58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



five determinations, by their mutual agreement, give a numerical 

 measure to the accuracy of musical taste which is of great interest. 

 Thus the maximum departure from the mean is .13 seconds, and the 

 average departure is .05 seconds. Five is rather a small number of 

 observations on which to apply the theory of probabilities, but, as- 

 suming that it justifies such reasoning, the probable error is .02 

 seconds — surprisingly small. 



A close inspection of the large table will bring out an interesting 

 fact. The room in which the approved condition differed most from 

 the mean was the first. In this room, and in this room only, was it 

 suggested by the gentlemen present that the experiment should be 

 carried further. This was done by removing two more cushions. The 

 reverberation was then 1.22 seconds, and this was decided to be too 

 much. The point to be observed is that 1.22 is further above the 

 mean, 1.08, than .95 is below. Moreover, if one looks over the list in 

 each room it will be seen that in every case the reverberation corre- 

 sponding to the chosen condition came nearer to the mean than that 

 of any other condition tried. 



It is conceivable that had the rooms been alike in all respects and 

 required the same amount of cushions to accomplish the same results, 

 the experiment in one room might have prejudiced the experiment in 

 the next. But the rooms being different in size and furnished so differ- 

 ently, an impression formed in one room as to the number of cushions 

 necessary could only be misleading if depended on in the next. Thus 

 the several rooms required 6, 5, 15, 10, and 5 cushions. It is further 

 to be observed that in three of the rooms the final condition was 

 reached in working from an overloaded condition, and in the other two 

 rooms from the opposite condition — in the one case by taking cushions 

 out, and in the other by bringing them in. 



Before beginning the experiment no explanation was made of its 

 nature, and no discussion was held as to the advantages and disad- 

 vantages of reverberation. The gentlemen present were asked to ex- 

 press their approval or disapproval of the room at each stage of the 

 experiment, and the final decision seemed to be reached with perfectly 

 free unanimity. 



This surprising accuracy of musical taste is perhaps the explanation 

 of the rarity with which it is entirely satisfied, particularly when the 

 architectural designs are left to chance in this respect. 



