Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/45

 variously affect the laws of the motion of the air in each vibration, or, according to expression, the equation of the curve conceived to correspond with this motion, and thus produce the various characters of the vowels and semi-vowels. The principal sounding board seems to be the bony palate: the nose, except in nasal letters, affords but little resonance; for the nasal passage may be closed, by applying the finger to the soft palate, without much altering the sound of vowels not nasal. A good ear may distinctly observe, especially in a loud bass voice, besides the fundamental note, at least four harmonic sounds, in the order of the natural numbers; and, the more reedy the tone of the voice, the more easily they are heard. Faint as they are, their origin is by no means easy to be explained. This observation is precisely confirmed, in a late dissertation of M., published in the musical newspaper of Leipsic. Perhaps, by a close attention to the harmonics entering into the constitution of various sounds, more may be done in their analysis than could otherwise be expected.

It would have been extremely convenient for practical musicians, and would have saved many warm controversies among theoretical ones, if three times the ratio of 4 to 5, or four times that of 5 to 6, had been equal to the ratio of 1 to 2. As it happens to be otherwise, it has been much disputed in what intervals the imperfection should be placed. The and  were in some sense the beginners of the controversy. has given very comprehensive tables of a great number of systems of temperament; and his own now ranks among the many that are rejected. Dr. has written a large and obscure volume, which, for every purpose but for