Rumford, when residing in Paris, carried out his principles by wearing white and loose-textured woollen clothing, which, from the sneering descriptions of his French biographers, appear to have been almost identical with the now common Saturday costume at Oxford and Cambridge, and everywhere else in Britain where healthy and sensible young men are free to shake off the fetters of conventional foolery. Rumford was cruelly persecuted by the dandies and salonmongers of Paris, and even by the scientific men of the period, who displayed their superior taste by wearing tight breeches, whaleboned stays, and monstrous super-starched bandages strapped round their necks in such a manner as to render the natural movements of the head impossible.

Referring to his experience, Rumford says, "It is a mistaken notion that it (flannel) is too warm a clothing for the summer. I have worn it in the hottest climates, and at all seasons of the year. I never found the least inconvenience from it. It is the warm bath of a perspiration confined by a linen shirt, wet with sweat, which renders the summer heats of the tropical climates so insupportable; but flannel promotes perspiration, and favours its evaporation; and evaporation, as is well known, produces positive cold." He adds, "I first began to wear flannel, not from any knowledge I had of its properties, but merely upon the recommendation of an eminent physician (Sir Richard Jebb), and when I began the experiments of which I here give an account, I little thought of discovering the physical cause of the good effects which I had experienced from it; nor had I the most distant idea of mentioning the circumstance. I shall be happy, however, if what I have said or done upon the subject shall induce others to make a trial of what I have so long experienced with the greatest advantage, and which, I am confident, they will find to contribute greatly to health, and consequently to all the other comforts and enjoyments of life. I shall then think these experiments, trifling as they may appear, by far the most fortunate and the most important ones I have ever made."

It should be remembered that this, and the account of the experiments, are included in a paper read before the Royal Society, March 22, 1787.

Further practical data have since been accumulated, confirming all that Rumford said in favour of flannel. The most valuable are those obtained by comparing the results of wearing different kinds of clothing upon the general health of large bodies of men whose occupations and other conditions of existence are sufficiently similar to admit of fair comparison.

Experiments of this kind made on soldiers and sailors have resulted in an unanimous verdict in favour of flannel. A striking example is quoted by Dr. Andrew Combe, on the testimony of Captain Murray, of H.M.S. Valorous, who, on his arrival in England in December, 1823, after two years' service amid the icebergs on the coast of Labrador, was ordered to sail immediately, with the same ship and crew, to the West Indies. Acting on the convictions derived from previous experience, he directed the purser to draw two extra flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man, and instituted a regular daily inspection to see that they were worn. He proceeded to his station with a crew of 150 men; visited almost every island in the West Indies, and many of the ports in the Gulf of Mexico; and, notwithstanding the sudden and extreme transition of climate, returned to England without the loss of a single man or having any sick on board when he arrived. When in command of the Recruit, gun brig, which lay about nine weeks at

Vera Cruz, the same measures preserved the health of his crew when the other ships of war, anchored around him, lost from twenty to fifty men each. Other sanitary measures were enforced, and, of course, contributed to these results; but the most heretical departure from the naval usages then prevailing was this enforced wearing of flannel in a hot climate.

Sir George Ballingall (Lectures on Military Surgery) mentions that when in India, at a time when this subject was but little understood, he witnessed a striking proof of the utility of flannel in checking the progress of a most aggravated form of dysentery in the second battalion of the Royals. I understand that such experience has now led to a general enforcement of the use of flannel belts or wraps by our soldiers when on service in tropical climates. My friend Mr. Sage, of the Army Clothing Dépôt, at Pimlico, tells me many thousands have lately been made there.

This demand for abdominal belts or sashes in hot climates is rather curious and somewhat anomalous, but is, nevertheless, well founded. My attention was first directed to it at Constantinople, where I resided during the hottest months of the hot summer of 1843. An intelligent Greek, who had lived there more than thirty years, advised me to adopt an Oriental sash. He had suffered severely at first, other Greeks the same, and all had escaped further attacks of summer dysentery on following the general custom of winding some kind of bandage round the loins. I followed his advice to the extent of wearing a single bandage of flannel next the skin, and from this experience and subsequent observations have concluded that the extravagantly long and cumbrous Oriental sash, wound six or eight, or even a dozen times round on the outside of other clothing, although advantageous in preventing the sudden chills from the evaporation of accumulated perspiration, may be very advantageously substituted by a single envelope of loosely woven flannel, or, better still, of knitted fleecy wool fabric, worn next to the skin. It should be sufficiently elastic to keep in its place without straps.

Its advantages over the extravagant outside sash depend upon the steady and regular absorption and transpiration of the perspiration vapour demonstrated by Rumford's experiments. The ordinary sash acts by absorbing the liquid sweat as a sponge absorbs water. The wearer of the manifold sash becomes a slave to it in consequence of its inducing a delicate and sensitive condition of the over-swaddled skin.

The naked natives of tropical countries do not appear to be troubled with the dysentery which the sash or belt of their clothed neighbours prevents. I suspect that the reason of this is that the mischief is done by a thin covering of cotton or linen clothing becoming wetted by the perspiration, and then cooled by rapid evaporation in a current of air.

The relation of flannel to the secretions from human oil glands will be discussed presently.

THE Society of Arts Conversazione at the Inventions Exhibition on Friday last was a great success, to which the fineness of the weather contributed in no small degree. It was very apparent that no effort had been spared to make the evening an enjoyable one. THE sixpenny telegram scheme has again been relegated to the official pigeon-hole, although there is just a chance that the outcry against its present abandonment may result in its being re-introduced into Parliament during the present session. In order to meet the anticipated increase in traffic, upwards of half-a-million has already been spent in increasing the wire and instrument accommodation, and the number of clerks has been increased by 1,200.

A

TRICYCLES IN 1885.

BY JOHN BROWNING.

(Chairman of the London Tricycle Club.)

A NEW MACHINE-THE COVENTRY CHAIR.
SMALL WHEELS VERSUS LARGE.

NOTHER new tricycle has just been invented, patented, and brought forward by Mr. A. C. Phillpott.

The inventor has kindly placed the first experimental machine made at my disposal, and, having had it for nearly a week, I have been able to form a tolerably good opinion of its merits. Its great peculiarity is that it combines bicycle-steering—that is, a cross-bar with two handles in front of the rider-with rear-steering.

Bicycle-steering I consider the most efficient of all steering, because it is simple and direct, and there is no rack or pinion to get out of order. Twice I have been within a shaving of a bad accident owing to my steering having been suddenly stopped, caused by mud having got in between the teeth of the rack and hardened, and thus jammed my steering.

Of course, rear-steering is not of itself an advantage, but a rear-steerer can probably be made lighter than a frontsteerer; and it can certainly be driven up hill easier. The experimental machine I tried weighed only about 36 lb., and I should think a very light roadster with an efficient break could be made not to weigh more than 50 lb. I found in the model, as it may be termed, of which none of the parts were adjustible, that the pedals were rather beyond my reach, and were some inches too far in front of me, so that I had to work with a thrust, instead of the vertical action I am used to; and the handle-bar was about three inches too low, coming in contact with my thighs.

Yet, with all these disadvantages, the machine behaved fairly well. The steering was better than that of any other rear-steerer I have tried, excepting, possibly, the Rover; and it should be recollected that the Phillpott machine has the advantage of bicycle-steering. I tested the steering as severely as I could, because this was the only point on which I was doubtful of its performance. In the course of my ride I put first one of the drivingwheels, and then the hind steering-wheel over a stone of at least three inches diameter, when running down hill, without causing the machine to swerve at all dangerously.

The steering is very peculiar, being arranged so that a steering-wheel of any size may be employed. For a roadster this hind steering-wheel might with great advantage be 22 inches diameter.

Hirst, of Croydon, is remodelling the machine, and I hope soon to hear that it is being manufactured for sale. The tricycle I have just described was, of course, planned for speed only. Turning to another class of machines those intended for carrying weights-Inote that a really wonderful performance was achieved last week on one of Starley & Sutton's Coventry Chairs.

The rider of this machine left Coventry on the evening of June 19 at 6.30, carrying a lady in the invalidchair strictly as a passenger, and fifty pounds of luggage. Daventry, a distance of twenty miles, was reached a little before 9.30-that is, in less than three hours. After some refreshment and a rest, a fresh start was made at 11 o'clock.

At 1.10 a.m. the rider and driver had reached the clock-tower at Towcester. Here rain began falling, and showers kept coming down throughout the rest of the

ride, making the roads very heavy. The passenger, wrapped in waterproofs and carrying an umbrella, went to sleep, and allowed the umbrella to rest on the wheels, so that the driver had to wake her. Some time after this, when the rain ceased for awhile, the umbrella was dispensed with, and the lady in this interval slept undisturbed. This fact shows the easy motion of the Chair.

After passing Fenny-Stratford the driver encountered several miles of stiff, heavy ground of almost continuous hills. Dunstable was reached at 6.57 a.m., the pace having averaged six miles an hour all the way. At 9.30 a.m. the driver and passenger again started to run the last thirty miles into London.

The Finchley Post-office, 88 miles from Coventry, was reached at 3.15 p.m., and a telegram was despatched from there to Coventry. The driver then rode easily on to Euston-square, which was reached at 4.50 p.m., thus accomplishing a run of 95 miles in about 22 hours, including all stoppages.

The Coventry Chair would be invaluable at small railway stations for the conveyance of light luggage or a single passenger, and anyone having an invalid or crippled friend or relative would find one a boon beyond price.

A road ride has recently taken place between the rider of a tricycle and the rider of a bicycle.

Mr. Simmons, one of the best riders of the Waverley Bicycle Club, rode a light bicycle with a 57-in. wheel.

Mr. A. J. Wilson rode a regular roadster, Quadrant, made by Lloyd Bros. This machine had 40-in. driving wheels geared up to 60-in., and a steering-wheel 26 in. diameter.

The rider of the small-wheeled tricycle won easily, under this great disadvantage, that the road chosen being an exceptionally rough one, he could seldom find good surface for all three wheels, while the rider of the bicycle generally found a fairly good surface for two wheels in line, which requires good surface only for one. The distance ridden was 22 miles, which was accomplished in 1 hour 37 minutes.

About two years since several riders wrote to KNOWLEDGE, ridiculing my notion that a tricycle with 40-in. wheels could be faster than one with 48-in. wheels; yet here we have a machine with two 40-in. driving-wheels beating a machine with one driving-wheel of 57 in. diameter.

Messrs. Lloyd have been the earliest after Humber & Co. to adopt small wheels. I notice more of their machines on the great South-road every month, and all their riders I have spoken to have been pleased with them.

Again, in describing the exhibits at the Stanley Show, I said that Starley & Sutton's Rover Safety Bicycle would prove to be the safest, and probably the fastest, machine of the kind among the great number exhibited.

I selected it for two reasons: Firstly, because the hind wheel was nearly as large as the front wheel; and secondly, because the rider was placed nearly midway

between the two wheels.

Many experienced riders now find that it is nearly, if not quite, as fast as an ordinary bicycle on a level road, and faster uphill. It is, therefore, undoubtedly faster than an ordinary bicycle on an undulating road, and, on the score of safety, it leaves nothing to be desired.

THE excursions of the Geologists' Association during July will be:-Saturday, 11th, Aldershot and Wellington College, leaving Waterloo at 10.15; Saturday, 18th, Ascot, Bracknell, and Wokingham, leaving Waterloo at 11; Saturday, 25th, Bedford, leaving St.

Pancras at 11.10.

CHATS ON GEOMETRICAL

MEASUREMENT.

BY RICHARD A. PROCTor.

THE SPHERE.
I.-SURFACE.

4. Of course we cannot deal with the sphere in the same way, seeing that it has no flat surface at all.

M. That is not the difficulty; for a hemisphere has a flat surface; and if you could deal with the hemisphere, you could deal equally well with the sphere.

A. The sphere seems likely to be difficult to deal with. In fact, I remember now that the discovery of the relation in volume between the sphere and the cylinder was considered so great a triumph of the geometrical skill of Archimedes, that it was especially commemorated on that great geometer's tomb.

M. Yes; but for all that there is no particular difficulty in the geometrical solution of this problem, once we have mastered the simple principle for the treatment of geometrical limits, already explained in this series of papers.

A. I cannot see how to set about it; there seems no place to begin from, whether we are considering the surface or the volume of the sphere.

M. Or in other words, you may begin anywhere. A. Anywhere seems to me like nowhere in this case. M. We will give the sphere a diameter, and start from that.

A. I suppose we begin with the surface?

M. We do. Suppose B A D, Fig. 1, a hemisphere; C, its centre; CA the radius perpendicular to the semicircle B CD, whose plane being turned edgewise appears as a straight line. Now observe that our proceedings are supposed to be tentative. I ask you, therefore,—what seems to you a natural way of trying to find the area of the hemisphere BAD?

is the area of the strip of the sphere's surface lying between these planes.

M. Yes and it is tolerably obvious that we shall not be far from the truth if we regard this strip as the surface of the frustum of a cone q V Q, obtained by drawing qp V, QPV, to meet on CA produced to V, and supposing the triangle QNV to revolve round NV (after the manner described in Euclid's definition of a cone).

A. No: for MN is supposed to be exceedingly small, and the strip indefinitely narrow, so that we may regard РЯ and PQ as to all intents and purposes straight M. Well, do nber what is the curved area of remem you such a frustum of a cone?

lines.

A. It is equal to the rectangle under p q and the circumference of a circle having a radius midway between Mp and N q; but of course the circumference of either circle PP or qQ would do equally well, since in the limit these circles are equal.

M. Thus then the curved area of our frustum = 2x.q N.pq.

A. How does this help us? Both q N and pq are variable, each changing with the change of the position of the element M N.

A. Well, on the whole, I think I should begin by trying the effect of taking a number of equi-distant parallel planes square to the radius A C, and therefore parallel to the plane B C D.

M. You have made a very natural selection; and it will turn out fortunately: though had it not done so, that would have been no reason to be disheartened. In such cases as these we often have to make several trials before we hit upon the right method. We suppose, then, M N to be one of the divisions of A C, and p P, qQ planes taken through these points parallel to the plane B D.

A. What we want to determine then, at the moment,

E Fig. 2.

M. The obvious resource is to compare p q with MN, and q N with BC. Maybe when we substitute what we thus obtain we may get a constant from the combination of two variables. Since you have to compare p q with M N, it will clearly be well to draw pn square to q N; also we had better join q C, so as to be able conveniently to compare q N with the radius of the sphere.

A. Let me see; p q is to pn, or M N, as q V is to V N; and q N is to q C (or B C) as V N is to q V, the converse of the ratio just obtained. I see my way clearly now, forPq: MN: BC: q N so that,

q N.pQ=BC. MN, a constant quantity.

M. The area of the strip of the sphere between pP and q Q is equal then to-what?

A. To 2. BC. MN; that is to a cylindrical surface having the height M N and standing on the circular base BD. This of course is the same as the cylindrical surface obtained by completing the cylinder BtATD on circular base BĎ and producing the planes p P, q Q to m eet this cylinder in 1, L, k, K.

(To be continued.)

MEMORY, "A short time since, I went through a course of instruction under Professor Loisette, at 37, New Oxford-street, and I must say that I was greatly charmed with it. It answered my every requirement. It ignores all harassing links and foreign associations. It appeals directly to the inner workings of man's nervous system, and obtains as a response a measure of success by no other means obtainable. Who, for example, by any other known system, could hope to commit to memory indelibly a string of 608 figures of the Ratio of the Circumference of the Circle to its Diameter, and that in the short space of two hours? And yet this is quite an ordinary performance with the Professor's pupils. But an astonishing feature about the matter is that, when any series of names, dates, figures, passages of prose or poetry, &c., is memorised, it may be picked up at any point and rehearsed forwards or backwards with equal facility, and all this without using any key. So simple, too, are the principles upon which the system is based, that they are capable of being mastered with the greatest ease by persons of all sorts and ages. So satisfied am I with the system as a means of scientific memory-training, that I am convinced that at some not very distant date it will form part of the curriculum at our schools. But of what use, it will be asked, is all this to telegraph clerks? Have they no need for improved and cultured memories? Are they so conversant with all that goes on around them, that when they get a sheet of almost undecipherable flimsy, they can call upon the natural memory to aid them? I think not-nay more, I am sure they are not. Nevertheless, were their memories once trained, an impression once made would endure for ever, and there would be no question of whether Mr. So-and-So or Mr. Somebody-else were member for such-andsuch a place. Further than this, I am convinced that there is nothing which a telegraph clerk could study with better advantage, or with a prospect of securing a greater return for the outlay. A short time since a youngster walked into the Professor's room for a lesson, saying he had been trying for some months, so bad was his memory, to learn the Morse Code. The Professor had never before seen the alphabet; nevertheless, down sat the youngster beside him, brought out a copy of the code, and in thirty minutes had it as perfect as any member of the service. I may add that the Professor has introduced his method of learning Morse's Code, and also the Army Flag Signalling Code, into his new edition of his lessons, together with more than one thousand applications of his system, making his the most complete and exhaustive, as well as the most natural and effective, system of memory ever taught. This little incident may help to show how easy it is to educate the memory when once we set about it in rational and natural manner." From the "Telegraphist," June 1, 1885.

LIFE IN DEATH.

BY WILLIAM CURRAN.

N literature without coming across passages or occur

O one can have read extensively in any species of

rences, which must-at first sight, at least-appear to him to be incredible, if not absolutely impossible. Nor is this experience peculiar to works of fiction, in which it would, of course, be more excusable than elsewhere; it obtains also in the graver productions of the literary pen, and exaggeration rather than diminution is the characteristic of the genus irritabile vatum everywhere. Passing by, therefore, as being in a measure privileged, the "words that breathe, and the thoughts that burn" of the poet, we will descend into the lower plain of the historian, and endeavour to show that, so far as certain escapes or occurrences narrated by the latter are concerned, "truth is sometimes stranger than fiction."

Without stopping to discuss the differences that are produced in wounds inflicted by modern weapons and those that are due to the appliances used in former times, we may glance at the constitutional capacities for endurance, &c., that peculiarities of soil, climate, and food impress upon certain races, and so avoid technicality of all kinds. It is well known that man in the savage or touch, and the like, with which he has to contend for his semi-civilised condition has those organs of sight, hearing, support with the beasts that perish, more highly or sensitively developed than his brother of the city or the plains; and as an illustration of this, we may point to the fact, noticed in all the papers, that the Maories who lately visited this country always saw land before any of their fellow passengers. The savage man, pur sang, can sustain with impunity an amount of exposure and suffering that would certainly prove fatal to his more civilised brother, and the insensibility with which the American Indians, for instance, endure initiatory and other tribal tortures is simply astounding. A similar measure of imperturbable indifference to pain, and even death, has been noticed in Oriental countries, and all our doctors in India testify to the rapidity and sang-froid with which. their patients in that country bear and recover from the effects of grave surgical operations and other like injuries. But this phase of the question is generally acknowledged; so that we need not dwell further upon it here, and one has only to examine the calf-muscles of the danseuse or the horse-jockey, or the biceps of the blacksmith, to find that some of their muscles, as well, perhaps, as of their faculties, are developed at the expense of others.

That doughty deeds of personal daring and adventure were thought more of in the past than they are at present,

* The following illustrative case in point is taken from Dr. Livingstone's "The Zambesi," p. 463, and appears to be otherwise worthy of reproduction in this connection. A native woman was, he says, when brought in, "found to have an arrow-head eight or ten inches long in her back, behind the ribs, and slanting up through the diaphragm and left lung towards the heart. She had been shot from behind while stooping. Air was coming out through the wound, and it was not deemed advisable to attempt any operation. One of her relatives, however, cut out the arrow and a part of the lung, and, strange to say, she not only became well, but stout." The late eminent military surgeon Guthrie used to say that wounds of the diaphragm never healed, but here is an instance to the contrary; and I have been told by a missionary, who saw the man, of a follower of King Mtesa who had been stabbed in the back, the spear penetrating near the scapula posteriorly and escaping through the chest in front on the opposite side, thus showing that both lungs had been ruptured. The hæmorrhage (which was, of course, frightfu') was restrained by an infusion of hot coffee being poured into the wounds, and-he recovered.

may be at once admitted, and those hand-to-hand encounters we hear so much of in the pages of Gibbon and other writers are now rarely witnessed. Krupp guns and Martini-Henry rifles have so entirely revolutionised the art of war as to throw mere physical strength into the background, and place men, in the aggregate, on a level. Moreover, the atmosphere of the East has never been favourable to the enunciation of truth for truth's sake, and it was the interest as well as the desire of the Crusading writers to exaggerate the performances of their leaders and masters.

Nor need we go back to the Crusades for examples in point. They are to be found much nearer home, and deeds are ascribed, by serious writers, to some of our heroes in the East which would do no discredit to the prowess of a Cœur de Lion or even of a Saladin. Thus, describing some of the hand-to-hand encounters that took place at Meeanee, Sir Charles Napier is represented by his brother as saying ("The Conquest of Scinde," Part II., p. 320) that, "Fitzgerald's sword on its descent went shear through shield and turban and skull, down to the teeth," and Captain Creichton is said to have assured Swift (Works, Nimmo's Ed., p. 531) that, "Fowler (a Covenanter) aimed a blow at me, but I warded it off, and with a back stroke cut the upper part of his skull clean off from the nose upward." Dean Milman caps this narrative with an account he gives of the strength and skill of one, Ali, who, it appears ("The History of the Jews," Vol. II., p. 96), "Clove the skull of Marhab, the great champion of the Jews (of Khaibor), through his buckler, two turbans, and a diamond which he wore in his helmet, till the sword stuck between his jaws," and whether the weapons used on these occasions were of Damascus or Toledo manufacture, we are unable to say. All we know is, that no such results follow from sabre blows or cuts in these our degenerate days.

So keen is the instinct of self-preservation, or the love of revenge, that men-aye, and women, too-have been knewn to achieve results under their influence which they would scarcely think of at any other time, or under any other impulse; and it is well-known that the excitement of battle and the hope of conquest have often enabled a handful of men to hold their own against overwhelming odds, and induced individuals amongst them to undertake enterprises that would in any other situation appear impossible. It is, doubtless, to these feelings that we owe some of the displays noted within; and the greater strength or ferocity of mountaineers is universally acknowledged. The two following stories will enforce and illustrate these points:

Describing an encounter that took place in the reign of Robert III., between a body of Highlanders and a party of Lowlanders, Mr. Tytler says ("The History of Scotland," Vol. I., pp. 93-4), that "Lindsay had pinned* one of these 'mountaineers,' a brawny and powerful man, to the earth; but although mortally wounded, and in the agonies of death, he writhed himself up by main strength, and with the weapon in his body, struck Lindsay a

Apropos of this "pinning," reference may be made to the case of the young Russian sailor, mentioned in almost all works on surgery, who, though pinned to the deck by a trysail-mast, which it penetrated, through his body, to the depth of an inch, yet recovered, and was able to resume his laborious employment. The writer may be here permitted to say that he has seen experiments tried on the " subject," &c., for the purpose of verifying or disproving these narratives, and that in no instance have the results corresponded with the effects said to be realised.under the conditions narrated above. Victor Hugo mentions ("Histoire d'un Crime," p. 455), the case of "un ouvrier, percé d'outre en outre (qui), s'arracha du ventre la bayonnette et en poignarda un soldat."

desperate blow with his sword, which cut him through the stirrup and steel-boot into the bone, after which his assailant instantly sunk down and expired." And General Napier mentions a very similar struggle between a soldier of the 22nd Regiment and a Belooche swordsman. His account of it runs as follows ("ut supra," Part I., p. 317): "A soldier, bounding forwards, drove his bayonet into the breast of a Belooch. Instead of falling, however, the rugged warrior cast away his shield, and seizing the musket with his left hand, writhed his body forwards on the bayonet, until he could avenge himself with one sweep of his sword." He adds that a "Belooch requires no second stroke," and that "both fell dead together." Very tragic, no doubt, but-farther deponent saith not.

We may quote the following from Scott, without in any way vouching for its probability in connection with this kind of mountain warfare, and leave the narrative to speak for itself. Describing the fierce and fatal struggle that took place in 1652 between Evan Cameron, of Lochiel, and an English officer of great strength, Sir Walter says ("Tales of a Grandfather," 1872, pp. 501-2) that "he (Lochiel) had a personal rencontre strongly characteristic of the ferocity of the times." Being singled out by the officer above referred to, and " as they were separated from the general strife, they fought in single combat for some time. Lochiel was dexterous. enough to disarm the Englishman; but his gigantic adversary suddenly closed on him, and in the struggle both fell to the ground, the officer uppermost. He was in the act of grasping at his sword and was naturally extending his neck. when the Highland chief, making a desperate effort, grasped his enemy by the collar, and, snatching with his teeth at the bare and outstretched throat, he seized it as a wild cat might have done, and kept his hold so fast as to tear out the windpipe. The officer died in this singular manner. Lochiel was so far from disowning or being ashamed of this mode of defence that he was afterwards heard to say it was the sweetest morsel he had ever tasted." (To be continued.)

THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE.
BY ADA S. BALLIN.
XII.

To give a detailed account of the signs which make

up the natural gesture language would be a gigantic undertaking; but in order to show how these wordpictures are composed, I may here cite a few of the more complicated expressions used by deaf mutes. Thus, the sign for wet is to wet the right forefinger with saliva; and to express flowing this action is combined with an illustration by both hands of the wave-like action of water. For stone the sign for hard (striking the knuckles) is combined with the act of throwing, while for building stone, in addition to the preceding gestures, the hands are laid several times one over the other. Precious stone is represented by stone, colour, and the action of counting out money into the left hand to show the value of it. For hospital the signs are those for house and ill-a similar combination to the German krankenhaus. For horse the apparent height of the animal is shown, then the index and middle fingers of the right hand are straddled over the index of the left, to show that it is used for riding, after which the right foot