, chloroform, tobacco, alcohol, mercury, silver, carbon dioxide, and phosphorus. Sec tions such as these are so rarely met with in the works of specialists that they deserve unstinted praise. It is disappointing to find so important a subject as deaf-mutism dismissed in four pages. The volume is an average text-book, and deals with its subject in an average manner, but it does not add markedly to the now voluminous literature of otology. As a guide for the student and junior practitioner, it will, no doubt, find a useful place. OUR BOOK SHELF. years. In 1888 the number of spots followed with sufficient fulness and accuracy to enable their rotation period to be well determined was 76. Of these, 48 were equatorial markings, and 15 were north tropical spots. The power used on the telescope was 150, and consisted of a single plano-convex lens. The planet was badly situated for observation, its meridian altitude only slightly exceeding 20° even in the south of England. ever, Mr. Williams succeeded in securing a mass of Notwithstanding the difficulties encountered, howuseful observations, the number of spot-transits recorded being 888. These are carefully discussed, and the results presented in a series of tables. The rotation periods deduced during the opposition of 1888 are included with many others by Mr. Williams and other observers in later years in summaries exhibiting the changes of relative velocity from year to year. It is by comparisons of this character extending over a long period of time that we may hope finally to unravel the problem offered by the changing scenery of Jupiter's vaporous envelope and by the remarkable series of different currents circulating in various latitudes. A number of painstaking observers, including Mr. Williams, Prof. Hough, Major Moles worth, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, Mr. Bolton, and others, have accumulated extensive materials, to this end, during the past quarter of a century, but much more remains to be done. The comparisons which Mr. Williams has instituted at the end of his volume are not so valuable as they might have been in consequence of omissions in quoting the results of various observers. Thus, in the table of rotations of spots in the south equatorial current, Mr. Phillips's values for 1898 and 1906-7 are given, but similar figures for the intervening years are not mentioned at all. Similarly the writer's rotation periods for 1905-6 (Monthly Notices, vol. lxvi., p. 434) are altogether omitted. On the whole, however, Mr. Williams's new contribution to zenographic study is very valuable and ably executed. There are few typographical errors, and excellent, though the differences between the light and the volume is well got up, while the illustrations are dark markings are intensified, perhaps purposely, to assist the eye in noting the details more readily. W. F. D. Introduzioni Teoriche ad Alcuni Esercizi Pratici di Fisica. By Alfonso Sella. Edited by A. Pochettino and F. Piola. Pp. viii+133. (Firenze: Successori Le Monnier, 1909.) Price 2.50 lire. THIS is a short treatise on a few selected subjects of practical physics. They comprise the testing of a balance and calibration of a thermometer tube, the measurement of specific heat by the method of mixtures, the determination of the constants of a ruled grating, the measurement of magnetic field-intensity and its horizontal component, and the use of the Wheatstone bridge and the quadrant electrometer. The various problems involved are treated very fully, but in a purely theoretical manner, evidently intended MR. WILLIAMS has been known for about thirty years to point out to the instructor the difficulties and limitaas a very painstaking planetary observer, and, con- tions likely to be encountered. Thus, in the detersidering the small sizes of his telescopes (5-inch and mination of a magnetic field, the lack of uniformity 6-inch reflectors), his results have been remarkable is dealt with at exceptional length, and the mathe in their comprehensiveness and importance. To matical reasoning is given in full at every step. In Jupiter especially Mr. Williams has devoted attention, the measurement of the magnetic quantities M and H, and, as a continuation or supplement to the "Zeno account is taken of such sources of error as the rigidity graphic Fragments" which he published twenty years of the suspending fibre, and the variation of the magago, and dealing with his observations in 1887, has netic moment and the moment of inertia with the temnow issued a similar contribution for 1888. The in-perature. In adding the dimensional equations, the dividually observed transits of the various spots are author unfortunately adheres to the old practice of given, and the periods of rotation are derived and expressing them in terms of M, L, and T only. That compared with the results of 1887 and subsequent | M/H = L3 (recte L3) implies that it has something to do with a volume, but conveys no information concerning the physical constitution of the quantities in question. The whole of the work dealt with belongs to the second term of the physics course in the University of Rome. The author compiled it while yet Prof. Blaserna's assistant. His untimely death after succeeding to the chair prevented him from publishing it himself, but that duty has been admirably carried through by his two able disciples. Azimuth. By G. L. Hosmer. Pp. v+73. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1909.) Price 4s. 6d. net. THIS work is avowedly not a text-book; it is a handbook for the practical surveyor, and, as such, should prove very useful. Prof. Hosmer gives just the ordinary methods for checking the angles of a survey by observation of the sun and stars, but the book is removed from the commonplace by the conciseness of its instructions and the numerous practical hints given at all the necessary points. The tables for computing the results are given in the latter part of the book, and the examples are worked out on specimen forms calculated to obviate clerical errors. The book is nicely printed, illustrated with useful diagrams, and well bound. These features, combined with its handy size, make it a very useful work for the practical surveyor to carry with him as a pocketbook for easy reference. W. E. R. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Notes on a Stone Circle in County Cork. In view of several references made in NATURE lately to stone circles in Ireland (vol. lxxix., p. 488, February 25), the following notes on one situated at Drumbeg, near Glandore, County Cork, may prove of interest, especially as this circle contains the characteristic " recumbent stone of the "Aberdeenshire type in the south-western half of its circumference, a feature not hitherto met with outside that locality. 1 2 feet 6 inches high; right supporter, 4 feet 8 inches high, I foot 9 inches deep, 3 feet wide; left supporter, 5 feet high, 1 foot 6 inches deep, 3 feet wide. The circle stands on a hill-side facing the sea, upon an the southern (seaward) side. This edge, otherwise straight, artificial plateau with a well-defined edge, 160 feet long, on is indented by a "cove 20 feet in length, directed towards the centre of the circle, which it almost touches externally on its southern side. A row of four small ovals, and mounds of stones (probably burial-sites), lie in a line a short way outside the plateau to the south-eastward. The remains of (?) a hutwestward from the main circle, and there is a large solitary circle of rough stones occur at a distance of 170 feet outlying boulder situated on a small eminence 100 feet to the north-eastward. The following astronomical features (sight-lines) are observable in the above remains : (1) From the recumbent stone; solstitial summer sunrise over one of the two most important stones of the circle; sky-line elevated 3° 40'. (This line passes almost over the outlying boulder.) of the two important stones; hill-line elevated 2° 20' (2) From the same position, May sunrise over the second (3) From same position (or from centre of circle, see photograph), solstitial winter sunset over a conspicuous gap in the hills, distant one mile. (4) Edge of the plateau lies in the line of May sunrise or November sunset. (5) Side of the cove is directed to the solstitial summer sunset over centre of circle, nearly. (6) Line of stone ovals, outside plateau, is practically that of May-sunrise. (7) From centre of (?) hut circle, over the northernmost stone of circle (a slab with a rounded profile, thus differing from the remainder, which are of "pillar " form), to the outlying boulder, is the May-sunrise line. There are no indications of a burial-mound in the centre of the circle. BOYLE T. SOMERVILLE. Admiralty Survey Office, Tenby, S. Wales. Musical Sands in Chile. THE interesting letter of Mr. Carus-Wilson, dealing with the existence of musical sands, suggests to me that some fact in my experience relating to this subject may be worth putting on record, and may, through the courtesy of your columns, possibly lead to the elucidation of an occurrence which has hitherto lacked explanation, at least in my mind. Some few miles to the west of the town of Copiapo, in Chile, and, so far as my recollection of the locality carries me, about half a mile to the southward of the railway line, there is a tailing off of a ragged hill-range, which runs about north and south. In a ravine-it is too small to be called a valley-the sand which covers the greater part of that portion of Chile has, blown doubtless by the sea-breeze, been carried up the gully to which I refer, and lies there at a slope equal to the flowing angle of dry sand. The place is locally known by the name of "El Punto del Diabolo, as, given conditions of wind and weather, which time did not allow me to study, a low moaning sound, varying in intensity, can be heard for quite a quarter of a mile away. Amongst the superstitious natives the place is avoided. Thinking it worth a visit, I went there with the late Mr. Edwards, who was then the British Consul in that district. On our arrival we found that the sands were quite silent, but on making a glissade down the slope a gradually increasing "rumble " was heard, which increased in volume as the sand slid away before us. As the sound increased we were subjected to an undulatory movement, so decided that it was difficult Drumbeg Circle. Recumbent stone and supporters, viewed from centre of circle, showing notch in hills (solstitial sunset line). The accompanying photograph shows this stone and its supporters, of which the following dimensions may be given :-recumbent stone, 7 feet long, 1 foot 8 inches deep, to keep one's balance, and as we both had heard that this sand had swept over an old silver mine, there was a clear impression on the minds of both that the vibration might break in the roof of the old workings. I write of this experience for what it is worth. I do not know whether the ground under the sand was hollow or solid, and although I have ventured to theorise on the subject, as yet I have found no satisfactory solution of this, to me, quite unique experience. M. H. GRAY. Lessness Park, Abbey Wood, Kent. The Æther of Space. As one who has read with the greatest appreciation the work recently written by Sir Oliver Lodge on this subject, I take it that the following statements represent fairly well the condition of scientific opinion at the present time : (1) The fundamental units of which matter is composed are probably individualised regions of the universal æther, neither condensations nor rarefactions, but distinguished by some kinetic structure from the unmodified æther surrounding them. (2) The æther, as a whole, is stationary, there being nothing of the nature of æther currents, but it possesses an exceedingly fine-grained circulation in closed curves, its elasticity being of kinetic origin. (3) So far as the motion of a mass of matter is concerned, there is no ætherial viscosity, and, consequently, the earth carries no æther with it in its motion. We therefore live in an æther stream due solely to the earth's motion in space, and having the full value due to its velocity, the failure of Prof. Michelson's delicate experiment being due to a lessened cohesion (of electromagnetic origin) in any length of matter carried at right angles to the æther stream. The question arises as to whether the æther which forms any mass of moving matter remains the same. Assuming the above statements, there appear to be two alternatives. Either the æther, distinguished by special structure, which composes the ultimate units of which matter is built up, has a bodily transfer through space, or the æther in the line of approach must be rapidly caught up in the advancing vortices (or whatever the structure may be), fused into their being, and as rapidly liberated along the line of recession. If the former supposition be correct, there must be a region of slip in the æther surrounding the ultimate units (electrons); if the latter, we have the very interesting conception of matter being incessantly made and unmade as regards its fundamental units with a speed proportional to the velocity of motion. All the physical properties of a given mass of matter would remain constant, while the æther, the substratum of its existence, was changing. If this reasoning be not in error, I shall be glad if Sir Oliver Lodge or any other physicist will indicate which of these views obtains acceptance. CHARLES W. RAFFETY. Wynnstay, Woodcote Valley Road, Purley, Surrey, July 15. Botanical Surveys. REFERRING to the review, in NATURE of July 15, of Mr. F. Morey's "Guide to the Natural History of the Isle of Wight, in which it is suggested that the Isle of Wight affords wide scope for a botanical survey on the lines followed by Dr. W. G. Smith and his school of plantecologists, it may be of interest to the reviewer and others to state that already the primary survey of the district has been completed and maps made by the writer, in association with the Central Committee for the Study of British Vegetation. As suggested by "F. C.," a bare species list, even if complete, can do but scant justice to the variety of the vegetation of the Isle. Though in some types it is second in interest to the opposite mainland of South Hampshire, as, for example, in the calcareous grasslands and dry and wet heathlands, yet the almost full development of maritime associations and the diversity of the woodland formations do much to restore the balance. The island has been under a long-continued civilisation, yet there still remain, almost untouched by man, several station-associations which, according to the plan of Prof. Conwentz, would be among the first to be scheduled as natural monuments." "" In this last respect the island is but typical of much of Britain, and the regret expressed by your reviewer that the makers of county floras are not animated even by the spirit of Baker's "North Yorkshire" is shared by all who know the standing of British plant-ecology. To such it is sad that the period which saw the publication of Wheldon and Wilson's 'West Lancashire saw also the publication of the arid lists of many of the Victoria county histories, as of Lancashire itself. W. MUNN RANKIN. Storey Institute, Lancaster, July 19. The Acarus Crossii. asked SOME months ago (NATURE, February 4) a correspondent directed attention to the account of Crosse's remarkable experiences when experimenting with electric currents, and the appearance of quantities of an acarus in the solutions treated, as fully narrated in Chambers's "Vestiges of the Footsteps of Creation," and the question was whether any explanation of such strange phenomena had ever been heard of. No reply seems to have been made, and, presumably, no recent attempts to investigate the mystery have taken place. It may be of interest to note that Chambers's account is fully corroborated in the "National Dictionary of Biography," and it appears that Crosse, though he did not make any suggestions as to spontaneous generation," but merely related the facts and left explanations to others, found himself the victim of such a shower of abuse that he thenceforth entirely abandoned all research work and retired into obscurity. His experiments would probably have been forgotten but that they were repeated with complete success by another worker. Considering how much more easily prolonged electric action can nowadays be applied, would it not be well if someone would have the patience to repeat once more the exact conditions so amply described by Chambers, and so, if possible, clear up what is undoubtedly a very mysterious occurrence? CHARLES E. BENHAM. 28 Wellesley Road, Colchester, July 7. Barisal Guns in Australia. IN NATURE of June 4, 1908 (vol. lxxviii., p. 101), under the title of Barisal Guns in Western Australia," you published a note from me describing a peculiar, loud detonation heard by my companions and myself while on the Strelley River, in the north-west of Australia. In reading Captain Sturt's "Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia during the Years 1828, 1829, 1830, and 1831," I find that, when camped on the the newly discovered Darling River, near what is now town of Bourke, in New South Wales, in February, 1829, a very similar sound was heard by the explorers. Sturt's words are as follows:-" About p.m. on the 7th Mr. Hume and I were occupied tracing the chart upon the ground. The day had been remarkably fine, not a cloud was there in the heavens, nor a breath of air to be felt. On a sudden we heard what seemed to be the report of a gun fired at the distance of between five and six miles. It was not the hollow sound of an earthly explosion, or the sharp cracking noise of falling timber, but in every way resembled a discharge of a heavy piece of ordnance. On this all were agreed, but no one was certain whence the sound proceeded. Both Mr. Hume and myself had been too attentive to our occupation to form a satisfactory opinion; but we both thought it came from the N.W. I sent one of the men immediately up a tree, but he could observe nothing unusual. The country around him appeared to be equally flat on all sides, and to be thickly wooded whatever occasioned the report, it made a strong impression on all of us; and to this day, the singularity of such a sound, in such a situation, is a matter of mystery to me (2nd edition, 1834, vol. i., p. 98). J. BURTON CLELAND. Bureau of Microbiology, Sydney, New South Wales, June 19. FIG. 1.-Portion of Ordnance Map-Long Meg. From the Proceedings of the University of Durham Philosophical Society. FIG. 2.-The Chapel or Rectangle, Keswick Circle. From the Proceedings of the University of Durham Philosophical Society. At Keswick the circle consists of thirty-eight unhewn stones with an internal diameter of about 50 feet. 1 Abstract of a paper on "Sun and Star Observations at the Stone Circles of Keswick and Long Meg," by Dr. John Morrow (Proceedings of the University of Durham Philosophical Society, vol. iii., part iii, 1908-9). of Great Mell Fell; (3) from the outlying stone to the centre of the circle, proceeding along the valley of the Greta. The observed altitudes and azimuths and the calculated declinations are given in Table I. |