134 
WEAD. 
under the conditions occurring in practice. Some day it 
will be possible to make as thorough and scientific an exam¬ 
ination of a musical instrument as it now is of a steam-plant 
or dynamo. On all the points just noted current statements 
are inadequate, for the art is now so developed that the 
knowledge of the laws of vibrating bodies to the first approx¬ 
imation only is insufficient for future guidance. 
(3.) In connection with Architecture: the determination 
of the reflection or absorption coefficient of the various ma¬ 
terials used in building for inside walls, with the numerical 
evaluation of the several factors that influence the acoustic 
properties of an auditorium; and the acoustic survey of 
auditoriums, showing the intensity of sound at all points 
where hearers might be placed. 
(4.) In connection with practical life: there is the impor¬ 
tant problem of fog signals still unsolved. 
(5.) On the side of Psychology and Music there may be 
named as problems for the future the further study of the 
capabilities and deficiencies of the human ear; the influence 
of instruments on musical conceptions; the historical, psy¬ 
chological, and practical nature of the scales in use among 
various peoples. These branches bring our material study 
into intimate relations with human development. 
V. In view of the manifold interests that center in the 
subject of Acoustics, scientific and commercial, aesthetic and 
utilitarian, specific and general, it seems strange that neither 
by endowment in connection with a University nor by Gov¬ 
ernment appropriation has provision been made for a well- 
equipped Acoustical Laboratory; for here the same reasons 
apply that justify similar expenditures for so many other 
branches of science, viz., that the subject is of large impor¬ 
tance, either industrially or in its relation to past and pres¬ 
ent human activities ; that the results of investigation would 
be of value to the community at large, being far wider than 
could be monopolized by the investigators; that the neces¬ 
sary expenses are beyond the means of the individual ex¬ 
perimenter, and that nowhere in this country or in the world 
is there any systematic exploiting of this field. 
