30 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



original impulse of the air must be sustained ; thus, the last echo of two or three 

 (which are generally heard) ought to be the faintest, and physically it must be so ; 

 but the apparent effect is the contrary ; the first echo returns a strong sound, and 

 it diminishes by striking against a great rock at an angle in the deep ravine ; the 

 sound momentarily subsides, but every ear is now fixed in acutest attention, when 

 suddenly rolls out the sound again, as it were of a small cannon, with the seeming 

 power of thunder, startling the listeners, who believe, from their own sensations, 

 that the noise is wonderfully increased by its travels. This, however, is only the 

 result of sensitiveness, produced by the deepest attention which is given to it. 



The next effect on hearing to which I shall request consideration, is the different 

 states of susceptibility which the same person experiences in differing states of 

 health. I do not here refer to such extreme perceptivity of sound as often afflicts 

 fever patients, or other well-marked valetudinarians, sufferers from nervous dis- 

 eases, &c. ; but I allude to the different susceptibilities of persons in good, average 

 strength, but in differing states of robustness and powers of resistancy. Cannoniers 

 can stand the report of a six-pounder without a start ; and some of their 

 power to do so arises from mental pre-occupation in the duty which engages 

 them ; but it is probable that if these men were suddenly, and without an occupy- 

 ing duty, placed by a ship's seventy-four-pounder, the discharge would cause 

 them to start, as most civilians do now, who come close to the firing of light artil- 

 lery guns. Some ladies, perhaps, indulge in starlings at sudden noises, and do it 

 for effect ; but sensitive nerves, at times, leave people no power to resist ; so that 

 what is uncontrollable is sometimes deemed unjustly to be affectation ; still, a 

 habit of effort in subduing the practice of starting, when only produced by usual 

 noises, is a good, moral training of the physical powers. We know that reflection 

 and preparation make horses steady in field-firing, and these methods applied to 

 nobler creatures may be equally true. So much for our normal conditions with 

 respect to sudden sounds ; we now come to certain morbid states of the nerves, 

 under similar influences. A gentleman who was capable of bearing, without in- 

 convenience, the noise of gun and pistol firing (which was usually so much the old 

 habit here at times of public rejoicing), was surprised and annoyed at finding 

 himself, when walking the illuminated streets with some ladies, continually start- 

 ing at the explosions all around ; this was somewhat unlike the constitutional 

 firmness proper to a man ; the noises gave him real pain ; but the ladies themselves 

 being able to stand the firing without a bounce, their escort was not a little discon- 

 certed at his irresistible susceptibility. The matter was capable of easy expla- 

 nation ; the gentleman was about a month recovered from a bilious fever ; all the 

 parts of his system which had been tested before had indicated perfect restoration ; 

 but the undue sensibility of the auditory nerves proved that these organs were still 

 only convalescent. The sufferer had fears that his pristine firmness, under such 

 trials, might never return to him ; but he soon attained his resistancy and good 

 endurance, as perfect as they ever had been. It is known that sudden noises make 

 young children cry with painful alarm, when the pitch only reaches that which 

 healthy adults could bear without inconvenience ; this results, of course, from the 

 greater sensibility of the hearing nerves of children. 



It would not properly belong to this short memoir to describe the morbid sen- 

 sibility to sounds which ignorant alarm inflicts on some people ; how loud the 

 cricket's chirp is to the superstitious listener, or how the shrinking of the timber of 

 an old press or cupboard can seem, at times, to some terrified night- watcher, to be 

 the tearing down of wainscots, and bursting open of doors. The exaggerations 

 of acuteness in the perceptions of self-deluders are too numerous to record at pre- 

 sent, but strange facts sometimes do try the courage and the judgment even of 

 steady observers. A young gentleman was engaged in a manufactory, and it some- 

 times happened that processes had to be continued all night ; on these occasions 

 the workmen who had to sit up were permitted to go home for an hour or so, and, 

 during their absence, our young manufacturer had charge of fires and furnaces, 

 which called for all his attention. After the men went away say, about eleven 

 o'clock at night he used to lock the gate of the factory insidej and, for some time, 

 he had the whole lonely concern to himself. On one night the work to be done 

 was in a hurry ; consequently, the fires, under the boilers, had to be urged ; and, 



