THE TELEPHONE. 753 



which the inventor of the telephone may well consider as the highest he has 

 attained. 



An independent method of research into the process of speech was employed 

 by Wheatstone, Willis, and Kempelen, the aim of which was to imitate the 

 sounds of the human voice by means of artificial apparatus. This apparatus 

 was in some cases modelled so as to represent as nearly as possible the form 

 as well as the functions of the organs of speech, but it was found that an 

 equally good imitation of the vocal sounds could be obtained from apparatus 

 the form of which had no resemblance to the natural organs. 



Several isolated facts of considerable importance were established by this 

 method, but the whole theory of speaking and hearing has been so profoundly 

 modified by Helmholtz and Bonders, that much of what was advanced before 

 their time has come to possess only an historical interest. 



Among all the recent steps in the progress of science, I know none of 

 which the truly scientific or science-producing consequences are likely to be so 

 influential as the rise of a school of physiologists, who investigate the conditions 

 of our sensations by producing on the external senses impressions, the physical 

 conditions of which can be measured with precision, and then recording the 

 verdict of consciousness as to the similarity or difference of the resulting sensa- 

 tions. 



Prof. Helmholtz, in his recent address as Rector of the University of Berlin, 

 lays great stress on that personal interaction between living minds, which I 

 have already spoken of as essential to the life of a University. " I appreciate," 

 he says, "at its full value this last advantage, when, looking back, I recall 

 my student days, and the impression made upon us by a man like Johannes 

 Muller, the physiologist. When one finds himself in contact with a man of 

 the first order, the entire scale of one's intellectual conceptions is modified for 

 life; contact with such a man is perhaps the most interesting thing life may 

 have to offer." 



Now, the form in which Johannes Muller stated what we may regard as 

 the germ which fertilized the physiology of the senses is this, that the difference 

 in the sensations due to different senses does not depend upon the actions 

 which excite them, but upon the various nervous arrangements which receive 

 them. 



To accept this statement out of a book, as a matter of dead faith, may not 

 be difficult to an easy-going student; but when caught like a contagion, as 



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VOL. II. 



