PREFACE 



About two thirds of this study has been published at different 

 times in various German scientific periodicals, chiefly in the Zeit- 

 schrift fiir Psychologic und Physiologic der Sinnesorgane. The 

 author has long hesitated to present in book form the results 

 of his labor in this remote corner of scientific investigation 

 because the interest in these problems seems to be neither 

 intense nor general. This lack of interest on the part 

 of the scientific public, however, is not due to the unimpor- 

 tance of the subject, but rather to a wide-spread conviction 

 that all the problems pertaining to it were solved half a cen- 

 tury ago and that therefore nothing problematic is left. For 

 years during which — since his student days — these pro- 

 blems have been in the mind of the writer, he has belonged 

 to an exceedingly small minority of scientific men, who have 

 not permitted themselves to become captives of this convic- 

 tion. But since this minority is gradually increasing in num- 

 ber, and since professional friends have encouraged the writer 

 he has decided to lay before the public the results of his in- 

 vestigations in a continuous exposition of his theory as far as 

 it goes at present. It is natural that he has preferred to do 

 this in the English language, since nearly all his previous 

 publications concerning it are in German. 



The author does not pretend to present in this book a 

 complete, perfect, and final solution of the problem concern- 

 ing the mechanics of the inner ear. His farthest reaching 

 hopes will be fulfilled if he succeeds in impressing upon the 

 reader's mind the fact that there are here still problems left 

 for solution and in giving these problems such a clear and 

 definite formulation that the interest of others will be turned 

 towards them. There is little hope for a final solution of 

 these problems except by the co-operation of many investi- 



