834 
as they came directly from the speaker. On 
another occasion in this same hall the leader of 
the band had great trouble in conducting a cer- 
tain selection. The piece being played was a 
xylophone solo with orchestra accompaniment. 
After some time the leader discovered that he 
was beating time to the echo of the xylophone. 
The players near the soloist kept proper time, 
the others near the leader played in unison 
with the echo. The result may be imagined. 
While both observation and opinion indicate 
that acoustical defects are not helped by 
wires, it is interesting to look for further con- 
firmation from the standpoint of theory. It 
is well known that if a loud tone is sung near 
a plano, certain wires of the latter will re- 
sound. Perhaps this phenomenon suggested 
the use of wires in auditoriums, with the 
hope that the objectionable sound would be 
absorbed or broken up in some way. But the 
conditions for the response of the piano 
strings are very favorable. There are many 
wires tuned to different pitches, so that cer- 
tain ones are in tune, or nearly so, with any 
tone sung, and these are the wires that re- 
sound. The wire in the auditorium would re- 
spond therefore to only one of the many 
tones present. To be effective on this score, 
there would have to be many wires tuned so 
as to cover a wide range of pitch. Secondly, 
the piano wire is backed by a sounding board, 
which absorbs considerable energy and com- 
municates it to the wire. The response is 
thus very much greater than it would be with- 
out the sounding board. The wire in the 
auditorium has no such sounding board, there- 
fore it absorbs less energy and has less effect 
on the sound. Finally, the piano occupies a 
considerable portion of the space of the room 
and gets energy not only directly, but also by 
reflection from the near-by walls and ceiling. 
On the other hand, the wire in the auditorium 
is small, and is struck by only a small part of 
the sound waves, direct or reflected, hence has 
a small chance to help matters. All of these 
considerations indicate the smallness of the 
effect to be expected. 
One other way in which wires might be 
beneficial lies in the possible scattering of the 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Von. XXXV. No. 908 
sound waves. Here again, however, the small 
bulk of the wires allows but little effect. The 
sound waves pass around the wires in much 
the same way that large water waves on a 
pond pass by a stake projecting through the 
surface. It is only when the obstacle has 
some size compared with the waves that a dis- 
turbance is set up. If there were a large 
number of wires close together, the sound 
waves would be influenced. In halls, we find 
usually only a few wires installed, probably 
with the idea of having them inconspicuous. 
From the various considerations mentioned, 
it is seen that the installation of wires in 
halls having poor acousties is without marked 
effect. While much remains to be done on 
the problem of architectural acoustics, and 
though the means of cure can not be specified 
readily for each case, it is nevertheless of 
value to know that the installation of wires, 
as now used, will not serve to cure the trouble. 
F. R. Watson 
BERLIN, GERMANY, 
March 6, 1912 
COLOR VARIATIONS OF THE HOUSE MOUSE IN 
CALIFORNIA 
WHILE trapping for mice in the vicinity of 
Palo Alto, California, in November, 1910, a 
mouse was taken the under parts of which 
were colored white, as in the common Gam- 
bel’s mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus gam- 
beli), but which on examination, proved to be 
a house mouse (Mus musculus). Since that 
time, trapping in a number of localities in 
California by the author and others and search 
through previously made collections of Cali- 
fornia mammals have brought to light a con- 
siderable number of instances of color varia- 
tions in the house mouse. So far, only a start 
has been made in the study of these variations. 
The meager results at hand are published at 
this time because the author is leaving Cali- 
fornia. It is hoped that such publication will 
direct the attention of students and collectors 
to the house mouse, an animal that is com- 
monly neglected. Very likely further varia- 
tions will be found in the same animal from 
other parts of America. 
