466 OTOLOGY AND LARYNGOLOGY 



mining questions regarding the physiology of the voice, and recent 

 work such as that of Holbrook Curtis, Flatau, Bukofzer, and Im- 

 hofer shows how valuable the laryngologist's aid may be in assist- 

 ing the task of the teacher of singing in such questions as, for ex- 

 ample, the method of intonation a point in which science and art 

 very nearly touch one another. Future anatomical and physio- 

 logical researches will have to solve the fascinating questions of 

 the mutual interdependency of the centres and paths of audition 

 and sound in the brain. The data at present at our disposal are 

 not sufficient fully to understand through what kind of afferent 

 and efferent fibers impressions are conveyed to and from these 

 centres; how they are changed into volitional impulses, and how 

 they produce the desired note of the voice. 



For the purposes of this address the foregoing short remarks 

 will, I trust, suffice to show that no better illustration of the mutual 

 relationship of most various arts and sciences could be imagined 

 than in the territory of music, and more particularly of singing. 

 That noble art is inseparably interwoven with laryngology, oto- 

 logy, rhinology, for the accessory cavities of the nose are serv- 

 ing as resonators for the sounds produced in the larynx, - - ana- 

 tomy, physiology, and physics. 



VIII. Biology 







If we consider the relation of our branches to biology exclud- 

 ing from the generic term thus used human anatomy and physi- 

 ology - - the same remark applies to their connection which I have 

 just used when speaking of the relation of music to our special- 

 ties; more might be expected from the future than has been 

 achieved in the past. No doubt the study of comparative anatomy 

 and physiology, particularly the developmental part of these sci- 

 ences, has been very useful in making us understand . the origin, 

 the gradual development, and final composition of the compli- 

 cated organs with which we have to deal, and in not a few ques- 

 tions - - more particularly in those relating to the nervous mech- 

 anism of the larynx - - the lessons derived from experimental 

 physiology have already been of the greatest importance in help- 

 ing to solve the difficult problems with which we have to deal. Still, 

 I am in no fear of contradiction when I say that a great deal more 

 may be expected for the elucidation of many difficult questions 

 with which we are confronted in laryngo-oto-rhinology from further 

 biological studies. 



