The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-05-18

THE SENSE OF HEARING,
In Delicate Perception the Ear Is More
Wonderful Than the Eye.

In Delicate Perception the Ear Is More
Wonderful Than the Eye.
The ear is wonderful comprehen.
sive instrument. AS compared with
the eye it is vastly superior in extent
of the sensations it is capable of ex-
periencing. The eye possesses scarcely
an octave and a half of sensations,
whereas the average ear, as we know,
has a range of six or seven, while more
acute ears have compass of fully
eleven octaves. And then the ear is a
wonderfully accurate instrument and
capable of appreciating minute differ
ences that would be wholly impossible
in the case of the eye According to
Dr. w. H. Stone, IAN architect or
draughtsman who, between two lines
neither parallel nor in one plane, made
an error of calculation not exceeding
one-thirtieth would gain credit for un-
usual precision. But in the ear one
thirtieth amounts to quarter of a
tone, and by ear one-forty- fifth is easily
determined" A skillful pianoforte
tuner can do much more He is called
upon, for instance, to distinguish be-
tween true and an equally tempered
fifth, where the difference is only 1-1O0
of tone, He should accordingly be
able to recognize at least 800 different
sounds in an octave. More than this,
according to the Investigations of Prof.
Mayer, it is possible, under specially
favorable conditions and for sounds
whose pitch is near that of C3, to dis
tinguish from each other notes which
do not differ from each other by more
than 1-120 of a semi-tone
In the rapidity of it's appreciation the
ear is remarkable. In fraction of a
second it can accurately refer any note
to its place in the scale and can just as.
easily and quickly separate from each
other several widely different notes.
According to recent Investigations
the ear is capable of hearing a
sound when only two vibrations
are made. 1t should, therefore,
hear the middle notes of the piano
forte in the two or three hundredth
part of second. 1t requires more
time, however, for the ear to distin-
guish the full characteristic of a note.
To do this, according to the expert
ments of Exner, Auerbach and Kohl
rausch, from two to twenty vibrations
are necessary.
With proper training and practice
the organ of hearing can be rendered
remarkably sensitive and accurate
There is rarely any physical defect in
the ear itself The defects ordinarily
noticed and spoken of are such as can
be easily remedied by cultivation. The
organ truly may never be able to re-
tain the remarkable range of addition
we have spoken of above it may never
become so 'apprehensive and discrim-
inant' as the ear of Mozart, but it's
delicacy can be increased and its gen.
eral appreciation of musical sounds
wonderfully improved. This is especi-
ally true if the work of instruction is
begun in childhood, when the organ of
hearing is naturally most sensitive and
most readily susceptible of cultivation.
In making experiments with rods and
tuning forks giving very accurate
sounds, l have frequently been struck
with the very great difference in the
ability to perceive such sounds as man
Tested by young and old persons
Even when the latter were trained
musicians, they were incapable of
hearing some sounds that were quite
audible to children who had no musical
training whatever. This fact, like
many others that might be adduced, is
a striking commentary on the neces-
sity 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
period would entirely escape their
observation Etude.