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Dr. Felix Semon 



[March 13, 



For fully six years Dr. French with unremitting perseverance 

 has perfected the art of taking instantaneous photographs of the larynx 

 in singing. Only those who saw his initial results and those obtained 

 about 1883 and 1884: by contemporaneous workers, such as Messrs. 

 Behnke and Browne, can appreciate the enormous progress he has 

 made within that time and the value of the results thus obtained. 

 In spite of this he has, according to his own statements, net yet 

 permitted himself to formulate a theory of the action of the larynx in 

 singing, for even now, after large numbers of studies Lave been made 

 by him, he says that the camera is constantly revealing new processes 

 in the action of the vocal cords in every part of the scale, and that 

 the movements of the larynx in a much larger number of subjects 

 must be revealed, grouped, and recorded before definite conclusions 

 can be drawn. The fact that there are relatively but few subjects 

 in whose larynges the anterior insertions of the vocal cords can be 

 seen throughout the range, adds greatly to the difficulties of this 

 investigation. In order to find one satisfactory subject a large number 

 have to be examined, which necessarily takes much time, and renders 

 the progress of the study very slow. 



At Berlin Dr. French exhibited a series of photographs taken of 

 the larynges of four female singers, which showed how the changes 

 are made in the action of the glottis from one register to the other 

 in the variations and the pitch of the voice. These series were taken 

 consecutively, and therefore fairly represent the marked variations in 

 the movements of the various structures which occur in different 

 larynges. 



The description of the first series I give in Dr. French's own 

 words as follows : — 



" The first pair of photographs is the first of a series which will 

 be shown of the larynx of a well-known professional contralto singer. 



Fig. 1. 



