3i6 



NA TURE 



[September 2, 1922 



general health of the exhibits. The secretary also 

 realised that in the past, when new buildings and 

 enclosures were erected, in most cases immediate 

 convenience took precedence of any general scheme. 

 In 1909 he induced the council to consider the condition 

 of the gardens with regard to existing buildings of a 

 permanent character, and recommended that in the 

 future, as buildings and enclosures were erected, they 

 should be arranged in conformity with a general plan. 

 The matter was temporarily shelved, but in 1912 the 

 garden committee drew up a list of the animals the 

 society could expect to exhibit under suitable conditions 

 at any time, considered the existing accommodation, 

 deciding how far it was to be regarded as satisfactory, 

 and what areas should be reserved for the supply of 

 further accommodation as it could be provided. It is 

 in conformity with the plan then drawn up that the 

 various buildings and open spaces provided in recent 

 years have been erected and set out. 



In 1906 and in 1907 the society obtained additional 

 grants of land from H.M. Commissioner of Works. 

 The 20 acres of land granted to the society in 1826 

 lay on both sides of the Outer Circle, corresponding 

 roughly with the existing middle and south gardens, 

 but only a portion to the south of the circle was laid out. 

 In 1834 an additional plot of ten acres on the south- 

 west border of the gardens was obtained at an annual 

 rental, on the condition that it was to be used as 

 pasturage. In 1839, use of the land north of the 

 Regent's Park Canal, corresponding to the existing 

 north gardens, was granted. 



In 1841 the ground in the occupation of the society 

 was rearranged. The strip on the north bank of the 

 canal was surrendered, and a portion at the east end 

 of the middle garden was exchanged for a correspond- 

 ing area at the west end, and permission was given to 

 extend the works over the ten acres granted in 1834. 

 In 1869 the land on the north bank of the canal was 

 again taken over by the society. A considerable 

 portion of the north garden was, however, not made 

 use of until after 1903, when the policy of increasing 

 open-air facilities for the animals was put into operation. 

 Complete use of the north garden was, however, not 

 possible until 1906, when the right-of-way was obtained 



over two unoccupied portions of ground on both sides 

 of the canal, and H.M. Commissioner of Works agreed 

 to allow half of the new bridge over the canal to be 

 used by the society on payment of its proportion of the 

 cost of reconstruction. A communication between the 

 north and the middle gardens was thus obtained. In 

 1907 a strip of ground was obtained along the south- 

 west boundary of the south garden, which ends in a 

 large triangular area at the west end, now occupied by 

 a pond for water-fowl, and goose paddocks. The 

 condition attached to the grant of the new piece of 

 land was that the animals placed on it should be 

 visible to the public in Regent's Park. The paddocks 

 erected on this site now contain deer, llamas, emus, and 

 rheas. 



Of the buildings erected and designed under super- 

 vision of the present secretary, the Small Cats' House 

 (T903), the Sea-Lions' Pond (1905), the Small Birds' 

 House (1905), the Cattle and Deer Sheds (1906), the 

 Society's New Offices and Library (1909), the Sanator- 

 ium (1909), the New Prosectorium (1909), the Mappin 

 Terraces for the open-air display of mountain goats and 

 bears, with its tea-pavilion (1913), the Small Mammal 

 and Caird Insect House (1913), and the New Tea 

 Pavilion facing the broad walk (T922), are the most 

 important. The transfer of the offices, library, and 

 meeting room to the gardens, apart from providing 

 adequate accommodation for the library, which had 

 outgrown the rooms in Hanover Square, has greatly 

 facilitated the work of the staff. At the time there 

 was some opposition to the transfer, a few fellows being 

 of opinion that there would be a falling off in the 

 attendances at the scientific meetings. Such, howe\ er, 

 has not been the case, as at the present day- they are 

 attended far better than in the past. 



How all the great improvements which have gradu- 

 ally been effected during the past twenty years have 

 popularised the gardens may be best realised when we 

 consider that the admissions, which in 1902 amounted 

 to less than 700,000, last year exceeded 1,500,000. 

 When the new fresh-water and marine aquarium, which 

 the council has decided to build under the Mappin 

 Terraces, is completed, the latter figure will no doubt 

 be exceeded. 



The Resonance Theory of Audition. 



Bv Prof. E. H. Barton, F.R.S. 



THE resonance theory of audition continues to 

 excite considerable interest and must be regarded 

 as being still in the controversial stage. The very 

 name is somewhat unfortunate and may have led 

 some into the mistaken view that some sympathetic 

 vibrators in the ear are postulated as capable of actual 

 resonance or resounding like a tuning-fork set in 

 audible vibration by another which was first sounded. 

 Of course it should be understood, on the resonance 

 theory, that the vibrator in question merely vibrates 

 when a sound of nearly its own proper pitch is received 

 by the ear, such vibration, though effecting audition 

 by its possessor, being quite inaudible to others. 

 Some through misunderstandings on this or other 

 points have failed to grasp the essentials of the 

 resonance theory of audition, and have in consequence 



NO. 2757, VOL. I 10] 



levelled at it criticisms which clearer knowledge on 

 their part would have obviated. No attempt will be 

 made here to locate in the ear those mechanisms, if 

 any, which play the part of sympathetic vibrators, 

 responders, or resonators. That is left to the anatomists 

 to discover. But we may note briefly the essentials 

 of the resonance theory, the salient facts of audition 

 and what power the theory has of meeting the demand 

 which those facts make upon it. In the latter we 

 may derive help from the consideration of a simple 

 working model which any one may set up and experi- 

 ment with for himself. 



Essentials of the Resonance Theory. — This theory 

 postulates the existence within the ear of some set 

 of mechanisms, each of which has its own proper 

 rate of vibration and rate of dying away when 



