Muj,LEN — On a Set of Musical Stones. 435 



flints ; and, as with tliat in the Museum, there was no relation 

 between the weight, size, or shape of the stones and the notes 

 l^rodueed. He asked for it the modest sum of sixty thousand 

 francs, nearly £100 for each stone. But the collection was the 

 result of thirty years' labour. 



The stones in the Museum are Limestone. 



Some imagine that they are virgin stones, unhewn, unshaped 

 but by nature ; while others maintain that they have been tuned 

 by chipping pieces off the edges. Both these ideas may be cor- 

 rect ; they are not really incompatible. The stones are unhewn, 

 and have no particular shape except thinness. But what could be 

 more natural than for the collector, when he had found a stone 

 nearly in tune, to try the effect of chipping. This " tunes " it, 

 but does not give it resonance, for that belonged to the original 

 stone in its virgin condition. 



I tried an experiment on one of them, which had a duplicate 

 ill the scale of B flat, and noted the result. The stone (which 

 seemed to have been broken before), weighed 273 grammes, and 

 produced the note F, when struck. A piece was carefully removed 

 by a stonecutter, and I then found it to weigh 247 grammes. 

 Thus it lost 26 grammes, or -^ of its entire weight ; and the effect 

 of this was to raise the pitch a full fourth — to B flat. This note is 

 almost beyond the perception of the human ear; but the experi- 

 ment places beyond a shadow of a doubt the fact that the stones 

 can be tuned. It would also appear, on comparing the cause and 

 effect, that the tuning is a very delicate operation. When pieces 

 are removed from the edges the pitch is raised, and when taken 

 from the flat sides it is lowered ; and if, perchance, too much is 

 removed in one way, it must be rectified in the other. 



The evident difficulty of tuning the stones will account for the 

 fact that only some four or five of this set are actually correct; 

 the others are very nearly so. In general aspect the stones become 

 smaller and lighter as the scale ascends ; but there seems to be no 

 relation between the weight and tone in any particular case. Take, 

 as perhaps the most prominent instance of this, counting from the 

 lowest note, Nos. 5 and 6. No. 5 weighs 792 grammes, while 

 No. 6 weighs 1830 grammes; and though the latter is^ nearly two 

 and a-half times as heavy as the former, it produces a^note a semi- 

 tone higher. f^Then, again, Nos. 7 and 8. The former, G, weighs 



