82 The Voice and its Modifications. 



refuted by a ventriloquist, for constant or frequent inspirations ren- 

 der it impossible to perform. Fournier believed that by some sing- 

 ular movement of the glottis, sound was carried into the lungs and 

 this appears to be only the opinion of Haller, rendered a little more 

 mysterious. The theory is so contrary to all the principles of phil- 

 osophy and physiology, that its mere recital is enough to condemn it 

 in the view of those acquainted with the organization of man. Des- 

 pincy believed that the glottis is open and the epiglottis pressed down. 

 If this position were unaltered during the performance or, to speak 

 more correctly, during the effort to speak, articulation could be 

 shown to be impossible, and much less could the voice go through the 

 varied tones of the ventriloquist. 



Baron Manger, an excellent ventriloquist, w r as the first to give an 

 idea of the art, and although he did not speak as an anatomist or 

 physiologist, yet had others followed the clue he gave them, (A. D. 

 1772,) they might have been spared all their hypotheses. He said 

 that he stored in his throat a quantity of air which he used with great 

 labor. Now all know that air must have been retained in his lungs, and 

 the pressing it out, at will, could not have been caused by the larynx, but 

 by the action of the diaphragm and muscles of expiration. After 

 this statement, physiologists neglected what ventriloquists had offered, 

 and still attempted to work out an exposition of their own, without 

 appealing to him that practised the art. Magendie thought it consist- 

 ed of certain modifications of sound or speech, produced by a larynx 

 of the common formation, with a strict attention to the different effects 

 of sound thrown at different distances and through different modes 

 of conveyance. 



Here we have a maze of words and no exact knowledge is com- 

 municated from such expositions. Good thought ventriloquism, to 

 be an imitative art, founded on a close attention to the almost infinite 

 variety of tones, articulations and inflexions, which the glottis is capa- 

 ble of producing in its own region alone, when long and dexterously 

 practised upon. But the art appears not to be always gained by 

 practice, for I have heard ventriloquists say, that chance not disci- 

 pline developed to them the possession of this art. When it is assert- 

 ed, that the glottis or larynx is tbe only agent which is called into 

 operation, the assumption is unsupported by examination. Hooper 

 maintains, that ventriloquists have no organization different from that of 

 other men; this assurance is unsupported by investigation, and if true, 

 it amounts only to negative evidence. 1 do not maintain, that the 



