234 SCIENCE IN SHOUT CHAPTERS. 



disappointing and vexatious than ever. For my own part 

 I would rather spend a holiday afternoon in the mild atmos- 

 phere and the quiet, soothing gloom of a coal-pit than be 

 teased and irritated by a strained listening to the indefinite 

 roar of a grand choir, and the occasional dying vibrations 

 of Sims Keeves' "top A." 



I have in the above advocated reverberation as a remedy 

 for diffusion of sound. This may, perhaps, appear rather 

 startling to some musicians who have a well-founded dread 

 of echoes, and who read the words echo and reverberation 

 as synonymous. This requires a little explanation. As 

 light is transmitted, reflected, and absorbed in the same 

 manner as sound, and as light is visible or, rather, renders 

 objects visible I will illustrate my meaning by means of 

 light. 



Let us suppose three apartments of equal size and same 

 shape, one having its walls covered with mirrors, the second 

 with white paper, and the third with black woollen cloth, 

 and all lighted with central chandeliers of equal brilliancy. 

 The first and second will be much lighter than the third, 

 but they will be illuminated very differently. 



In the first, there will be a repetition of chandeliers in 

 the mirrored walls, each wall definitely reflecting the image 

 of each particular light. In the second room there will be 

 reflection also, and economy of light, but no reflection of 

 definite images; the apartment will appear to be filled with 

 a general and well-diffused luminosity, rendering every 

 object distinctly visible, and there will be no deep shadows 

 anywhere. 



In scientific language, we shall have, in the first room, 

 regular reflection; in the second, scattering reflection; in 

 the third room we should have comparative gloom, owing 

 to the absorption of the light by the black cloth. 



We may easily suppose the parallels of these in the case 

 of sound. If the velarium and side walls of the transept 

 and orchestra were made of sheet iron, or smooth, bare, 

 unbroken vibrating wooden boards, we should have a cer- 

 tain amount of regular reflection of sound or echo. Just 

 as we should see the particular lights of the chandelier 

 reflected in the first room, so should we hear the particular 



