The Resonance Theory of Hearing

SIR JAMES BARRETT'S letter expresses a difficulty in the way of acceptance of the resonance theory which I believe to be more generally felt than perhaps any other, namely, the difficulty of conceiving that a structure so minute as the cochlea, which may be compared in size to a small split-pea, can contain a series of resonators capable of responding to some 4000 separate tones extending over about 11 octaves. When we compare the suite of strings of a piano, which will respond only to 85 separate tones in 7 octaves, although they occupy with their case a space of 10 to 15 cubic feet, and weigh several hundredweight, the whole conception seems indeed bizarre and absurd.