It will be convenient at this point to depart from the chronological order of research, in order to treat together two investigators both of whom examined the rhythm of Plato's prose and arrived at similar conclusions. A separate account of each can then be followed by a common appreciation of their results.

The aim of Kaluscha's investigation was to ascertain which dialogues exhibited a clear prose rhythm or rhythms, then to deduce from a comparison of these their temporal relation to one another. For this purpose his concept of rhythm was a purely practical one; he confined himself to investigating the part of the sentence considered in antiquity to be the most important rhythmically, namely the clausula, which he interpreted as the end of a period or colon. Furthermore this was regarded as consisting of five syllables only, thus producing thirty-two different types, into which all the sentence endings were to be classified. Lastly, in order to make his data as unobjectionable as possible, he observed the following principles.

1. Clausulae containing a word ending in a long vowel before a word beginning with a vowel were omitted.

2. Similarly those in which a short vowel was followed by a combination of mute and liquid consonants.

3. The last syllable of the clausula was not regarded as anceps.

4. Two short syllables together were not reckoned as the equivalent of a long one.

The investigation fell into two parts. The first examined the clausulae of the Laws to establish the truth or otherwise of Blass's belief that under Isocrates’ influence Plato began to prefer certain rhythms to others.