Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/793

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FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.
713

Harvard College Astronomical Observatory Annals. A Catalogue of 7,922 Southern Stars observed with the Meridian Photometer during the Years 1889-'91, by S. I. Bailey; Observations made at the Blue Hills Meteorological Observatory in the Year 1894; Observations of the New England Weather Service in the Year 1894.

Hiorns. Arthur H. Principles of Metallurgy. New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 388. $1.00.

Holman, Silas W. Computation Rules for Logarithms. New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp text 45, tables 73. $1.

Hudson, W. H. British Birds, with a Chapter on Structure and Classification by Frank E. Beddard, Illustrated. New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 8(53. $3.50.

Jameson, Charles D., State University of Iowa. Portland Cement. A Monograph. Pp. 192.

Jordan, David Starr, and Starks, E. C. The Fishes of Puget Sound. Pp. text 69, plates 30. Leland Stanford, Jr., University Publications.

Marey, E. J. Movement. New York: D. Appleton & Co. International Scientific Series, No. 73. Pp. 323. $1.75.

Roth, Filibert. Timber. Pp. 88. United States Department of Agriculture. Bulletin No. 10.

Schultz, F. W. Politics and Patriotism. Boston: Arena Publishing Co. Pp. 496.

Smith, George H. The Theory of the State. Pp. 160. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. XXXIV, No. 148.

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 989. The Composition of Expired Air and its Effects upon Animal Life. Pp. 81.

Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings of. Part 29, Vol. II. Pp. 303. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.

Technical Journal, The. Monthly. New York. Pp. 16. 50 cents a year, 10 cents a copy.

Terrestrial Magnetism. An International Quarterly. The University of Chicago Press. $2 a year, 50 cents a copy.

Thompson, C. J. S. The Chemist's Compendium. New York and London: Whittaker & Co. Pp. 230. $1.

Turpin, G. S. Practical Inorganic Chemistry. New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 158. 60 cents.

Williams, R. P. Chemical Experiments, General and Analytical. Boston and London: Ginn & Co. Pp. 166.



Fragments of Science.

Three Blind Deaf-mutes.—Three blind deaf-mutes whose faculties have been developed from a completely latent condition are subjects of special notice in the report of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, Boston. Edith Thomas is described as furnishing convincing testimony to the efficacy of the system which is pursued in training such children. She has a good share of common sense, but is a little averse to intellectual exertion. Yet she is improving fast, gaining knowledge regularly and systematically, and is "steadily becoming more skillful, attentive, thoughtful, logical, and earnest, and the stream of her thoughts grows broader, deeper, and richer." She is fond of letter-writing, and does it with increasing facility of expression; while her letters show that she appreciates the pleasures of life, and despite her privations enjoys them highly. She likes reading and being read to, but wants her books true to life, and will not listen to fairy or highly imaginative stories. She is able to appreciate the rhythm of poetry, and Whittier and Tennyson are among her favorites. She dislikes arithmetic and is backward in it, but is proficient in geography. She has learned to mold maps in clay, and is able to repeat accurately the details of the surface of the regions she has studied. At the school commencement of 1894 she modeled the map of Massachusetts, divided it into counties in the presence of the audience, and pointed out the natural features and the towns with her left hand, while with her right hand she spelled the names into the hand of a blind classmate, who announced them. She has become a skillful dolls' dressmaker without the aid of patterns, and in teaching the use of the Braille typewriter to her companions she has exhibited the qualities of a strict disciplinarian. Willie Elizabeth Robin, now ten years old, came to the institution four years ago, totally blind and deaf, and ignorant of language. She has become proficient in reading, writing, elementary zoölogy, articulation, and knitting and sewing by the Sloyd method. She has even learned to use her tongue rather than talk with her fingers. She is specially interested in studying animal forms, and searches out the minute details of their structure. She is expected to tell all she can discover of each specimen given her; to represent it in clay; and afterward to write down what she has learned.