66 SECTION- PHYSICS. 



have been exhibited ; but he was a little in error. That instrument 

 was one with single, not compound, stops, and was intended to exhibit 

 the old organ tuning continued so as to play 21 notes to the octave. 

 It was invented by Mr. T. Saunders, who subsequently declined to 

 exhibit it. But the principle of Helmholtz's and Gue'roult's instru- 

 ments is to have two rows of 12 notes forming perfect fifths, one row 

 being a comma flatter than the other. This would give the full succes- 

 sion of major keys, but only five minor keys complete. The other 

 minor keys are quite imperfect, whereas with Mr. Bosanquet's instru- 

 ment which, although it has only 53 tones to the octave, has actually 

 84 finger-keys to the octave, so as to be able to go round and round, 

 all the keys, minor as well as major, are practically perfect. This 

 instrument is really almost as simple to play as an ordinary harmo- 

 nium when you understand that the major thirds are taken in a series 

 below, and the minor thirds in a series above ; whilst the oblique 

 arrangement of the finger-keys obviates the necessity of jumping from 

 one row to another and allows of playing each scale in one line. I con- 

 sider Mr. Bosanquet's arrangement to be the acme of perfection in this 

 respect, and I do not think that we are likely to arrive at anything 

 which is simpler. I hope Mr. Bosanquet will give us an opportunity 

 of hearing some of the effects of it afterwards, because until persons 

 have heard music played in just intonation they cannot at all appreciate 

 what it is that persons want to obtain as contra-distinguished from that 

 which we are generally obliged to hear. I had an opportunity only 

 last Christmas of hearing a well trained and educated choir of the 

 Tonic Sol-fa College, accustomed to sing in perfect intonation, and, 

 when they were singing unaccompanied, the chords in just intonation 

 were perfectly divine, but when they sang immediately afterwards to a 

 pianoforte which was almost inaudible, the chords were all torn to 

 pieces in such an extraordinary way by the accommodation of the 

 voices to the instrument that it was perfectly painful to listen to them. 

 With regard to the upper limits of audible tone, although I am rather 

 an old boy, I may say that I heard all the high tones produced by 

 Captain Douglas Galton perfectly. 



