The Theory of Hearing

Abstract

I SHOULD like to express my agreement with the letters which Sir Richard Paget and Mr. Wilkinson have written (NATURE, July 19, p. 87) under the above heading. It seems to me that even if Prof. Scripture is right in stating that the movements of the vocal chords cannot be analysed, he is not justified in concluding that the aerial vibrations thus set up are not analysable either. There is, I believe, unassailable evidence that such a conclusion would be wrong; because all workers in this field from Helmholtz and McKendrick to Miller and Bevier are in agreement as to the success of such analysis. Their analyses differ somewhat, it is true, but individual and national peculiarities in vowel production probably account for these. With regard to the piano experiments, I fear that Prof. Scripture (NATURE, August 9, p. 194) has not appreciated the fact that his criticism of Sir R. A. S. Paget and Mr. Wilkinson, namely, that “what a person hears is chiefly what he expects to hear,” applies with equal force to himself.