Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/576

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be likely to suppose; and the census returns give surprising accounts of the number of totally deaf persons, it being about 300,000 in the United States. There are further those who are somewhat deaf in one ear, those who are obliged to take a forward seat in the church and the public hall, and those who are conscious of a gradual failing of the hearing sense; also children and adults who receive sounds slowly because they lack quick perception, and persons who fail to distinguish particular shades of sound. With these affections the author couples defects of speech, such as stammering, stuttering, lisping, mumbling, and mouthing, as mostly originating in some organic fault. The object of her little book is to show that fluent speech may be obtained and understood by all who suffer from the different phases of deafness and the different degrees of imperfect utterance. In it she considers the cases of the Deaf Mute and the Stammerer; the Very Young Deaf Child; Signs, Finger-spelling, and Speech; Teaching the Dumb to Speak; the Child suddenly Deaf and the Child growing Deaf slowly; the improvement and development of hearing; How the Hard-of-hearing Adult may enjoy Conversation; Dull Pupils; Invented or "Pathological" Language, Lisping, Careless Speech, Stuttering, Stammering, and Cleft Palates. The author has a full understanding of her subject, presents it in a clear and earnest way, and urges the need for its more careful consideration by parents, and educators generally.

Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. XII for 1892. Marshall McDonald, Commissioner. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 478, with One Hundred and Eighteen Plates.

The bulletins are issued under a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the publication, from time to time, for distribution in parts and collection in annual volumes not exceeding five hundred pages each, of any matter furnished by the Fish Commission, relative to new observations, discoveries, and applications connected with fish culture and the fisheries. The present volume contains a bibliography of the salmon of Alaska and adjacent regions, and a life history of the salmon, by Tarleton H. Bean; a paper on the viviparous fishes of the Pacific Coast of North America, by C. H. Eigenman; an account of the fishes of Texas and the Rio Grande Basin, considered chiefly with reference to their geographical distribution, by B. W. Evermann and W. C. Kendall; a report on the salmon fisheries of Alaska, by Marshall McDonald; a summary of the fishery investigations of the Albatross, 1882-'92, by Richard Rathbun; a report on the fyke net fisheries of the United States, and Notes on Fishes of the Northern Coast of New Jersey, by H. M. Smith; an account of the oyster industry of Maryland, by C. H. Stevenson; and two or three papers of more special interest.

Aërial Navigation. By J. G. W. Fijnje van Salverda. Translated from the Dutch by George E. Waring, Jr. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 209. Price, $1.25

There seems to be good reason for believing that the next great triumph of science will be in the field of aerial navigation. The number and ability of the investigators who are now at work upon this subject, the encouraging results and the widespread interest that their efforts have secured, furnish substantial ground for this belief. After a historical introduction and a discussion of the military importance of aerial navigation, Mr. Fijnje considers the obstacles in the way of navigating balloons, stating the practical results already reached. He then passes to the flight of birds, from the several varieties of which——rowing, hovering, and sailing—the principles of flying machines proper are derived. Three kinds of machines of the "heavier than air" class are described in a brief chapter. Although MM. Renard and Krebs in 1885 succeeded in driving an elongated balloon at the rate of fourteen miles an hour, the author is convinced that balloons must give place to flying machines. Among his conclusions concerning the latter are that a flying machine must be supported by a large and strong aëroplane, which must not be utilized to give forward motion. There must be an independent motor, working continuously, and operating through propelling screws or other device. Some later matter published by the author separately from the foregoing gives