August II, 1887] 



NA TURE 



343 



regions, the period is reduced to ten, if not to five or 

 fewer days. All this, we are asked to believe, is the work 

 of the latest of our nebular annexations, which, forming 

 an equatorial girdle round the sun, partially, and in a 

 degree varying inversely with latitude, communicated its 

 own more rapid movement to the superficial layers of the 

 globe it encompassed. 



The process is not even yet concluded. What Dr. 

 Braun holds to be indisputable proof of atmospheric 

 acceleration is derived from Prof. Young's spectroscopic 

 measurement, in 1876, of the sun's rotational velocity. 

 But this is to lay upon the observations in question a 

 burden of inference heavier than they will bear. The 

 rate of equatorial movement, as computed from the 

 observed translation of spots, is vzz, miles a second ; it 

 came out v\2 miles from the Dartmouth College measures. 

 Considering, however, the extreme minuteness of the 

 entire displacements due to this speed, amounting, for the 

 D lines, to but ^V of the interval between them, the dis- 

 crepancy is hardly surprising ; and it is well known that, 

 in this particular class of determinations, errors lie almost 

 always on the side of excess. Prof. Young himself, it is 

 true, was "inclined to think" that his result betrayed an 

 actual sweeping forward of the absorbing layers over the 

 underlying surface ; but even were the fact established, 

 we should expect to find for it a cause less remote than 

 the inrush of a nebula uncounted millions of years ago. 

 Undoubtedly, however (so far we are in agreement with 

 Dr. Braun), that cause would be found to be closely 

 connected with the anomalies of the sun's rotation. 



As regards the distribution and periodicity of spots, we 

 are in the present work offered simple and avowed con- 

 jectures at which we need only glance in passing. The 

 nebulous swathing not yet completely incorporated with 

 the sun's mass impedes, and has during past ages still 

 more effectually impeded, equatorial radiation. Hence, 

 cooling has, in polar tracts, penetrated further into the 

 interior, with the result of generating an internal spheroi- 

 dal surface at which temperature-gradients attain a maxi- 

 mum, and from the middle latitudes of which special 

 facilities are afforded for eruptive outbreaks. 



But this device is assuredly not a practicable one. The 

 highly artificial arrangement it establishes could not 

 endure one hour. Convection-currents would speedily and 

 without ceremony abolish it. Indeed, augmented radia- 

 tion from near the poles (which is equivalent to more 

 rapid cooling), besides being contradicted by observation, 

 might be expected to produce just the opposite effect of 

 intensifying the disturbances attendant on cooling. Spots 

 and flames should then, on the hypothesis advanced, be 

 transferred from their " royal " zones to the polar 

 calottes. 



Heat-pulsations in a period of 11^ years, occasioned, 

 perhaps, by a slow mechanical oscillation of the sun's 

 volume, the progressive contraction of which may be con- 

 ducted rhythmically, or by regular alternations of shrink- 

 ing and swelling, are invoked (certainly under every 

 reserve) to solve the puzzle of the sunspot cycle. The 

 difficulties attending what might be called the " disturbed 

 thermal equilibrium " theory of solar phenomena could 

 not be more forcibly illustrated than by the straits to 

 which it reduces its advocates. 



The study of coronal appearances compels our author 

 to take refuge in the unassailable stronghold of electricity. 

 We are far from asserting that he is not fully justified in 

 this measure : the circumstances indeed seem to prescribe 

 it ; yet it is always felt to be a desperate one, for the reason 

 that it lands us, almost completely, in the region of the 

 unknown. It is right to add that Dr. Braun is at all times 

 evidently loth to separate from the company of ascertained 

 facts and laws. He advances without them only where 

 their escort cannot be made available. 



A. M. Clerke. 



MUSIC IN NA TURE. 



T N the February number of Longtnan's Magazine, there 

 -*- is a remarkable article " On Melody in Speech," by 

 Mr. F. Weber, Resident Organist of the German Chapel 

 Royal, St. James's Palace. The object of the writer is 

 more comprehensive than his title expresses, for he says 

 in his opening paragraph, "There is an infinite variety of 

 interesting; and pleasing sounds in Nature's music around 

 us that may be noted by an attentive ear." This may be 

 readily granted ; but Mr. Weber goes on, "These sounds 

 are mostly melodious and harmonious, or in some har- 

 monious connexion, and form exact intervals and chords!^ 



This last sentence is the point of the article. Mr. 

 Weber is not expressing himself figuratively : he writes as 

 a musician, and he distinctly asserts that many of the 

 sounds spontaneously produced in Nature are truly 

 MUSIC in the musician's, and not the poet's, sense of the 

 term. To illustrate this assertion he has taken the 

 trouble to identify and write down, in actual musical 

 note?, the musical passages which he considers he has 

 recognized in a great variety of these natural sounds, and 

 so has challenged the public judgment on the accuracy 

 of his theory. 



Now, Mr. Weber is a gentleman of eminence in his 

 profession, and what he says deserves attention. It is 

 easy to say that he has given his imagination too much 

 play in his supposed identifications ; but it seems to me 

 the subject ought to be approached from a more compre- 

 hensive point of view. The question is. Do such sounds 

 or series of sounds constitute music .'' or do they not ? 

 And if not, why not ? If Mr. Weber is wrong, it is pro- 

 bably because he has formed too hasty a view of what 

 music really is ; and this is a point that requires serious 

 discussion. 



Mr. Weber is not the first who has had this idea. 

 Haifa century ago, Gardiner, of Leicester, also a clever 

 musician, published a book called, I think, the " Music 

 of Nature," in which he wrote down musical passages 

 professedly representing a vast number of natural 

 sequences of sounds. There are many other persons, 

 who, while they would not go to the same length as Mr. 

 Weber or Gardiner, still believe that music may be found 

 in the sounds of Nature, and it is worth while to see what 

 grounds there are for such a belief. 



Music, in its modern form, is a very complicated struc- 

 ture, combining many elements, such as melody, harmony, 

 counterpoint, tonality, measured time, rhythm, form, 

 expression, tone-colour, and so on. But no one will 

 suppose that the combination of all these is necessary to 

 make what may be strictly called music. We must begin 

 at the other end, and ask what music is if reduced to its 

 simplest possible form ? What are the fewest and least 

 conditions absolutely necessary to constitute music, i.e. 

 to give the name of music to a combination of sounds ? 



In the first place, we must have the proper material, 

 namely musical sounds, and we must be particular that 

 the sounds are really of a musical character. I am not 

 going into acoustics. I need only say that the most 

 essential quality necessary to give a sound this character 

 is that it must have a. Jixed and defitiite pitch. A sound 

 that is wavering and indefinite, like the sighing of the 

 wind, or the portamento of a voice or violin, though it 

 may be loosely said to be musical, is not strictly a 

 '•musical sound." It cannot be defined by the number 

 of its vibrations, it cannot be expressed in any musical 

 notation, and it cannot be used to form musical structure. 

 For this purpose a sound, though it may be short, must 

 be perfectly definite. 



Now, suppose we have a sound of this kind, producing 



say this note 



Does the sounding of this note 



of itself constitute music .^ We must say No; for the 



