Recently, an effort has been made to standardize a satisfactory method for the quantitative estimation of the vibratory sensation. The first work of this type was carried out by Dr. J. L. M. Syms1 of Guy's Hospital, London. Since then Drs. E. J. Wood,2 H. D. Piercy3 and others have made observations, using Syms' method. This work can therefore have no claim to originality. Its purpose is to establish further a normal, to compare my findings with those of other observers, and to establish the value, if any, of this test as a part of any routine examination.
A brief review of the subject shows that Rumpf4 was perhaps the first to make a study of vibratory sensation and reported it in 1889. He considered the sensation confined to the skin. About six years later (1895) Trietel,5 using a fork of 128 vibrations, and attempting