Page:Eleanor Gamble - The Applicability of Weber's Law to Smell.pdf/56

52 $Δr/r$  r = a  2a  2a+. (See Table IV.)

series are of doubtful interpretation; 13 series are too short to prove anything; and 2 tend to disprove the law. Out of 39 series for liquids, 24 indicate the law clearly, and 11 do so faintly, while 3 are too short to count, and only 1 tends to disprove the law.

We may now proceed to the Tables which summarize the evidence.

As noted before, Table IV enumerates only values for standards which can be paired as sensed under the same conditions. The left column of each pair of columns numerates values obtained for the smaller standards in the pairs. The columns headed (1) enumerate values for standards of which one was twice as strong as the other, or more than twice as strong. The columns leaded (2) enumerate values for standards of which one was less than twice as strong as the other. All values obtained for standards which can be paired are included. A. V. stands for “Approximate Values,” and C. for “Cases.”

We believe that we have accounted for the tendency of $Δr/r$ to be somewhat smaller for the larger standards. In Table IV, however, it is clear that the errors to which this tendency is due do not serve to conceal the operation of Weber's law. If certain absolute differences of smell-intensity were sensed and $Δr/r$ for a given standard were $1/3$, then for a standard twice as strong it should be $1/6$, not $1/4$.

Tables V and VI are arranged to show such variations as occur from subject to subject, and substance to substance. That it may be seen that each subject used a variety of substances, and that the different subjects used the substances in different