272 Mr. Bishop's Experimental Researches into 



placed at either extreme of the grave or acute termination of 

 these octaves. The vocal tube would then have to pass through 

 very disproportionate spaces. Suppose, for example, the grave 

 octave were C; to arrive at the G of the next succeeding oc- 

 tave the organs would require to ascend a twelfth ; or had they 

 been placed at the opposite extreme, to descend a fourth ; but 

 as they are now adjusted, it would only be necessary, for the 

 accomplishment of the same tone, to ascend a fifth, or descend 

 a fourth. 



The pitch or key of the vocal organs, at the point of rest, is 

 the basis which determines the different characters of voices 

 recognised by musicians. Accordingly we find that what are 

 denominated the bass, the barytone, the tenor, the counterte- 

 nor, &c. amongst males, and the soprano, mezzo soprano, and 

 soprano sfogato amongst females, are variations of pitch which 

 give an enlarged compass of voice for the purposes of melody, 

 and fill up the musical intervals between the gravest and most 

 acute voices. 



Ferrein, Fetis, and other French authors have observed 

 that specific characters of voice are peculiar to certain locali- 

 ties. In Picardy, for instance, the finest bass voices occur. 

 Languedoc, and Toulouse, with its environs, are celebrated 

 for tenors ; whilst in Burgundy and Franche-Comte, female 

 voices of the first quality are found. No cause has hitherto 

 been assigned for these peculiarities, which do not appear to 

 exist in this country. 



All these modifications of the voice are dependent upon the 

 key of its fundamental tone. We may estimate the average 

 compass of tones comprised between the lowest notes of good 

 bass voices, being about the C string of the violoncello, and 

 the most acute of female voices, reaching C on the second 

 leger line above the G clef, to be four octaves ; but there are 

 individuals who can exceed these two extremes. 



M Biot calculates thi-ee octaves and a half to be the extreme 

 range, but this I know from experience to be too low an esti- 

 mate. 



The power with which the vocal organs are thus endowed, 

 of varying and modulating the grave and acute tones of the 

 voice, has been from an early period a principal subject of 

 inquiry. Aristotle and those who followed him, till the com- 

 mencement of the last century, were of opinion that the acute 

 tones of the voice depend upon the relative velocity, quantity, 

 and temperature of the air passing through the glottis, com- 

 bined with the size of its chink *. This theory was adopted 



T^xsw?, (icipucc li h TO) (i^otbiuf. — Aristotelis Opera, lib. 2, Problematum, 

 sect. xi. 



