May 24, 1912] 
February, 1908); “Paleobotany” (reviews 
in Am. Jour. Sci., April, 1908); “The Wil- 
liamsonias of the Mixteca Alta” (Bot. Gaz., 
December, 1909); “Further Notes on Seed 
Structures” (Am. Jour. Sci., August, 1911); 
“The Williamsonian Tribe” (Am. Jour. Sci., 
December, 1911), and “The Smaller Flower- 
buds of Cycadeoidea” (Am. Jour. Sci., Feb- 
ruary, 1912). In the last is ample confirma- 
tion of the author’s interpretation of the old 
Cyecad flower structure as announced by him 
nearly eleven years earlier. These papers, with 
the author’s monumental volume, “ American 
Fossil Cyeads” (1906) constitute a remark- 
able example of the gradual uncovering of 
facts and their successful interpretation, and 
combination into a consistent phylogenetic 
scheme. 
Cuartes E, Bessey 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 
SPECIAL ARTICLES 
THE INEFFICIENCY OF WIRES AS A MEANS OF 
CURING DEFECTIVE ACOUSTICS OF 
AUDITORIUMS 
In the popular mind, one of the first aids 
for a hall with poor acoustics is to install a 
system of wires or strings with the expecta- 
tion that in some way the defect will be cured. 
This prevalent idea is doubtless due to the 
fact that there are many halls where wires 
have been strung, and people naturally con- 
elude that there must be some merit in the 
method. As a matter of fact, this popular im- 
pression does not seem to be well founded, for 
the author has inspected a number of halls 
thus treated, and has found no marked im- 
provement in the acoustics. 
Thus in Dr. Parkhurst’s church in New 
York City where a thin network of silk fibers 
of large mesh was stretched horizontally about 
half way between the floor and the dome, there 
still persisted a reverberation and an echo. 
In the Royal Cathedral in Berlin, a number 
of silk cords are installed in a horizontal net- 
work, yet the acoustics remain very defective. 
A fishnet is stretched near the ceiling in one 
of the court rooms of the Berlin Rathhaus 
SCIENCE 
833 
with no benefit to the acoustical properties. 
The Royal Albert Hall in London has a series 
of wires installed, and, while the acoustics 
there are improved, other features than wires 
have unquestionably produced the effect. The 
warden of a church in Nottingham, England, 
writes: 
Several dodges were tried to overcome the 
(acoustical) defect, such as stretching wires across 
the nave. 
And so on for other cases that might be 
cited. 
The conclusions of the author in regard to 
the inefficiency of wires have not always been 
in accord with the opinions of the auditors in 
the various halls mentioned. The janitor of 
Dr. Parkhurst’s church, in answer to the ques- 
tion, ‘“ Does the net help the acoustics?” re- 
plied, “Some says it does, and some says it 
don’t.” In the Royal Cathedral in Berlin, ac- 
cording to the attendant’s account, the Kaiser 
thought the wires produced no improvement 
while the Kaiserin thought they did. The 
direct question to the attendant as to his own 
opinion proved very embarrassing and brought 
only a shrug of the shoulders. Later conver- 
sation, however, revealed his conviction that 
no help had been rendered. In the majority 
of cases where opinions were asked for, there 
was a decided expression against the use of 
wires—“ the acoustics are as bad as before,” 
“ The wires have not helped,” ete. 
Some people, however, claim that the method 
is advantageous, and that the acoustics are 
really benefited. The author believes these 
claims are sincere, but attributes the better 
hearing to other features than the wires. For 
instance, the acoustics are usually improved 
when a large audience is present. Also, the 
opening of windows produces a good effect. 
Furthermore, regular attendants in a hall with 
poor acoustics get used to the defect, and, by 
an adjustment of the attention, are able in 
some cases to subordinate the disturbing fac- 
tors and hear better than before. Thus on one 
occasion the author fixed his attention on a 
particularly strong echo and was able to hear 
more distinctly than by listening to the words 
