101 
contributed values for two of the last three columns; a proverb like 
“a friend in need is a friend indeed” contributed to the making of 
the column of proverbs as well as to that of the symmetrical 
sentences. 
The material was presented in whispers with reserve air. The 
subject sat ready to receive the whispers with the right ear, vertical 
to a line from this ear to the mouth of the experimenter. The 
maximal distance was 5 m.; if the subject failed to correctly repeat 
the spoken words at that distance, it was lessened every time by 
1 m. until the spoken words were reproduced correctly. When the 
distance was reduced to 2 m., it was lessened every time by '/, m. 
Careful introspection, at which the subject recorded minutely what 
he had heard, followed after each stage of the experiment. At every 
sitting 12 experiments were made at most, to prevent fatigue. They 
were all carried out in the over-furnished library of the Utrecht 
Clinic for Psychiatry and Neurology. Before starting the experiments 
proper, we determined the audition of our subjects by means of the 
words given by ZWAARDEMAKER and Quix in “De Studie van het 
Spraakgehoor” *). It proved to be normal with all of them; the 
hearing-distance varied for the words employed from 6 to 30 m. 
In Table II we have calculated the mean distances (M.), for every 
one of the three snbjects R. M. and D., at which sentences of the 
given number of syllables were heard (the values procured by A. 
are left out of account as being too small in number). 
As precision-indices we also give the mean deviations (M. D.) and 
the central values (C. V.). 
lt is obvious that with a larger number of syllables the sentences 
are heard less distinctly. For R. M. and D. this difference is resp. 
1, 3.17 and 1.33 m., in the case of sentences of 3 to 10 or more 
syllables. Besides to the influence of factors which we cannot discuss 
further here, these considerable individual differences are to be 
ascribed chiefly to the various tasks imposed upon the subjects. It 
stands to reason that proverbs and proverbial sayings are generally 
heard at greater distances than non-proverbial expressions ; symmetrical 
sentences farther than asymmetrical sentences; on the other hand 
irregular sentences are more difficult to hear than those that are 
constructed regularly. Table III (in which the frequency of the various 
kinds of sentences is tabulated in percentages of the total number 
of test-sentences presented) shows clearly that the intensity of audition 
varied considerably. 
The difference of the distances at which sentences of 3 and those 
1) Onderzoekingen Physiol. Lab. Utrecht (5) vol. 5 pd. 
