RESEARCHES ON THE RHYTHM OF SPEECH 
BY 
J. E. Wallace Wallin. 
I. Historical. 
Brücke 1 employed two methods in investigating the time relations of 
syllables and feet in verse. 
In the first method the subject of the experiment beat time with the 
finger upon a key, in unison with the rhythm of the scanning of the 
particular verse that was read by him. The key was connected with a 
marker, which was so arranged that the deflections were traced upon a 
recording drum. The distances between the checks in the record line 
were regarded as representative of the duration of time between the suc¬ 
cessive points of emphasis. 
In the second method a recording lever was attached to the lower lip 
or to the teeth of the lower jaw, or, though rarely, to the corresponding 
parts of the upper jaw. A series of monosyllables, consisting of such 
words as ba, bam, pap, etc., was given to the subject to scan with the 
utmost regularity in accordance with predetermined types of meter. 
The general conclusions indicated that the intervals between the ac¬ 
cented syllables of poetry are exactly equal irrespective of the quality of 
the material which constitutes the intervals. Whenever the number of 
unemphatic syllables which occur between two accented syllables exceeds 
the average, they are uttered with a rapidity sufficient to make the inter¬ 
vals equal as to time ; and whenever, on the other hand, the number is 
deficient, the loss is made up either by prolonging the syllables or by in¬ 
troducing pauses. 
Brücke’s investigation was concerned with a purely mechanical or ar¬ 
tificial method of scanning, different from the natural, free, or artistic read¬ 
ing. It is hardly justifiable to apply his conclusions to ordinary spoken 
verse in support of the principle of equality of feet.3 The free rhyth¬ 
mical flow is the expression of impulses, unconsciously operative, that are 
in the mind of the poet in writing verse.3 Mechanical scansion is the 
1 Brücke, Physiologische Grundlagen der neuhochdeutschen Verskunst, Wien 1871. 
8 Paul, Grundzüge d. germanischen Philologie, II (1) 909, Strasburg 1893. 
8 Poe, The Rationale of Verse, Works VI 84, 92, Chicago 1895. 
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