856 OF THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 



can be produced by a Voluntary effort, unless that tone be present to the 

 consciousness during an interval however momentary either as imme- 

 diately produced by an act of Sensation, recalled by an act of Conception, 

 or anticipated by an effort of the Imagination. When thus present, the 

 Will can enable the muscles to assume the condition requisite to produce it; 

 but under no other circumstances does this happen, except through the par- 

 ticular mode of discipline by which the congeuitally deaf may be trained 

 to speak. Such persons are debarred from learning the use of Voice in the 

 ordinary manner ; for the necessary guidance cannot be afforded, either 

 through sensations of the present or conceptions of the past, and the imagi- 

 nation is entirely destitute of power to suggest that which has been in no 

 shape experienced. But they may be taught to acquire an imperfect speech, 

 by causing them to imitate particular muscular movements, which they may 

 be made to see ; being guided in the imitation of those movements, in the 

 first place by watching their own performance of them in a looking-glass, 

 and afterwards by attending to the muscular sensations which accompany 

 them. Many instances, indeed, are on record, in which persons entirely 

 deaf were enabled to carry on a conversation in the regular way ; judging 

 of what was said by the movements of the lips and tongue, which they had 

 learned to connect with particular syllables; and regulating their own voices 

 in reply, by their voluntary power, guided in its exercise by their muscular 

 sensations. 1 



2. Of Articulate Sounds. 



702. The larynx, as now described, is capable of producing those tones of 

 which Voice fundamentally consists, and the sequence of which becomes 

 Music; but Speech consists in the modification of the laryngeal tones, by 

 other organs intervening between the Glottis and the Os externum, so as to 

 produce those articulate sounds of which language is formed. It cannot be 

 questioned that Music has its language; and that it is susceptible of express- 

 ing Emotional states of the mind (among those, at least, who have been ac- 

 customed to associate these with its varied modes) to even a higher degree 

 than articulate speech. But it is incapable of addressing the Intellect, by 

 conveying definite ideas of objects, properties, actions, etc., in any other way 

 than by a kind of imitation, which may be compared to the signs used in 

 hieroglyphic writing. These ideas it is the peculiar province of Articulate 

 Language to convey ; and we find that the vocal organ is adapted to form a 

 large number of simple sounds, which may be readily combined into groups, 

 forming words. The number of combinations which can be thus produced is so 

 inexhaustible, that every language has its own peculiar series; no difficulty 

 being found in forming new ones to express new ideas. There is consider- 

 able diversity in different languages, even with regard to the use of the 

 simplest of these combinations ; some of them are more easy of formation 

 than others, and these accordingly enter into the composition of all lan- 

 guages ; whilst of the more difficult ones, some are employed in one lan- 

 guage, some in another no one language possessing them all. Without 

 entering into any detailed account of the mechanism required to produce 

 each of these simple sounds, a few general considerations will be offered in 

 regard to the classification of them ; and the peculiar defect of articulation 

 termed Stammering will be briefly treated of. 



703. Vocal sounds are divided into Vowels and Consonants; and the dis- 

 tinctive characters of these are usually considered to be, that the Vowels are 

 produced by the Voice alone, whilst the sound of the Consonant is formed 



1 See Dr. Johnstone, On Sensation, p. 128. 



