The Portland daily press., 1894-03-16
THE SENSE or HEARING.
In Delicate Perception the Ear Is More
Wonderful Than the Eye.


Wonderful Than the Eye.
The ear is wonderfully Z, comprehensive
instrument. AS compared with the eye,
it is vastly superior in extent OF the sensa-
tions it is capable of experiencing. The eye
possesses barely an octave and a half OF
sensations, whereas the average ear, as we
know, has range of six or seven, while
more acute ears have compass of fully
II octaves. And then the ear is WON
derfully accurate instrument and capable
of approaching minute differences that
would be wholly impossible in the case OF
the eye. According to Ed W. ID. Stone,
ian architect or craftsman, who, between
two lines neither parallel nor in one plane,
made an error of estimation by'eye not
exceeding one thirtieth would gain credit
for unusual precision. But in the ear one
thirtieth amounts to quarter of tone,
and by ear one-forty- fifth is easily deter
mined" A skillful pianoforte tuner can
do much more He is called upon, for in
stance, to distinguish between true and
an equally tempered fifth, where the diff
ference is only the hundredth of tone. He
should accordingly be able to recognize at
least 600 different sounds in an octave.
More than this, according to the investi-
cations of Professor Mayer, it is possible,
under specially favorable conditions and
for sounds whose pitch is near that of CO,
to distinguish from each other notes which
do not differ by more than one hundred
and twentieth of seminole.
In the rapidity of its appreciation the
ear is remarkable In fraction of sec
ond it can accurately refer any note to its
place in the scaleaand can just as easily
and quickly separate from each other sew
eral widely different notes. According to
recent Investigations, the ear is capable Of
hearing sound when only two vibrations
are made II should therefore hear the
middle notes of the pianoforte in the two
or ee-hundredth part of a second. 1t
requires more time, however, for the ear
to distinguish the full characteristic of a
note. To do this, according to the expert
ments of Exner, Auerbach and Kohl
rausch, from to 90 vibrations are neces-
sary.
With proper training and practice the
organ of hearing can be rendered remarka-
bly, sensitive and accurate There is rare
" any physical defect in the ear itself. The
defects ordinarily noticed and spoken OF
are such as can be easily remedied by Gull
tivation. The organ truly may never be
able to retain the remarkable range OF
addition we have spoken of above; it may
never become SO ssapprehensive and dis
criminant' as the ear of Mozart, but its
delicacy can be increased and its general
appreciation of musical sounds wonder
fully improved. This is especially true ii
the work of instruction is begun in child
hood when the organ of hearing is natu-
rally most sensitive and most readily sus-
ceptible of cultivation. In making exper-
iments with rods and tuning forks giving
very accurate sounds, I have frequently
been struck with the very great difference
in the ability to perceive such sounds as
manifested by young and old persons
Even when the latter were trained must
clans, they were ineapa BILE of hearing some
sounds that were quite audible to chill
dren who had no musical training what
ever. This fact, like many others that
might be adduced, is a striking common
tary on the necessity of beginning early
the training of the young, when eye and
ear-not to speak of the other senses-are
ever on the alert and quick to detect sounds
and forms and colors, which at later pc
Rod would entirely escape their observa-
tion Pa ris Et1yde