Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/479

Rh down from the snow-field. From the opposite side of the valley it appears like a cascade suddenly congealed in its fall; and the wonder of the spectator is excited by the apparent impossibility that such a mass of ice should thus remain suspended in mid-air. A nearer approach dispels the illusion, but scarcely the amazement of the beholder; for, after all, the inclination of the glacier is at least 45° with the horizon, nor could it maintain itself in this position but for the steep banks that inclose it, and the large mass of ice at its base which props it up.

All the glaciers of the first class are remarkable for the circumstance that their lower extremities are so little raised above the level of the ocean. While the glacier of lökuls-fiord, in Northern Norway, is the only one in Europe, we believe, which actually comes down to the water's edge, there are several around Justedal that reach to within a few hundred feet of the sea's level, and one, that of Suphelle, to within 140 feet of it.

Of many other points developed in the valuable papers of Prof. Sexe and M. de Seue, which are of more interest to the student of physical geography and geology than to the general reader, we can enter into no discussion here.



HAT is necessary in order to our communicating ideas by speech? It is necessary, first of all, that ideas call up their appropriate symbols; secondly, that we remember how to say words; and, thirdly, that our organ of speech be entire—by which is meant, the whole of the muscular apparatus which is brought into action when one articulates.

Now, each of these three capabilities is liable to injury from disease. When the first is affected, the patient forgets words, or uses wrong words, in which a connection with the right ones may be more or less traceable. In the second case, an individual may have lost speech entirely, or he may retain a few words. It is no use helping him out: having forgotten how to use words, he cannot repeat them when they are used in his hearing. In the third case, there is paralysis, it may be, of muscles of the mouth, of the tongue, the larynx, etc. This last form we will exclude from consideration here. The two former constitute the disease called aphasia (as at least understood by some writers), and the study of it makes us acquainted with some curious facts connected with the working of that wonderful organism with which we have been endowed.

There are well-authenticated instances of persons who suddenly 