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GUILD 1 has reported an audiometric analysis of children with reduced hearing acuity who were studied before and after medical treatment continuing over a period of several years. The complete population studied shows, among other things, an increase in hearing acuity at certain frequencies over the six years of the study for some groups of children, regardless of whether or not medical treatment was received. In analysis of the hearing data of the rural Illinois school system under consideration in the present series of studies, the threshold results for boys have been kept separate from those for girls. In the light of Guild's interesting findings, I have considered that an analysis of the present data to discover possible differences by sex in the improvement pattern might prove to be of significance. An effort has been made to break down the cases of the present survey in an attempt to add

This preliminary study was designed to ascertain the relative intelligibility of the twenty‐six individual spoken alphabet letters when presented to normal listeners over a 45‐db range of levels. The gain function for the pooled results of 26 letters spoken by three experienced speakers to 18 listeners has a sigmoidal shape. The 15‐db increase in presentation level from 10 to 25 db yields a 65% increase in correct identification for all letters. The average slope of the pooled curve for all letters between 20 and 80% was 4.34% per db. The curves appear to be similar to those of the more difficult stimuli such as the monosyllable PB lists and unselected disyllabic lists. Percentages of correct identifications for each letter at each presentation level are also presented.

The literature on hearing testing contains relatively few specific directions regarding the threshold finding procedure in pure frequency audiometry. Some "procedures" often quoted will be found on examination to contain little specific procedural information. It is the purpose of this paper to provide specific steps for obtaining the auditory threshold. All individuals working in the area of hearing testing would probably testify to the basic importance of a general philosophical or theoretical orientation regarding the nature of hearing and the nature of testing. In spite of the importance of such an orientation, the person who is actually conducting audiometric examinations as an important part of his diagnostic procedure will find a general philosophy an incomplete guide when he is faced with a specific client. In addition to the orientation, a step-by-step procedure is of vital concern. Such a procedure must be useful for the audiometrician in the daily conduct of

SOME general results of the analysis of hearing patterns in a rural Illinois school system have been previously described.1The present paper is a consideration of certain more exact aspects of the hearing of the same population. In brief review, the population under consideration in this analysis consisted of all the children in grades 5, 7 and 9 in two Illinois counties, DeWitt and Piatt. These children were tested during the month of March 1949. The total number of the school population, 6,062, was viewed as a rural population by the members of the health unit who were responsible for this analysis of the hearing acuity of this population. Children in the grades indicated were tested with a pure frequency sweep of 15 decibels intensity at seven frequencies (256 to 11,584). All children who failed to pass this sweep test were given an individual pure frequency audiometric test on

Five recorded auditory speech discrimination tests (Semi-Diagnostic Test, Rhyme Test, Harvard PB-50 Test, CID Auditory Test W-22, and Simultaneous Voices Test) were compared in 10 normal and 20 hard-of-hearing subjects at 10, 20, 30, and 40 dB SL. The Harvard PB-50 Test and the Simultaneous Voices Test were the most sensitive of the five measures to differences in discrimination ability among subjects.

General This study is concerned with the effect of temporary closure of the Eustachian tube on hearing acuity scores obtained during pure-frequency audiometric measurement. The "common cold," nasal allergies, and tobacco smoking with inhaling presumably could produce some edema of the orifice of the Eustachian tube, resulting in partial closure, and thus have direct effects on the auditory threshold as measured by the pure-frequency audiometer. It is not unreasonable to expect hearing scores to be slightly less sensitive even when there is a slight closure of the Eustachian tube from some of the common forms of congestion mentioned above. Problem These considerations motivated us to conduct a simple preliminary study on the effects of the use of a nasal spray on hearing acuity scores, the spray presumably keeping patent or open the orifice of the Eustachian tube. In undertaking this study, we proposed to assess the hearing of the subjects