33-] [ 343 ] 



CHAP. XXXIII. 



THE VOICE. 



I/iJlrament of tie Fcicc hi the Animal B ",{<;. -~ T/v Larynx.-*-Expcr:- 

 ments on tbc Windpipes of dijj'cf -;>:t A-nm^h. Whether the Larynx 

 atfs as a <vuind or ft ringed Injirument, Singing, hoiv performed. 

 . Whijpering* * . 



AL, L, animals, as far as our obfervations extend, 

 have the power of communicating their fenfa- 

 tions or ideas to each other, and the principal means' 

 of this communication is the voice. Man is indebted 

 to this function for the fatisfaction official inrercourfe, 

 and in a great meafure alfo for his diftinguifhed pre- 

 eminence above other animals in mental acquire-* 

 ments. 



The inftrument of the voice is the larynx, and the 

 immediate occafion of it is, the expulfion of the air 

 from the lungs through this organ exciting a vibratory 

 motion in the whole larynx, but more particularly in 

 the ligaments which pafs from thefcutiform to the ary- 

 tenoid cartilages. - That the larynx is really the inftru- 

 ment of the voice has been fully proved by an ingenious 

 anatomift * of our times, who, after detaching the 

 windpipe from the bodies of different animals, by re- 

 laxing or fhortening the tendinous bands at the extre- 

 mity of the windpipe, and blowing in at the oppofite 

 end, found means to produce all the different cries and 

 Cones of which the living animals were capable. On 

 the different ftructure of the larynx depends the differ- 

 ent voices of animals 5 thus birds, which have a fhrill 



* Ferrein. 



Z and 



