SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, January 29, 1909 



CONTENTS 



The Influence of the Material of Wind- 

 instruments on the Tone Quality/: Pbo- 

 FESSOE Dayton C. Millee 161 



Report of Committee on Standards of Amer- 

 ican Universities .... - 171 



The Seventh International Congress of Ap- 

 plied Chemistry 174 



Darwin Anniversary Committee 176 



Columbia University Darwin Lectures 177 



Scientific Notes and News 177 



University and Educational News 1 81 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Convocation Week: Peofessoe Wm. Tee- 

 HEASE. Gray's New ManuM of Botany: 

 Peofessor Henby L. Bolley. Distribution 

 of the Nobel Prize: Peofessoe Waltee F. 

 WiLLCOX - 182 



Quotations : — 

 Harvard University and the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology 184 



Scientifio Books: — 



Church's Mechanics of Engineering: Peo- 

 fessoe H. T. Eddy. Allen's Commercial 

 Organic Analysis: Peofessoe AtPRED Hoff- 

 man. Pittier's Las Plantas Usuales de 

 Costa Rica: W. E. Saffoed. Snyder's 

 Human Foods and their Nutritive Value: 

 Peofessoe Elubn H. Richaeds 185 



Scientific Journals and Articles 188 



Botanical Notes: — 



Tvx> Recent Papers on Algce; Papers on 

 Fungi; Connecticut Mossworts : Peofessoe 

 Chables E. Besset 189 



Anthropology at the British Association: H. 90 



Special Articles: — 



The Presence of Water Vapor in the At- 

 mosphere of Mars demonstrated by Quanti- 

 tative Measurements: De. Feank W. Veey. 

 The Selachians admitted as a Distinct 

 Class: Db. Theo. Giix 191 



Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society of 

 Vertebrate Paleontologists: De. W. D. 

 Matthew 194 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Geological Society of Washington: 

 De. Ralph Arnold. The Society of Ew- 

 perimental Biology and Medicine: Db. Wm. 

 J. GiES. The New York Section of the 

 American Chemical Society: C. M. Joyce 198 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE MATERIAL OF 



WIND-INSTRUMENTS ON THE TONE 



QUALITY'- 



Sound is the sensation resulting from 

 the action of an external stimulus on the 

 sensitive nerve apparatus of the ear; it is 

 a species of reaction against this external 

 stimulus, peculiar to the ear, excitable in 

 no other organ of the body, and completely 

 distinct from the sensations of any other 

 sense. 



Atmospheric vibration is the normal and 

 usual means of excitement for the ear, 

 this vibration being produced directly in 

 some instruments, called wind-instruments, 

 and indirectly through the vibration of 

 elastic bodies in others, such as string and 

 percussion instruments; and often the vi- 

 bration originates in bodies not especially 

 designed for producing sounds. 



Physics is mainly concerned with the 

 nature of the external stimulus, and the 

 word sound is often restricted to refer 

 only to these external stimuli. But the 

 purely mechanical properties of these 

 stimuli often differ among themselves dif- 

 ferently than do the auditory effects. Our 

 interest is largely in relation to musical 

 sounds and hence for the present investi- 

 gation we are concerned with the proper- 

 ties of the sounds of mechanical physics 

 only in so far as they affect the ear, or 

 produce sensation. We may, therefore, 

 define sound substantially in the words of 

 Helmholtz, as already given, and proceed 



^Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 Section B, American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, delivered December 29, 1908. 



