206 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 267. 



since this is an instrument with which I 

 am familiar, and since this mode of attack 

 has not at all been cultivated by the recent 

 investigators on allied questions. The 

 steam jet method has undoubtedly many 

 grave shortcomings ; but it has one invalu- 

 able advantage of retaining a given color 

 of field for an indefinite interval of time, so 

 long as the conditions of action are left un- 

 changed. My present work has shown me, 

 moreover, that the complicated character 

 of the evidence derived from the jet, is 

 much less serious than I have hitherto 

 supposed. Among the inquiries with which 

 I have been much occupied, is a determi- 

 nation of the number of particles which 

 give rise to a given colored condensation 

 in the field of the color tube, contributing 

 to an optic phenomenon of exceptional 

 interest, the theory of which is as yet quite 

 unknown. Should this phenomenon yield 

 to treatment, there would be given, since 

 there is no serious difficulty in finding the 

 collective mass of the particles, an inde- 

 pendent method, and one not depending on 

 electrical agency, of ascertaining both the 

 individual velocity and possibly the mass 

 of these subtle and pervasive dust particles, 

 absolutely. For let m^ and m be the masses 

 of dust absorbed per square centim. per 

 second in the first and final sections of the 

 absorption tube. Then n= m / m^ and the 

 velocity h in equation (2) is thus the only 

 unknown quantity. 



Cabl Bards. 

 Brown XJniveesity. 



RECENT OUTLOOKS UPON MUSIC . 

 The field of music is too vast to be seen 

 from any single standpoint. The ignoring 

 of this simple truth has led to countless 

 misrepresentations of facts by writers, and 

 misunderstandings of books by readers. For 

 tacitly it is assumed by most of us that 

 there is only one standpoint, indefinitely 

 thought of as that of the modern musical 



performer or intelligent concert-goer ; and 

 if we do recall that some mathematicians- 

 praise another point of view, while Greek, 

 Oriental and mediseval musicians appar- 

 ently had others, we yet know they have 

 been too rarely visited to have much in- 

 fluence on musical thinking. 



But the discoveries of the last few years 

 bearing on the questions of the basis of 

 music and the historical development of 

 scales have rendered it possible for the stu- 

 dent of comparative music to occupy a 

 point from which many long-known facts 

 appear entirely changed, and older authori- 

 ties, as Fetis, Helmholtz and Ambros, are 

 seen to be inadequate, if not erroneous. 

 In comparison with this standpoint, that 

 of the modern musician appears to be a 

 rapidly shifting one, like an observation 

 car or the masthead of a ship. 



It is the purpose of this paper to review 

 from this new-found standpoint some parts 

 of four rather recent books * of more than 

 temporary interest and value, that deal 

 with various parts of the field ; and by 

 their aid to define the musicians' stand- 

 point, and indicate some of the problems 

 now before the student of the history and 

 basis of music. 



I- 



Klauser's book was the first in order of 

 publication, yet is probably the least known 

 of the four. From title page to conclusion 

 it bristles with novel ideas, developed dur- 

 ing, and verified, he asserts, by many years 

 experience in teaching. The hearty pub- 



* ' The Septonate and the Centralization ot the 

 Tonal System,' hy Julius Klauser. Milwaukee, 

 1890, pp. vi + 274 ; ' The Art of Music,' by C. Hubert 

 H. Parry. New York, 1893, pp. 374 ; (The new 

 English edition has the title, The Evolution of the 

 Art of Music) ; 'Primitive Music,' by Richard Wal- 

 laschek. London, 1893, pp. 326-9 ; 'A Study of 

 Omaha Indian Music,' by Alice C. Fletcher ; with a 

 report on the 'Structural Peculiarities of the Music,' 

 by John^Comfort Fillmore, A.M. Peabody Museum, 

 Cambridge, Mass., 1893, pp. vi + 152. 



