When therefore we seek to know the mechanism of the voice, it should be to see, or to be truly told, by those who have seen, the whole process of the action of the air on the vocal organs, in the production of the quality, force, pitch, and articulation of speech. This method, and this alone, produces permanent knowledge; and elevates our belief above the condition of vulgar opinion and sectarian dispute. The visibility of most of the parts concerned in Articulation has long since produced among physiologists, some agreement as to its causes. But after all I have been able to see or learn on the subject of Quality and Pitch, I must fairly confess an entire ignorance of the mode of their mechanical production and the great difference on this point among authors has never impressed me with much respect towards their opinions.

As this section is addressed principally to physiologists, 1 have omitted a description of the organs of the voice, since it may be found in all the manuals of anatomy: and I can see no use in repeating here an account of structures and actions, when we know not what vocal effect those actions produce. The general statement of our problem is, that-some part or parts of the vocal canal produce all the phenomena of the voice. Now when discovery shall point out the efficient parts and the mode of their action, then it will be the duty of anatomy to describe their internal organization, and motive powers, that the whole may be made a permanent subject of science. Anatomy is truly the foundation of physiological science; but observation of the living functions has, I believe, always thrown the first light upon its various branches. It has been the part of anatomy to confirm or complete our knowledge of them; agreeably to the saying of the Greek philosophy that,—what is first to nature in the work of creation is the last to man in the labour of inquiry. With regard to the mechanism of the voice, we are yet occupied with the perplexities of analysis; when that work shall be finished, we may begin again with muscles, cartilages, ligaments, mucous tissues and the os hyoides, and describe the whole with the synthetic steps of natural causa

tion.

In the meantime, I can not so far follow the example of system-makers and professors, as to furnish an account of the mechanism of the voice, solely because it is desirable and may

be looked for. Aiming in this work to serve truth with my senses, I shall describe what is distinguishable by the ear in the different kinds of voice, together with the visible structure and movement of the organs; in the hope that by an acknowledgment of our present ignorance, and by future observation and experiment, other inquirers may arrive at the certainty of doctrine, which through a different method of investigation has never yet been reached.

The thirty-five elements of speech may be heard under four different sorts of voice :-the Natural,-the Falsette,-the Whispering, and that improved quality which I shall presently describe under the name of the 'Orotund.'

The Natural voice is that which we employ in ordinary speaking. It includes a range of pitch from the lowest utterable sound, up to that point at which the voice is said to break. At this place the natural voice ceases, and the higher parts of the scale are made by a shriller kind called the Falsette. The natural voice is capable of the discrete, the concrete, and the tremulous progression. By the concrete and tremulous movement, the natural may be continued into the falsette, without a perceptible point of union. Thus the concrete rise in vehement interrogation sometimes passes far above the limit of the natural scale, without exhibiting that unpleasant break in the transition to the falsette, which in the discrete scale is remarkable both as to quality of sound, and executive effort, except with persons of great vocal skill. The peculiarity of sound and intonation at this point of the discrete scale, has received the name of 'false note.'

It has been said, the natural voice is produced by the vibration of the chords of the glottis. This has been inferred from the analogy between the action of the human organ and that of the dog, in which the vibration has been observed by the exposure of the glottis during the cries of the animal,and from the vibration of those chords, on blowing through the human larynx when removed from the body. The conclusion is therefore probable, but until it is seen in the living function of the part, or proved by other means, it can not be admitted as a portion of exact physiological science.

With regard to the mechanical cause of the Variations of Pitch, in the natural voice, different notions, and they are but

L

notions, have been proposed by their respective advocates. They have been transiently enumerated above.

In a subject like this, where we know nothing, but where theorists are ready to fix on any thing, it is well to begin the investigation with the logical process of exclusion by showing what does not produce pitch, in those parts of the vocal aparatus which are visible.

The Pitch of the natural voice does not appear to be at all connected with the function of the mouth and fauces, for it will be seen on examination, that the rise and fall through the scale, may be effected on all the tonic elements, and that during the intonation of each, the position of the tongue and fauces remains unaltered, if we except some slight unsteadiness of the tongue and soft palate, which can have no relation to the definite divisions of pitch.

The sound of a-we is made whilst the tongue is about on a level with the lower teeth; the mouth being open for inspection, and all the parts of this vocal avenue having the same positions as in an act of silent respiration. In performing the run of pitch on this element, however, we must have a regard to the change of position which the articulation of its vanish e-rr' produces. The sound of e-ve is made by approximating the tongue to the roof of the mouth, leaving between them a narrow passage for the air. Now in one of these instances the track of the mouth and fauces is free; whilst in the other, the tongue almost closes the avenue of the mouth, and must be nearly in contact with the veil of the palate and the arch of the fauces. But in each case the respective positions remain unaltered, throughout the variations of pitch;—and in both cases the pitch is made with equal facility and exactness.

Among the subtonics, the pitch of n-g is made whilst the current of air through the mouth is completely obstructed by the contact of the base of the tongue with the soft palate. Th-en,' on the other hand, may be run through the scale, although it is produced by the stream of expiration over the tip of the tongue, when in contact with the upper fore teeth.

It is unnecessary to refer to the visible positions of the mouth and fauces in the production of other elements. The identity of pitch, which will be found under their various mechanisms,

must contribute to the conclusion that I have ventured to draw from the strongest instances which are given above.

Now as with the element n-g, pitch is made by the stream of air passing directly from the glottis through the nose, and consequently without coming into contact with the arch of the fauces or the cavity of the mouth, it is necessary to inquire, whether the varieties of pitch, if produced above the glottis at all, are made in the avenue of the nose. But pitch may be made when the air does not pass through the nose. Pitch too is a variable function, whilst the parts within the nose are incapable of motion.

The Falsette is that peculiar voice in which the higher degrees of pitch are made, after the natural voice breaks or outruns its power. The cry, scream, yell and all shrillness are various modes of the falsette. It must not be understood that its compass lies, restrictively, between the point at which the natural scale ends, and the highest practicable note of the voice : for the same kind of falsette sound may be formed, below the usual point of transition between the two voices, when the natural is raised to its highest degree. All the elements except the atonics may be made in falsette; for there is no quality corresponding to this sort of voice in the higher notes of whisper. I have already observed that the unpleasant effect both of sound and of effort, in the change from natural to falsette intonation, is obviated when the succession is made by the concrete and the tremulous scales.

The striking difference in quality between the natural and the falsette voices, has created the idea of a difference in their respective mechanisms, not only as regards the kind of sound, but likewise its pitch.

It has been supposed that the falsette is produced at the upper orifice of the larynx, formed by the summits of the aretynoid cartilages and the epiglottis :* and the difficulty of joining the falsette with the natural voice, which is thought to be made by the inferior ligaments of the glottis, is ascribed to the change of mechanism in the transition. On this point I have only to add, that the falsette or a similar voice,

* See a summary of the discoveries and opinions of M. Dodart, in Rees' Cyclopædia, under the article, Voice.

but without its acuteness, may be brought downward in pitch nearly to the lowest degree of the natural voice; at least I am able so to reduce it, thus producing what seems to be a unison, or an octave concord of the two voices. Now since the natural voice may by cultivation be carried above the point it instinctively reaches, it may perhaps justify a prosecution of the inquiry-whether these voices have a different locality of mechanism regarding these additions to the range of pitch and the difficulty of acquiring a command over them, as according rather, with the idea of a difference in the mechanical cause of the two voices, than with that of a mere extension of the powers of the same organization.

As we are ignorant of the mechanical cause of the falsette, supposing it to be different from the natural voice, so the cause of its pitch is equally unknown to us. But fiction is ever ready to supply the wants of ignorance: and the peculiarity of the falsette having suggested to physiologists that its mechanism must be different from that of the natural voice, several writers have assumed that the pitch of the former is made above the larynx, and by the back parts of the mouth. I do not give the particulars of their theory, because I have been able to perceive no other foundation for it, than that of the idea of a sort of antithesis in causation: since the natural voice, from which the falsette differs so much, is supposed to be made within the larynx. But whatever may have been the ground, we have had on this subject a complete system of physiological explanation, when there is scarcely fact enough to warrant a plausible conjecture.

As we are then ignorant of what is the cause of the variations of pitch in falsette, we may perhaps lessen the opportunities for supplying the place of ignorance by fiction, in showing what it is not.

If the cavity of the mouth is observed during the exercise

* The quality of this reduced falsette, if I may so call it, consisting of an ap parent combination of its peculiar sound with that of the natural voice, may, in a manner, be illustrated by the kind of tone that is produced on a flagcolet, by singing or rather by what is called 'humming,' during the act of blowing it. A similar sound is made by joining a vocal murmur with the shrill aspiration of whistling. There is however in both of these cases, more of a buzzing vibration than is heard in this reduced or hoarse falsette.