Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/469

Rh to erect sea fish hatcheries on the shores of their estates, and for rich merchants to establish agriculture in neighboring estuaries, and so instruct the fishing populations, resuscitate declining industries, and cultivate the barren shores, in all reasonable probability to their own ultimate profit.

The Sage School of Philosophy.—The Sage School of Philosophy in Cornell University is devoted "to the free and unhampered quest and propagation of truth" in regard to all those questions of human inquiry which are embraced by logic, psychology, ethics, pedagogics, metaphysics, and the history and philosophy of religion. Its aim is to secure comprehensiveness and thoroughness. It is founded on an endowment by the Hon. Henry W. Sage, the proceeds of which are supplemented, when necessary, with appropriations from the general funds of the university. Six scholarships and three fellowships are open to graduates of Cornell and other universities; four progressive courses of study are given, corresponding with the four years of the college course, and also seminary courses in experimental psychology, ancient and mediceval philosophy, modern philosophy, ethics, pedagogics, and the history of religion. The students are further free to select any of the courses given in the university. A psychological laboratory is attached to the institution; a philosophical club has been formed; and a periodical—the Philosophical Review—is published under the editorial direction of two of the professors, assisted by their associates.

Face-Reading.—In the acquisition of the art of speech-reading by sight, the eye of the deaf pupil becomes accustomed to certain positions of the organs of articulation, and he thus learns to understand the spoken words of others, although he does not hear them. In teaching this art, Lillie Eginton Warren has found that the forty odd sounds of the English language are revealed in sixteen outward manifestations or pictures, and practice in following them as they rapidly appear in a face enables us to understand what is said. Some faces differ from others in strength of expression, and thus many show less action in the lower part. Nevertheless, there is in all persons a general approach to a certain definite movement of muscles, particularly when in animated conversation, and the trained eye notices what the inexperienced one fails to discover. After attaining a degree of proficiency in this art of expression-reading, persons seem to feel that they hear instead of see the words spoken. Reading our language in this way may be said to be mastery of a new alphabet, the rapidly moving letters or characters of which are to be found upon the page of the human countenance.

A Dream of Railroad Development.—Forecasting, in the Engineering Magazine, the future of American railroading, Mr. H. D. Gordon assumes that the lines on which our inventors will have to do their work hereafter seem to be far more clearly defined than ever before. There is no engineering reason why a speed of one hundred miles an hour should not be maintained on fast trains; the objections are commercial rather than technical. The chief obstacle lies in the ponderous and wasteful mechanism needed to generate the requisite amount of steam under even the best methods. The remedy may be found when electric energy can be generated in a simpler and less expensive manner than hitherto. In passenger trains too many horse powers are needed to carry each ticket-holder to his destination, and too many hundredweight of dead material have to be dragged along with him. Within the carriage he is entitled to better ventilation and better light than he is apt to get, and electricity is looked to to provide him with both. Some benefit has been derived, and much more may be reasonably expected, from the experiments made in introducing steel frames into cars, and otherwise improving their structural resistance to abnormal shock or accident. Outside of the train, in signaling, a considerable advance has already been made toward having the semaphore raised and lowered by directly applied electric force; and the author anticipates that it will not be many years before a train may be seen through its successive blocks by the glare of electric lights, leaving each block in darkness as it enters and lights the next. What has already been done in railroad invention in the United States is but an earnest of what the future holds in reserve.