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Proceedings of the Royal Society 
of witnesses have been lying shut up in the deposits, only waiting 
to be called into court to give decisive evidence. So far as the 
investigation has gone, it is in favour of the Freshwater Theory. 
2. Note on the Perception of Musical Sounds. 
By John G. M‘Kendrick, M.D. 
Certain individuals appear to be incapable of appreciating musi- 
cal sounds. They cannot distinguish one melody from another; 
and if by many repetitions of the melody in their hearing, they at 
last appear to know it, the addition of one or more of the parts of 
the harmony again renders the music unrecognisable to them. The 
question naturally arises, Is this defect owing to any peculiarity in 
the structure of the internal ear of persons so constituted which pre- 
vents them hearing certain sounds, or is it to be referred to the 
condition of the brain ? On the other hand, many have what is 
termed a “fine ear,” by which we understand the faculty of appre- 
ciating, remembering, and, in some cases, of successfully imitating 
musical sounds. Have those individuals the organ of hearing more 
delicately developed ? 
This physiological problem does not, in the present state of our 
knowledge of the minute structure of the organ of hearing in man, 
permit of being examined histologically. We would not probably 
find any appreciable histological difference between the internal 
structure of the ear of a genius in music and that of a person who 
could not distinguish one melody from another. So far as this 
method of inquiry is concerned, differences may exist, but the 
minute size of the ultimate recipients of sound-waves, and the 
vagueness of our present knowledge of the number of these in the 
depths of the cochlea, would prevent any one from noticing those 
differences. 
It, therefore, occurred to me to examine this question by testing 
experimentally whether those individuals who profess to be unable 
to know music were incapable of hearing certain musical sounds, 
limited as regards pitch, within the extreme keys on the key-board 
of a piano. I have examined ten cases of this kind. 
In a musical sound three elements have to be considered, — ls£, 
loudness or intensity, which depends on the extent of vibration ; 
