MECHANICS OF THE INNER EAR 47 



Comparing our analysis of the curve in figure 14 with the 

 former result obtained from figure 11, we observe that in 



spite of the remarkable difiference of ap- 

 Practical pearance of these curves to the eye, the 



irrelevance tones which we expect to hear are the 



of phase same. This is, of course, of the greatest 



importance in musical practice. Imagine 

 the unsurmountable difficulties if the director of an orchestra 

 were responsible for the phase in which the several tones pro- 

 duced by the members of the orchestra acted upon the audi- 

 tory organs of each hearer in the concert hall. But, as it is, 

 each hearer perceives the same tones whatever the phases of 

 the objective processes in the air. Now those who believe 

 in the existence of a system of strings like "a piano in the 

 ear," have laid much stress on this fact of the practical irrel- 

 evance of phase, and some have even gone so far as to say that 

 it compels us to assume sympathetic resonance to be the me- 

 chanical power of the auditory organ. I need not persuade 

 the reader, however, that such a compulsion does not exist. 

 Some have gone still farther and asserted that phase dififer- 

 ence has never and under no circumstances any influence 

 whatsoever upon the auditory perception. Their theory of the 

 mechanics of the inner ear may lead to such a consequence, to 

 an absolute irrelevance of phase. Experiment, however, has 

 not yet proved that phase difference of the sinusoidal compon- 

 ents of stirrup movement has never any influence of any kind 

 upon the perception. Our theory has shown us the practical ir- 

 relevance of phase differences and, at the same time, left a pos- 

 sibility for slight influences of this kind upon the perception, 

 resulting in a change of the relative intensities of the sev- 

 eral tones heard. The intensities of the three tones 

 for one phase we found to be six, thirteen, and eleven ; for the 

 other phase three, sixteen, and eleven. That is to say, we 

 would hear in the second case the same tones, but their relative 



