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of the movements of the lips, the veil of the palate, and the vibrations of the larynx, is put before the world by Mr. Thomas A. Edison, an electrician of great renown in America. The telephone, of course, uses the electric circuit for the transmission of its sounds; but the new and extremely simple apparatus of Mr. Edison does not necessarily or primarily use electricity. In fact, the method is one which aims at making the human voice record itself on a

strip of paper in a permanent form, so that it may be reproduced, in every note and articulation, at any subsequent period and, if properly adjusted, with an electric circuit at any required distance! The conception is indeed a bold one for it promises to provide us with an instrument which, if it had existed in the times of, and been used by, Cicero or Demosthenes, would, if the medium of transmission -the paper which we shall presently describe-could have been preserved so long, have enabled us to reproduce their orations not only in the very spoken words, but with the sonance and intonation employed by them! It is an instrument indeed which, if, as Mr. Edison-a soundly scientific man-affirms, it can be perfected, will enable us to fix sentences or phrases, so that, when we are dead, they may be reproduced phonetically as if we, in our own voice and with our own accents, were uttering them!

The apparatus as described is extremely simple. It consists essentially of a small sounding-box with a speaking-tube; but the base of the box is a thin metallic diaphragm or drum-head, which responds powerfully to the vibrations of the voice. In the centre of this diaphragm, and on the under side of it, is fastened a minute and delicate V-shaped point. Immediately under this point, and near enough to touch it, is a revolving drum worked by clockwork, which carries forward a continuous strip of

paper, having throughout its length, and exactly in its centre, a raised A-shaped boss. The result is that the chisel or V-shaped point in the centre of the diaphragm rests upon the sharp ridge of the A-shaped prominence in the strip of paper. Now, if the clockwork be set in motion, and the paper be moved rapidly along, and if at the same time the chamber of which the metallic diaphragm is the bottom be spoken into through the tube, the movements of the diaphragm will be recorded by the indentation of the chisel point upon the delicate boss upon the paper; for this being, of course, hollow, is easily indented. Hence the tones of small amplitude, it is affirmed, are recorded by slight indentations, and those of full amplitude by deep ones. Thus the fillet of paper is made to receive a mechanical record of the vocal vibrations of air-waves from the movements of the diaphragm. all that is needed, Mr. Edison affirms, is another diaphragm with a point so arranged that, by the passage of this ridge of paper with its indentations, under it, at the same rate of motion as before, causing the point communicating with the diaphragm to enter in succession all the indentations made by the point previously used, and there will be set up in this second diaphragm exactly the same vibrations, and with the same rapidity as those which were produced in the first.

Now

And thus all the vibrations superinduced by the voice in the first instrument, will be exactly reproduced by mechanical vibrations in the second; while this latter may be put into a circuit with a speaking telephone, and at the same moment be transmitted by wire to a distant point.

It is affirmed, on most reliable authority, that this instrument, although by no means as perfect as Mr. Edison is confident of making it, has been made actually to accomplish the results spoken of and if the further

improvements can be realized, it is asserted that it can be so arranged that when, for example, an orator in the House of Commons speaks, with the phonograph properly arranged, an indented strip of paper is the result, so far as this instrument is concerned : this is made to travel under a second apparatus, which is in connection with a telephone; and the speaker could be heard in Birmingham or Penzance; and not only so, but by using the same strip to-morrow or a decade hence, precisely the same result would follow. Thus we are promised an instrument which not only fixes what may have been said by any speaker, and makes it transmissible anywhere, but that immortalizes the very tones in which he uttered it, and makes those capable of reproduction at any time.

The telephone of Professor Bell is already practically employed in many ways. It is specially useful for mining purposes. One of the instruments employed in coal mining is the Aerometer; which is a whirling instrument for measuring the velocity of air currents in collieries. This has recently, in some mines, been connected with the telephone, upon which the spring of the Aerometer is made to vibrate. By putting his ear to the telephone on the surface, the manager knows at once the rate at which a current of air is running through the mine.

Geologists and Paleontologists have been delighted recently by a most valuable discovery. It is well known that until lately there were no traces of birds in the strata of the earth earlier than the Mesozoic rocks, except in the case of the remarkable specimen Archaeopteryx found in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, which belongs to the upper Oolites. First, the impression of a fossil feather was found; and, eventually, an imperfect skeleton of the bird.

It was fortunately perfect in one particular, the structure of the tail, -which was its essential peculiarity. Instead of the group of modified bones forming the short tail of known birds, there was a long tail composed of vertebræ, and along the sides of which the feathers were attached. But for the feathers the tail might have been that of a lizard: it was longer than the body, which was about the size of that of a crow, and, in the main, coincident with the known type of birds. This specimen was the only one extant up to a very recent date, and was purchased at a large cost by the authorities of the British Museum. In the interval, a remarkable group of birds with teeth, and with reptilian forms of vertebræ, have been discovered by Professor Marsh in America; and thus birds with reptilian vertebræ, with teeth distinctly socketed in the jaw and with a lizard-like tail, were held to point strongly to a close linking of reptiles and birds; at least, it was evident that the old definition of a bird would have to be modified. Just at this juncture a new fossil has been discovered in the Solenhofen slates. At first it was thought to be a pterodactyle, but was soon found to be an archæopteryx, more perfect than the one now in the British Museum. The defect of that specimen was that the head was wanting; and, therefore, it was impossible to answer the question raised by Professor Marsh's fossils : 'Had the archæopteryx jaws with teeth in them?' But the more recently-discovered fossil is said to be perfect in the region of the skull; and, therefore, when examination has been carefully made this question can be settled. It was strongly hoped, in some quarters, that the

British Museum authorities would have purchased this second fossil. It was offered to the Munich Museum for twenty-five thousand seven hundred and ten marks, but it was not

purchased. It has since, however, been proved to be so remarkably well preserved that the price was raised to thirty-six thousand marks; and at that high value it has been purchased by Dr. Otto Volger on behalf of the Freie Deutsche Hochstift, and is now at Frankfurt. We shall anticipate with much eagerness the scientific report of this remarkable fossil.

Professor Worthington Smith has been examining the remains of a fungus found growing in the tissue of one of the great flowerless trees fossilized in the Coal Measures. He finds the fungus, which is fossilized in a fossil, to belong to one of the simple primordial plants of the great family of fungi.' This is one more of the evidences that disease-for such, of course, the fungus was to the Lepidodendron during its life in the immeasurable past-existed amongst the most ancient organic forms that flourished in the remotest ages.

Our interest in the intellectual characteristics of the most intelligent animals must constantly deepen : and, where it can be done, there will be many ready to devote themselves to the study of these. The habits of bees have long been carefully considered by man: but, to some extent, this attention was dictated by the prospect of benefit derivable from the fruits of their instinct. It is not so with ants; yet they are now all over the world the subjects of very careful study. In a sense far deeper than is generally understood we may, and do at this time, 'go to the ant' to learn. Few things are more striking than their social and individual life, when we see it in a more complete manner. We gave a somewhat lengthy account of their habits in the pages of The City-Road Magazine some years since; but since that time the facts that have come to us, as the result of research, are almost

romantic. There are ants that live together under domed habitations, built by themselves, and so aggregated as to form vast and populous cities; they exercise apparently a distinct jurisdiction, so far as ant life is concerned, over the adjoining territory; they lay out regular roads, make tunnels under what to them are vast rivers, station guards at the entrance to their town, carefully remove offensive matter, organize a regular group of public guardians, or police,' throughout their colony; they make extensive hunting expeditions; wage systematic war upon other great colonies of ants; take prisoners and reduce them to a state of slavery; cultivate the soil, gather in and garner a harvest; keep and pen aphides as cattle for the sweet milky fluid they exude; and do many other equally remarkable things. It has been established that when a colony is being formed the ground is determined on, evidently by deliberation and concert, and is then carefully cleared of all stones and rubbish. A minute species of grain resembling rice is sown in a space of about four feet cleared all round the settlement, and is then kept free from weeds and guarded against marauding insects, until ripe, when it is reaped, the seed dried and carried to a garner. But if such an effort at colonization should be made near a large city' already established, it is treated as an intrusion, and issues in actual war, destructive of one party or the other. Close observation has been made recently on the fact that, in a formicary, an old inhabitant of it that has been kept away from it for months, if placed in it again, is received with all friendliness; but if one who is a perfect stranger, and has never been in the colony before, be put there, it is instantly killed. So there is a wonderful capacity for distinguishing individuals. They even seek and endeavour to procure what to them

are luxuries. There is a species of acacia which, when the leaves decay, produces a minute form of fungus, and the ants actually cut off these leaves and lay them down to decay, that they may get the delicacy of mushroom diet. If an ant is in trouble from accident, it is not unusual for others at once to go to its relief and help; and if a 'worker' becomes permanently idle and refuses to work, it is at once, and by common consent, killed. The extensive observations that have been so rapidly here summarized, have been made by carefully-trained observers, who have extended their researches to every country from England to Australia.

A new comet was discovered by M. Coggia, at Marseilles, on the 14th of September. It was faint, round, and showed the trace of a tail. This will be Comet V., 1877.

The Astronomer Royal has published a report of the results of the telescopic observations on the Transit of Venus in 1874. They give a mean distance for the sun of 93,300,000 miles. Sir G. Airy believes that this result will not be seriously altered by the publication of results from other sources. It is a somewhat greater distance than was anticipated from previous calculations, but can in no way be more accurately given until the transit of 1882 has been observed and reduced.

By spectroscopic means, Professor Draper has been able to demonstrate the presence of oxygen in the sun, and to photograph it. It discloses itself by the presence in the solar spectrum of its characteristic bright lines. The metals are demonstrated in the solar spectrum by means of dark absorption lines; their darkness being due to the fact that the light of the metal

passes through luminous vapours of the same, and in doing so the light is absorbed. In the case of the oxygen, it must come directly from the incandescent gas and not pass through any absorbing medium. This is a new departure in solar, perhaps also in stellar, chemistry.

Further information is to hand concerning the satellites of Mars. The periods of revolution are 30 h. 17.3 m. and 7h. 38.5 m. respectively. This when expressed in Martial sidereal time is 29 h. 31 m. and 7 h. 27 m. So that the outer satellite passes any given meridian on the surface of Mars in something more than 5 days, while the inner one passes from west to east -the reverse of the other and of the majority of the bodies in the solar system-in 10 h. 48 m. The astronomers on this orb are indeed favoured with conditions suitable for the exact development of their science. The mass of Mars has been more accurately determined during a few days, by observations on his outer satellite, than by a preceding century of observations and calculations without it. The result is that our estimate of Mars' mass is proved to have been about thirty millions of millions of millions of tons too great.

The Americans suggest that these satellites should be named Romulus and Remus; but classical scholars have been reminded that Homer, in the fifteenth Book of the Iliad, which depicts Ares as preparing to descend to the earth, has given names by anticipation to the two followers of Mars, thus:

“Ως φάτο και ῥ ̓ ἵππους κέλετο Δείμον τε φόβον τε

Ζευγνύμεν.

Deimus and Phobus would be at least distinctive.

We regret to announce the death of Leverrier, who as a man of science was truly great in his generation.

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A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical, etc. By J. Peter Lange, D.D., in connection with a number of eminent European Divines. Translated from the German, and Edited, with Additions original and selected, by Philip Schaff, D.D., in connection with American Scholars of various Evangelical Denominations. Vol. VII. of the Old Testament. Containing Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1877.The Books of Chronicles have been committed by Dr. Lange to Dr. Otto Zöckler, whose laborious and able work is translated by Dr. J. G. Murphy, of Belfast. Professor Schultz, of Breslau, has undertaken Ezra and Esther, the former being translated, enlarged and edited by Dr. Briggs, of New York; the latter by Dr. Strong, of Drew Theological Seminary. The Commentary on Nehemiah is altogether the work of Dr. Crosby, of New York, with the exception of the homiletic sections of Dr. Schultz. The character and the sources of the latest historical Books of the Old Testament are examined with admirable candour, moderation, judiciousness and learning, and in a very interesting style. This is a seasonable service in the present stage of Biblical science. Drs. Zöckler and Schultz, from different starting-points, arrive at the same conclusion: that the Books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah were not the work of the same writer. Dr. Zöckler refutes the rationalistic charge that the Chronicles handle

deceitfully the history and theology of the Books of Samuel and Kings in the interests of the hierarchy. He adduces strong proof that the materials for the Chronicles are distinct and independent.

The Introductions to the various Books in this volume are as scholarly, thoughtful and readable as those of the preceding expositions in this inestimable series. That to Ezra is especially wise and well-considered. In the comparatively few instances in which Dr. Zöckler deflects in the direction of wayward, destructive criticism, Dr. Murphy corrects his aberrations with exemplary judiciousness. But Dr. Zöckler himself powerfully repels neological assaults. Weighty Scriptural and Church principles are deduced from the Chronicles. The light which the Book of Ezra casts on the history of Redemption is beautifully brought out. This is one of the most striking and instructive parts of the volume. The Introduction to the Book of Esther is remarkably rich, and the canonicity and religious importance of the Book are strikingly and successfully maintained against the fairly and even strongly-stated objections of its assailants. But we do not think the exposition of Esther on a level with that of the other Books, or equal to some previous commentaries on this part of Scripture. The heroic faith of Esther seems to us to be strangely underrated. The exegesis in this volume, though shorter and less minute than that in its predecessors, is in no respect less valuable. A new translation is given of

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