246 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1705. 



more perfectly by a pair of compasses dividing a line, than the nice ear 

 can direct. 



Though the frets for the several strings do not stand in a straight line, and 

 the places are also shifted in different keys, yet the ear naturally directs the 

 fingers to them : insomuch that those persons, who have always been accus- 

 tomed to stop upon frets that go quite across the finger-boards of their instru- 

 ments, do with very little practice fall rightly upon these. Such is the power 

 of a musical genius, as may be undeniably proved by those that play upon the 

 violin ; who, when they change the key, fall upon the right stops, though they 

 have no visible direction where to stop, nor time to alter, by the ear, the note 

 they first pitched upon. 



By this standard of regular proportions may the voice be formed to sing the 

 purest notes; they are all the same in vocal and instrumental music; if then 

 the instrument, which governs the voice, be perfect, the ear will of ne- 

 cessity bring it to perfection. It is a great pity that a good natural voice should 

 be taught to sing out of tune, as it must do, if it be guided by an imperfect 

 instrument; and this may be the reason why so few attain to that melody, 

 which is so much valued; but since we now know wherein perfection lies, a 

 constant practice will come to the attainment of it. The dividing wholes into 

 chromatic hemitones is very necessary, but very difficult for the voice to be broken 

 to : if it learns from an instrument whose whole notes and half notes are sup- 

 posed to be equal, the sound must needs be very uncertain and unharmonical; 

 whereas the proportions truly fixed, would bring it to a perfection in the nicest 

 and most charming part of music. 



The chromatic hemitones are the smallest intervals our modern music aims 

 at ; though the ancients had their inharmonic quarter notes, w hich they esteemed 

 their greatest excellency: these may also in time be recovered, since we know 

 •their proportions; for as the diatonic tone is divided into chromatic hemitones, 

 so after the same manner may the chromatic hemitones be divided into those 

 least inharmonic intervals, which were always made use of. But if we go no 

 further, yet this experiment demonstrates the true theory of music, and brings 

 the practice of it to the greatest perfection. 



Concerning the Bones of a human Foetus, voided through an Imposthume in the 



Groin. By Sir Philip Shipton. N° 302, p. 2100. 



I visited a woman, 66 years old, in Drury-lane, who had a child consumed 



in her uterus for about 28 years: she bore two children after this, one lived 



1 1 years, and the other 6. About 8 years ago an imposthume broke out in the 



