On the Variety of Voices. 
BY MR. JOHN GOUGH. 
Communicated by Dr. HotmeE, 
READ JAN. 8, 1796. 
Te variety of voices is perhaps as great as the 
variety of features: and, like the countenance, it 
serves as a personal distinction, to which all men 
have recourse under certain circumstances; and 
those that are deprived of sight, by cultivating a 
more delicate sense of the modification of sound 
under consideration, acquire a facility in discrimi- 
nating between man and man, in their intercourse 
with the world. This wonderful diversity* does 
not stand in need of a formal proof of its existence 
to be admitted as true; for no one who can hear is 
* The property of voice, which is the subject of the 
present paper, does not include the hoarse croaking me- 
thod of articulating, that occurs not unfrequently. This 
may be referred, in certain cases, to a natural or accidental 
imperfection in the larynx ; but the defect appears to arise 
more commonly from an ungraceful habit of speaking, 
which is acquired by imitation, and confirmed by negli- 
gence. This being premised, it will be easily understood, 
that the tone heard in the smooth uninterrupted tenor of 
the voice will constitute the subject of the present en- 
bs Ma 
