NOISE. 173 



all particular regarding noise, and we suffer therefrom 

 to a degree that tells on health, spirits, and temper in 

 marked fashion. 



Londoners and denizens of other towns know what 

 it is to be disturbed by the lively Chanticleer who 

 heralds the dawn, or by dogs which " bay the moon," 

 and often apparently bark at other planets as well. 

 There is not the least attempt, as a rule, in social life 

 to repress this noise nuisance ; yet, without in any 

 sense being deemed querulous or fidgety, we may 

 demand that for health's sake people should begin to 

 protest as forcibly against the din and clamour of life as 

 they do against the attempt at extortion which appears 

 in their hotel bills under the head of " attendance." 



Let us consider what noise means scientifically to 

 the living body. Every sound we hear is first of all 

 conveyed to the drum of the ear, which, in its turn, 

 sets in motion sundry small bones that affect the in- 

 ternal mechanism of the organ of hearing. The sound 

 is then parcelled out, as we have already learned, 

 into its component elements of tone, timbre or pitch, 

 direction, and so forth, and is finally transferred to 

 the hearing-centre of the brain. This centre dis- 

 charges the final work of appreciating the nature of 

 the sound and of converting it into an intellectual 

 item in our consciousness. That we really hear with 

 the brain, is therefore a truism of science, just as we 

 see with the brain, and taste, smell, and touch with 

 the organ of mind. 



Our senses are the mere receiving offices of the 

 nervous system. It is the head-office or brain which 

 ultimately deals with all the messages or sensations 

 that reach it from the outer world. Now a noise, 

 which differs from a musical sound in the irregularity 



