ON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 489 



entered into an analysis of the processes l»y which vocal 

 sounds and notes are produced, and showed their im- 

 portance in musical and linguistic theories. Combined 

 with all these deductions and applications, which started 

 from Fourier's mathematical analysis of compound move- 

 ments, Helmholtz's anatomical dissection of the organ of 

 hearing leads him to the conclusiDU that there " must 

 exist in the ear different parts which are set in \il)rati(in 

 by notes of different pitch, and which have thus a sensa- 

 tion of these notes." ^ And here he takes up a different 

 line of reasoning — that suggested by Johannes ]\Iiiller's 

 theory of the specific sense energies. In his studies 

 in physiological optics he had already accepted Young's 

 hypothesis that there exist in the eye three distinct 

 kinds of nerve - fibres, to which belong distinct modes 

 of colour -sensation. Something analogous exists in the 

 ear." " The differences in notes — namely, pitch and le. 



Analogy 



colour [or character] — are reduced to differences of the between 



-" sound and 



sensitive nerve-fibres, and for each nerve-fibre there exists *^°^°^''- 

 only the difference of the intensity of the stimulus." 



This brings the action of the sensory nerves into line 

 with that of motor nerves : everywhere the nerve itself is 



pitch, and, to the present clay. Book of Physics,' Sound, p. 69) we 

 the Euglisli tongue has no equiv- read, " It is convenient to use the 

 alent for the French " timbre " or term note for an ordinary coni- 



the German '' Klangt'arlje." Everett 



used tiie word c:haracter, and so 



does Lord liayleigh. Dr Young, 



in his "Essay on' Music" (1800, 



' Miscell. Works,' vol. i. No. 5), 



speaks of the tjuality of sound, 



sometimes called its tone, register, 



colour, or timbre (p. 118). In the 



most recent scientific work on 



sound in the English language " Ibid., pp. 220, 2"21 



(Piiynting and Thomson's 'Text- ' 



pound sound to which a definite 

 pitch may be assigned, and the 

 term tone for each sim})le harmonic 

 constituent which goes to form it." 

 There is an important note on the 

 terminology by Alex. T. l->llis. the 

 learned translator of Hehiiholt/.'s 

 'Sensations of Tone ' (187r>. p. 36). 

 ' ' Tonempfinduugen," p. 215. 



