492 
which, under certain circumstances, 
may be produced,) such vibration would 
not be at all affected by the change of 
position, or the part of the body that 
was brought into immediate contact 
with such chair, upon which the speaker 
was seated. 
But the most interesting experiments 
upon this part of the subject, in a prac- 
tical point of view, are those that illus- 
trate the power of volition, and the 
influence of attitude, in modifying those 
particular vibrations. And it may fairly 
be prognosticated, that whoever will 
try, with diligent attention, the effect of 
alternate erection, or protusion, and 
relaxation or compression of the chest, 
will find that considerable modifications 
of tone take place from such alterna- 
tions ; and that particularly, by drawing 
the shoulders very tightly back, erect- 
ing the neck, and throwing out the 
chest, while the whole body is bent for- 
ward, and the breast, to a considerable 
degree, inflated by the partial suppres- 
sion of expiration, a drum-like hollow- 
ness and firmness will be given to the 
intonation, highly favourable to certain 
degrees of descriptive or impassioned 
expression. 
“* And ever and anon he beat 
The doubling drum with furious heat.” 
In short, it will be found, that be- 
sides the original impelling vibrations 
of the larynx, the aggregate voice of 
each individual is a composition of 
palateal, nasal, maxillary and pectoral 
tones; that all and each of these— 
though partly dependant upon pecu- 
liarities of organization — are, also, 
partly controllable by volition, and ca- 
pable of being regulated by mere atten- 
tive impulse: though too generally re- 
signed to the mere influences of habit 
and unconscious imitation. At any 
rate, it will not be denied by any atten- 
tive experimentalist, that the mixture 
of such various elements, in various 
proportions, produces the infinite. va- 
rieties of human voices; and, finally, 
that, inasmuch as volition has the 
power of interfering with the tension 
and actions of the respective organs in 
which the respective tones originate, 
it is in the power of well directed culti- 
vation to correct what is offensive, and 
improve whatever is agreeable in every 
voice :* a subject that will be further 
* The power of a well-directed and 
intelligent volition to remedy even the 
offensive intonation which results from 
The Anatomy of Speech. 
[July 1, 
pursued in a future lecture. The pre- 
sent shall conclude with a brief ab- 
stract of the theory of Mr. Gough. 
“ The different vibrations, which are 
excited by the joint operation of the several 
organs in action” (the larynx, the cavity of 
the mouth, &c.), ‘pass along the bones 
and cartilages, from the parts in motion to 
the external integuments of the head, face, 
neck and chest ; from which a succession of 
similar vibrations is imparted to the con- 
tiguous air—thereby converting the supe- 
rior moiety of the speaker’s body into an 
extensive seat of sound: contrary to the 
general opinion, which supposes the pas- 
sage of the voice to be confined to the 
opening of the lips.”” Henee—“‘if a man 
standing in a close apartment, should hap- 
pen to apply his face to a loop-hole, or 
narrow window, in order to speak to some 
person in the open air, a bystander in the 
room with him will hear his voice, not 
indeed in its natural tone’’—(for all the 
stronger and more characteristic pulses 
proceed in a different direction, and can 
never reach his ear),—‘‘ but as if it were 
smothered, by being forced to issue from 
a hollow case."’ In short, the bystander 
within receives only the secondary “ vibra- 
tions, conveyed through the solid parts of 
the speaker’s body.” —Mancu. MEm., vol. 
v. Part II. p. 645, &c., On the Method of 
Judging, by the Ear, of the Position of Sono- 
rous Bodies: by Mr. JOHN GovucH. See, 
also, Part I. same vol. p. 58, On the Variety 
of Human Voices: by the same ;—Part II. 
p- 663, Theory of Compound Sounds ;—and 
also the correspondence between Mr. Gough 
and myself on this subject, Monthly Mag. 
yol. xviii. part i. p. 9; which has been 
since republished in my “ Letter to Mr. 
Cline.” 
In short, “the necessity of admitting 
the tone of the larynx to receive various 
modifications from the vibrations of the 
adjacent parts,’ must be sufficiently 
evident to all who descend into any 
philosophical analysis of the subject; 
and the only difficulty is, in point of 
theory, whether the voice be, as Dr. 
Young has considered it, “a compound 
by coalescence of tones, differing among 
themselves in specific and primary qua- 
lities;’? or whether, according to Mr. 
Gough, it be, in reality, a mere “ mix- 
ture of imperfect unisons.” 
[End of the Second Lecture. ] 
The ensuing Lectures treat of the Organs of 
Enunciation, or the Anatomy of Elemen- 
tary and Verbal Utterance. 
Organic Defect (fissure of the palate, &c. ), 
belongs to a much more advanced stage of 
the inquiry. 
