174 GLIMPSES OF NA TURE. 



of its vibrations, as may readily be conceived, affects 

 not the ear alone, but the brain likewise. That its 

 effects are irritating enough on the ear may go with- 

 out saying. That the brain must sympathise with its 

 receiving offices is obvious, and in this respect noise 

 is -a nervous irritant, the effects of which probably 

 inflict a greater amount of injury than is usually sup- 

 posed. We see how the opposite condition to a real 

 noise may affect the nervous system, in the effects of 

 the monotonous sound which causes us to drop off to 

 sleep. Here a kind of mesmeric influence is exerted 

 by the sound, just as a bright light will induce sleep 

 in time. Each organ of sense is, in fact, wearied out 

 by the number and frequency of the impressions made 

 upon it, and a sense of fatigue, with a tendency to 

 slumber, is the clear result. 



The abolition of noise in social life, I am convinced, 

 would mean a vast improvement in the health, temper, 

 spirits, and general welfare of everybody. I do not 

 wish to imply that life could be carried on without 

 sound. The dead dulness of a forest at noonday is 

 in itself depressing. Life, meaning, as it does, action 

 and motion, is inseparable from sound, but sound is 

 not necessarily noise; and, while we object to the 

 latter, it is very obvious we could not reasonably 

 disagree with the former, including, as it does, the 

 existence of music itself. 



Suppose, for instance, that, in place of the hard 

 causeway of our streets, wood or asphalt-paving 

 became universal, what a wondrous diminution of 

 noise we should find. Or, if the habit of placing 

 indiarubber tyres on the wheels of our vehicles be- 

 came a common practice, how greatly would our com- 

 fort in locomotion be increased. If, in addition to 



