368 Mr. W. S. B. Woolhouse on the Enharmonic Organ. 



thematical or accurate sounds, presents only 16 ordinary sounds 

 or finger-keys in the octave on any one finger-board." But 

 it should be observed that these 16 finger-keys form only a 

 part of the general scale of 29 sounds or finger-keys, and are 

 insufficient for the completion of the limited number of keys, 

 viz. from five sharps to four flats inclusive, to which the ca- 

 pabilities of the instrument are said to extend. It cannot be 

 supposed by any sensible person that the " ordinary" finger- 

 keys constitute the impediment to which I allude in my essay, 

 and it must certainly be conceded that the 13 extra additional 

 finger-keys, which make up the 29 sounds, must increase very 

 materially the difficulties of the execution in the cases for 

 which they are required, i. e. in the cases in which the instru- 

 ment asserts its superiority over those of ordinary construc- 

 tion. The writer cannot deny the truth of my statement that 

 the organ contained 29 sounds in the octave, as enumerated 

 in the paragraph he has extracted. I challenge him to do 

 so ; and until he ventures to do this, where, Gentlemen, is the 

 ground of his charge of inaccuracy ? 



Before my notice was written I inspected the instrument, 

 and I here beg leave to express my sense of the very obliging 

 manner in which it was shown to me by a gentleman whom 

 I presumed to be Mr. Robson jun. He told me, as a curious 

 fact, that several professors had practised the instrument 

 without success, and that the only person capable of playing 

 on it at all was blind, and that this person was Mr. Purkis, 

 the celebrated performer on the Apollonicon. After I had 

 seen the instrument, I was favoured with one or two pamph- 

 lets giving a description of the organ,, and when I came after- 

 wards to peruse them, I was rather surprised to find them 

 exactly the same as the notice given by way of an article in the 

 Westminster Review for January last. This circumstance 

 favours the belief that some connexion exists between the 

 proprietors of the organ and the writer in the Review, and 

 may, perhaps, account for his evident chagrin at my observa- 

 tions and the zeal with which he applies himself to the de- 

 fence of the character of the instrument and the principles of 

 its construction. I should, indeed, be glad to see it succeed, 

 but at the same time I do think that I ought to be allowed 

 the light of giving a deliberate and candid opinion on the 

 subject, without rendering myself the object of an attack of 

 such a nature as that which is contained in the present num- 

 ber of the Westminster Review. Yours, &c. 



August 19, 1835. W. S. B. Woolhouse. 



