gators. The contents of this book are arranged from a peda- 

 gogical rather than from a logical point of view. The author 

 does not intend to present a systematic representation of his 

 own ideas for comparison with the ideas of others, but rather 

 a series of lectures as he would deliver them before a class of 

 college students, not presupposing any knowledge or any in- 

 terest but what a somewhat advanced college student might 

 be expected to possess. A reader who should prefer to make 

 himself acquainted with the contents of this book from an- 

 other point of view,, will be able to do this by the aid of the 

 index added. 



The author has attempted to omit as much as possible 

 everything of a polemic nature. His criticism of the views 

 of other investigators may be found in his previous publica- 

 tions. In this book he does not propose to record the views 

 of other scientists, but the conclusions which he has reached 

 himself after more than a decade of thought concerning these 

 problems. For the reader who might be interested in the 

 development of the author's thought concerning these prob- 

 lems, he has added at the end of the book a list of those pub- 

 lications of his own which are directly concerned with the 

 problems here presented. 



The author hopes that this booklet will help to break 

 down the barrier of dogmatism which has too long stood in 

 the way of progress in this field of scientific inquiry, and 

 which is still far from being a thing of the past. It is truly 

 dogmatism to profess that the application of so simple a 

 theorem as that of Fourier can do justice to an attempt at 

 comprehending the mechanical processes underlying the won- 

 derfully complicated and unfortunately only superficially 

 known phenomena of audition. 



