A. M. Mayer—FResearches in Acoustics. 253 
musical scale is best adapted for expression, and is most used 
in musical composition; for, while in the lowest octaves the 
available consonant intervals are few on account of the spaces 
separating them, in the higher octaves the consonances are so 
contracted that these higher consonant intervals lose their 
sharpness of definition. 
t is here to be remarked that in our experiments we have 
obtained continuous and discontinuous sensations from beats 
produced by one sound of a constant pitch; but with musical 
intervals we obtain beats from two sounds differing in pitch. 
In the latter case DeMorgan, Guéroult and Mr. Sedley Taylor 
have shown that there exists a variation, or oscillation, in 
itch whenever the two sounds are not of the same intensity. 
ir. Taylor,* from this fact, advances the idea that these oscil- 
that, in the higher regions of the musical scale, thirty to forty 
eats per second give rise to the most disagreeable dissonance, 
but that if these beats follow so rapidly that about 132 fall 
experiences of musicians. On page 29 
* On the Variations of Pitch in Beats. By Sedley Taylor, Esq., Phil. Mag., 
July, 1872. 
