80 The Voice and its Modifications. 



pendent on this organ that it will be proper to give it some attention. 

 The larynx is an irregular tube somewhat resembling a truncated 

 cone. It is composed of the two arytenoid, the thyroid and the cri- 

 coid cartilages, besides the epiglottis, making in all five cartilages 

 with their ligaments, nerves, veins and absorbents, also nine muscles, 

 two glands and four arteries, and their branches; all these are also 

 separately essential, to the perfection of the human voice and gene- 

 rally the absence or diseased state of one of these parts has a stri- 

 king influence on the tones. Hunter proved, that the music of the 

 males of singing birds was produced partly by a greater develope- 

 ment of the muscles of the larynx. 



Women have a smaller larynx than men and some physiologists 

 have made the difference greater, than is actually found by examin- 

 ation. 



Females of licentious habits lose so far their effeminate vocal dis- 

 tinctions, as to have little in their utterance, to distinguish them from 



males. 



Age exerts no inconsiderable power in altering the tones, for in- 

 fancy, puberty, manhood and the senile state bring with them their 

 peculiar intonation. 



Not only the use of the muscles of the larynx, but the exercise 

 of the muscles of the chest as we see in the blacksmith, increases the 

 power of the voice. The size of the chest, lungs and trachea all 

 bear on the force of the utterance and to demonstrate this, we have 

 only to allude to the lion whose capacious trachea and the mus- 

 cular strength of whose chest, render his roaring an object of terror 

 to the beasts of the forest. On the other hand when the quantity of 

 air emitted is small and the velocity diminished, the sounds become 

 soft and low, and make an impression on the ear like an echo, because 

 the vibrations are not so rapid. This consideration is important in 

 explaining the art of ventriloquism, which we shall shortly notice. 



In grave tones, the velum palati is lower, leaving the entrance to the 

 larynx more open, the larynx is depressed, and the cavity of the 

 mouth is elongated : the contrary occurs in the acute sounds, the 

 passage to the nose is more obstructed by the ascent of the velum 

 palati, the larynx is raised, the opening of the glottis decreased and 

 the rapidity of the air, passing through it is increased, and the depth 

 of the oral cavity diminished. 



Thus we see that the extent of the vocal cavities and their position 

 have great effect on the voice, and this should not be lost sight of in 

 treating of ventriloquism. 



