76 The Voice and its Modifications. 



Art. VII. — The Voice and its Modifications, (more particularly 

 Ventriloquism) briefly considered ; by Robert Tolefree, Jr. 



Reason and speech are the characteristic prerogatives of man and 

 although the latter may be acquired by some animals to limited ex- 

 tent, nevertheless it is merely imitative with them. The brutes may 

 learn to pronounce the name of an individual person and may per- 

 ceive, in time, that this sound raises the attention of the person de- 

 signated ; or they may be taught by frequent repetition, that some oth- 

 er sound corresponding with the articulation of some particular word 

 may gain something which they may desire, yet when made to com- 

 bine words which they may have been instructed to repeat, these ani- 

 mals are destitute of a knowledge of their conjoined signification. 

 The ideas have not assisted them in preserving an accurate recollec- 

 tion of the arrangement, for they learn a concatenation of even fa- 

 miliar sounds without any reference to the import of their component 

 parts. Man however when taught the use of words can bring forth, 

 combinations entirely new and appropriate, while inferior animals 

 scarcely ever utter other significant sounds than those with which 

 they are acquainted, and should words happen to be combined by 

 them differently from any thing they had heard, this strange and un- 

 meaning collocation would not occur to a mad man. ' All who have 

 listened for some time to a loquacious parrot will be convinced of 

 the truth of this statement. It may be objected to my distinction be- 

 tween man and brutes that many persons can learn sentences, pas- 

 sages and even long poems in their native tongue by simply employ- 

 ing the ear. This is not to be denied, and we must reply that the 

 man whose memonics are based on vocal distinctions only, has little 

 to rank him among the human family whose exalted criterion is res 

 non verba. 



From the foregoing statement it is plain, that the acquirement of 

 language is very limited among inferior animals and this curtailed gift 

 can be possessed by very few. Man however, from conversation to 

 declamation from recitative to singing, enjoys this faculty to the great- 

 est extent, and the permutations of which each of these are suscep- 

 tible are very extensive. In declamation, a greater portion of air 

 passes through the larynx ; there is more resonance not only from 

 the increased velocity and the augmented quantity of air, but from 

 the position of the mouth and velum palatij a more considerable vi- 



