III. 



THE EARS AS FALSE WITNESSES. 

 I . Ventriloquism . 



THE ear is no judge of the direction of sound 

 or of its distance. These things are inferred 

 from the properties of which the ear can judge 

 namely, its intensity, its pitch, and its quality 

 or timbre, which is, after all, only the special 

 combination of sounds of different pitch. 



The first point as to direction is illus- 



, FX 



FlQ. 57. EXPERIMENT ON LIMITATIONS OF HEARING. 



trated by the following well-known experi- 

 ment. 



A person is seated on a chair, blindfolded. 

 Two others stand beside him, one at each hand. 

 One of them holds in his fingers two coins, which 

 can be clicked together, or any other apparatus 

 for making a small noise. The click is made 



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