I9I4.] AN ARTIFICIAL HISS. 327 



Whistle Judged Mouth Judged 



Observer. as Mouth. as Whistle. 



E. G. B 20 36 



L. D. B 45 38 



M. E. G 35 39 



or an average confusion of 35.5 per cent. 



There is, naturally, a tendency, on the part of the practised ob- 

 servers, to judge " mouth as whistle " more often than " whistle as 

 mouth " : the percentages are, for Miss Bean, 35.7 : 14.3, and for 

 Dr. E. G. Boring, 36 : 20. Dr. Foster, who can hardly be deceived, 

 gives approximately equal percentages of confusion; but in his case 

 too the ratio 20 : 18 favors "mouth as whistle." The less practised 

 observers, however, offset each other. I had expected a far greater 

 preponderance of correct judgments of the whistle, i. e., a lesser num- 

 ber of judgments of " whistle as mouth " ; and I think that the per- 

 centages actually obtained speak well for the skill of the ex- 

 perimenter. 



It remains to show that our mouth-sound was a hiss. Neither 

 of the experimenters was versed in phonetics ; but we asked them 

 to observe and describe carefully the position of lips and tongue 

 during imitation of the whistle-sound. Mr. Stephens writes : 



" The position of the tongue is substantially, so far as I can judge, the 

 same as that in which we produce the sound of the letter s-s-s. The sides of 

 the tongue are so curled up that they rest against the inside of the upper 

 teeth, on the sides. The middle of the tongue thus of course forms a hollow, 

 up to the tip, — which very nearly touches the roof of the upper jaw just about 

 a quarter-inch above the upper teeth .... For the production of a light hiss 

 which is not to be heard loudly the tongue-muscles are semi-tightened as also 

 are the muscles of the jaw and throat. The thin column of air which is 

 forced lightly between the tip of the tongue and the point on the roof of the 

 mouth makes production of sound. Teeth along sides and back are possibly 

 5 or 6 mm. apart, thus leaving plenty of opening for ejection of air. The lips 

 stand a quarter-inch apart, with little or no drawing at the corners, for the 

 light hiss. Lips, in the production of this sound, play little or no part; they 

 merely are separated suflficiently so as not to interfere with air and sound. 

 Unless they are well apart, however, they do interfere with the intensity and 

 seeming pitch of the hiss." 



This is a very fair amateur account of the production of a hiss; 

 and if it is compared with the formula given, ^. g., by Jepersen, we 



