1896-97.] 
Chairmans Opening Address. 
203 
on the power the ear possesses of identifying the sounds, and on 
the use of conventional signs or symbols, such as letters of the 
alphabet, vowel symbols, consonant symbols, or the symbols of 
Chinese, which are monosyllabic roots often meaning very 
different things according to the inflection of tone, the variations 
in pitch being used in that language to convey shades of meaning. 
When human voice sounds are produced in singing, especially 
when an open vowel sound is sung on a note of definite pitch, the 
record is much more easily understood. Then we have the waves 
following each other with great regularity, and the pitch can easily 
he made out. Still, as has been well pointed out by Dr R. J. 
Lloyd of Liverpool, a gentleman who has devoted much time and 
learning to this subject,* it is impossible by a visual inspection of 
the vowel curve to recognise its elements. Thus two curves, very 
similar, possibly identical to the eye, may give different sounds to 
the ear, that is to say, the ear, or ear and brain together, have 
analytic powers of the finest delicacy. No doubt, by the applica- 
tion of the Fourier ian analysis, we may split up the periodic wave 
into a fundamental of the same period and a series of waves of 
varying intensity vibrating 2, 3, 4, 5, &c., times faster than the 
fundamental, and the relative amplitude of each of these may 
also he determined. If all these waves of given amplitude 
and given phase acted simultaneously on a given particle, 
the particle would describe the original curve. Dr Lloyd, how- 
ever, is of opinion that even a Fourierian analysis may not 
exhaust the contents of a vowel, as it does not take account of 
inharmonic constituents which may possibly exist. Hermann f 
and Pipping J have also been investigating the analysis of vowel 
tones, and their investigations have revealed many difficulties. 
* DrR. J. Lloyd, D.Lit., M.A., Phonetische Studien, vol. iv. p. 41 ; “The 
Interpretation of the Phonograms of Vowels, and the Genesis of Vowels,” 
Journal of Anatomy and Physiology , January 1897. Also communicated to 
the Physiological Section of the British Association, Liverpool Meeting, 
1896. As one of the editors of the above Journal, I had the privilege of 
seeing Dr Lloyd’s papers in proof. 
f Hermann, “ Ueber das Verhalten der Vocale am neuen Edisonische 
Phonographen,” Pjiiigers Archiv., v. 47, 1890 ; also ‘ ‘ Phonopliotographische 
Untersuchungen,” op. cit., ii. and iii. 
7 Pipping, Om Klangfdrgen hos sjungna Vokaler. Discussed in Dr Lloyd’s 
paper, “ On the Interpretation of the Phonograms of Vowels,” op. cit. 
