XII. On the Mechanism of the Larynx. 

 By ROBERT WILLIS, MA. F. R. S. F. G. S. 



FELLOW OF CAIUS COLLEGE, AND OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



[Read May 18, 1829.] 



XT must be a source of great regret to those who have made 

 themselves acquainted with the present state of Acoustics, to rind 

 the various investigations concerning the mechanism of the hu- 

 man voice leading to such unsatisfactory and even contradictory 

 results. For from whence may more instructive lessons in that 

 science be expected than from an apparatus which is capable of 

 producing sounds in every variety of pitch, quality, and intensity, 

 from the most exquisite music to the most execrable noise ; an 

 apparatus of no extraordinary dimensions, and one moreover of 

 which the greater part is exposed to our observation during the 

 various changes of form which it assumes whilst in action. Never- 

 theless the laws which connect these changes of form with the 

 production and variation of the sounds are hitherto obscure. To 

 account for this, we are compelled to refer to two considerations ; 

 on the one hand, the instrument of the voice is not exclusively 

 appropriated to its production, but is also evidently adapted to the 

 performance of functions far different and more important to the 

 animal economy; and, on the other, the explanation o( the phe- 



IV. IV. Part III. Tt 



