1GO 



[Nov. 20, 



EXTRACTS FROM A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MADAME SEILER, 

 BY HARRIET HARE MCCLELLAN. 



"In passing from the highest tones of the falsetto register, still higher to 

 the head tones, she was the first to observe a change in the motions of the 

 organ of singing, which she discovered to be due to a sudden closing to- 

 gether of i he vocal ligaments to their middle, 'with their fine edges one 

 over the other, leaving free only a third part of the whole glottis imme- 

 diately under the epiglottis, to the front wall of the larynx.' The fore- 

 most part of the glottis formed an oval orifice which with each higher tone 

 seemed to contract more and more, and so became smaller and rounder. 

 It was objected to this result of her observation that such a contraction of 

 the glottis was only possible by means of 'cartilages and muscles/ but 

 that such cartilages and muscles as could render an aciion of that kind 

 possible were not known. Madame Seller fully admitted the soundness 

 of this objection, while she was, after repeated trials, more and more con- 

 vinced of the correctness of her own observation; so she began anew to 

 study the anatomy of the larynx in dissected subjects and was rewarded 

 by finding within the membranes of the vocal ligaments certain fibres of 

 muscle which she called the aryteno-thyroid interna, and which have also 

 been found by other observers. They consist of muscular fibres, some- 

 times finer, sometimes thicker, and are often described in recent works on 

 laryngoscopy as continuations or parts of one of the principal muscles of 

 the larynx, but her chief discovery was of certain small cuniform carti- 

 lages within the membranes of the vocal ligaments, and reaching from 

 their junction with the arytenoid cartilages to the middle of the ligaments. 

 She states that she found these always in the female larynx, and that they 

 undeniably work the shutting part of the glottis, but as they are only 

 now and then fully formed in the male larynx, it follows plainly that only 

 a few male voices are capable of producing the head tones. She adds 

 that observation in the microscope revealed in those larynxes in which 

 the cuniform cartilages were wanting, parts of a cartilaginous mass or the 

 rudiments of a cartilage in the place indicated, and accounts for the car- 

 tilages not having been discovered earlier, by the fact that the male lar- 

 ynx was most commonly used by anatomists for investigation, as its mus- 

 cles are more powerful and its cartilages firmer than in the female larynx. 



"Thus she proved her point, and better still she succeeded, by patient 

 effort and persevering practice, of which she was unsparing now that she 

 had discovered the cause of her inability to sing [the attempt to carry up- 

 ward the throat tones beyond their proper limit] in once more recovering 

 her voice. Certainly if proof were demanded of the truth of her theory, 

 or the practical value of her method, it need be sought no further than in 

 the fact of her having succeeded so completely in the restoration of her 

 own voice, a task recognized by all singing teachers as infinitely more 

 difficult than the original training of an untried organ. At last she who 

 understood the art of singing could sing again and a glad song she 

 sang ! 



