ON THYSIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE PIIOXOGRAPH. 527 



a, greater or less number of waves or vibrations, according to the pitch of 

 the sound and its duration. The pitch, of course, will depend on the 

 number of vibrations per second, or per hundredth of a second, according' 

 to the standard we take, but the number of the waves counted depends on 

 the duration of the sound. As it is almost impossible to utter the same 

 sound twice over in exactly the same fraction of a second, or in the same 

 interval of time, the number of waves counted varies much in different 

 records. The rate per unit of time determines the pitch, the number the 

 duration of the sound. In a word, these successive sounds blend into 

 each other, and, in many records, the passage from one pitch to another 

 can be distinctly seen. The speech sounds of a man vary in pitch from 

 100 to 150 vibrations per second, and the song sounds of a man from 80 

 to 400 vibrations per second. The sounds that build up a word are chiefly 

 those of the vowels. These give a series of waves representing a varia- 

 tion in pitch according to the character of the vowel sound. In the 

 record of a spoken word the pitch is constantly moving up and down so 

 the waves are seen in the record to change in length. It is also very 

 difficult to notice where one series of waves ends and where another 

 begins. For example, in the word Con-stan-ti-nople, the predominant 

 sounds are those of o-a-i-o-iJl, and the variation in pitch is observable to 

 the ear if, in speakiiig the word, we allow the sound of the syllables to be 

 prolonged. If we look at the record of the word, we find these variations 

 in pitch indicated by the rate of the waves, or, as the eye may catch this 

 more easily, by the greater or less length of wave, according to the pitch 

 of the sound. The consonantal sounds of the word are breaks, as it were 

 in the stream of air issuing from the oral cavity, and these breaks (I am' 

 not discussing the mechanism at present) produce sounds that have also 

 often the character of vowel sounds. Thus, at the beginnin<^ of ' Con- 

 stantinople,' we have, as will be observed on pronouncing the syllable very 

 slowly, the sound iikko. This sound is represented in the record by a series 

 of waves. Then follow the waves of the vowel o. Next we have the 

 sound nn (driving the air through the nose), also represented by a series 

 of waves. Next the hissing sound ss, which has first something in it of 

 the vowel e or i, and then the iss-s. This sound also is shown by a series 



of waves. Then there is ta, which has a double series of waves (1) those 



for it or t, and the next for a. This passes into the prolono-ed vowel a 

 this into in, then a long o, then a sound like op, and, lastly, the sound ill, 

 a sort of double-vowel sound. As so many of these sounds have the 

 character of vowels, it is impossible, by an inspection of the record to 

 say where one set of waves begins and another ends. There are no such 

 breaks corresponding to the consonants ; the vibrations of the consonants 

 glide on as smoothly as those of the vowels. The number of waves pro- 

 ducing a word is sometimes enormous. In ' Constantinople ' there may 

 be 500, or 600, or 800 vibrations. A record of the words ' Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh,' spoken with the slowness of ordinary speech, showed over 

 3,000 vibrations, and I am not sure if they were all counted. This brief 

 illustration gives one an insight into Nature's method of producing speech 

 sounds, and it shows clearly that we can never hope to read such records 

 in the sense of identifying the curve by an inspection of the vibrations. 

 The details are too minute to be of service to us, and we must again fall 

 back on the power the ear possesses of identifying the sounds, and on the 

 use of conventional signs or symbols, such as letters of the alphabet, 

 vowel symbols, consonant symbols, or the symbols of Chinese, which are 



