1895 - 96 .] Prof. M‘Kendrick on Appreciation of Musical Pitch. 41 
He was at the other side of the room from where the piano stood, 
with his back towards me, and he bent his head over a sofa. 
Keys were then struck at random all over the keyboard, and he 
made no mistake in at once giving the name of the note. Thus, 
adopting the notation of Helmholtz* for the different octaves, he 
gave e'; f"; a'b; f'#; f 'tj ; e m ; G n ; e'b; cjjj; a'; a'f,; d‘; d"; 
f'"[?; f'[j ; P'ljf; G m . I then tested him by double sounds, and he 
gave correctly e‘ g ; f" g'; d' c'; c' g'; gc'; V a'; c'fl fjf; 
bbc'j; bbf'J; c'jfb'b; e'bf'Jj G, f"|; c' b"; c, d' j b'bab'. 
He then resolved, without error, the following triple sounds : — 
E, c' g"; b' g' D, ; g' e' G; c H # e 8 a n ; c| e'b A n b; f 8 d 1 g'; 
d" a' FnJ. These are only examples of the trials to which he was 
subjected. The piano was as nearly as possible at concert pitch. 
On another occasion, I tested his ear with a set of Koenig’s 
forks in which the middle c of the piano = 256, lower than concert 
pitch. He thus listened to tones lower in pitch than those to 
which he was accustomed. In each trial, after a very short time 
for consideration, he gave a name to the tone which nearly cor- 
responded to the pitch with which he was familiar. Thus c ! 
(Ut = 256) was called d, and so on, except when I sounded a fork 
giving concert pitch, when it was at once named correctly. Know- 
ing nothing about what is meant by sharpening and flattening a 
note, but attaching a value or meaning to the sounds produced by 
striking the black keys of the piano, the boy named the sound as 
it corresponded to his standard. Thus he at once recognised c 1 
(concert pitch), and although the note was flattened, it still, to 
him, was c', till it came to cb (a name, however, which was not 
in the child’s nomenclature) and then it became b, and was 
always answered as b until b was actually reached. In cases 
where the child knew the name of the semitone, such as g$, 
then the boundary to him was a quarter of a tone (half of a semi- 
tone). 
This child has therefore acquired a standard of pitch, and he 
remains faithful to this standard under all circumstances. Thus 
he can sing, so far as the compass of his little voice will allowq 
any note one may name, and he invariably sings it correctly at 
concert pitch. His ear always keeps him right to his own 
* The middle c of the pianoforto is c', or Ut^, in French notation. 
