462 MUSCULAR MOTION. 



ligaments must, therefore, be regarded as the essential organs of 

 voice. 1 



The interesting, but difficult problem now presents itself; to deter- 

 mine the precise mechanism of the vibration of those ligaments ; and 

 what kind of instrument the vocal organ resembles. The latter ques- 

 tion, on which, it might be conceived, so much physical evidence must 

 exist, has been a topic of dissension, and is not settled at this day. 

 Aristotle, 2 Galen, 3 and the older writers in general, looked upon the 

 larynx as a wind instrument of the flute 4 kind, in which the interior 

 column of air is the sonorous body; the trachea, the body of the flute; 

 and the glottis the beak. The air, they conceived, when forced from the 

 lungs, in passing through the glottis, is broken by the inferior ligaments 

 of the larynx; vibrations are, consequently, produced, and these give 

 rise to the sound. Fabricius, of Acquapendente, 5 was one of the first 

 to object to this view of the subject. He properly remarked, that the 

 trachea cannot be regarded as the body of the flute, but as a porte-vent 

 to convey air to the glottis. He was of opinion, that the glottis corre- 

 sponds to the beak of the flute, and that the vocal tube, or the part above 

 it, resembles the body of the instrument. Similar opinions, with more 

 or less modification, have been adopted by Blumenbach, 6 Sbmmering, 7 

 Savart, 8 &c. About the commencement of the last century, Dodart 9 

 laid before the Academic des Sciences of Paris three memoirs on the 

 theory of voice, in which he considered the larynx to be a wind instru- 

 ment of the horn, not of the flute, kind; the inferior ligaments of the 

 glottis being to the larynx what the lips are to the performer on the 

 horn. In 1741, Ferrein, 10 in a communication also made to the Aca- 

 demie des Sciences, maintained, that the larynx is a stringed instru- 

 ment; the sound resulting from the oscillation, caused in what he 

 called the chordse vocales or inferior ligaments of the larynx, by the 

 air in expiration; and a modification of this view was professed by Dr. 

 Young. 11 



At the present day, the majority of ^physiologists and natural philo- 

 sophers regard the larynx as a wind instrument, of the reed kind as 

 the clarionet, hautboy, &c., and they differ chiefly in explaining the 

 various modifications of the tone and quality of voice; for almost all 

 are agreed, that it is produced by the vibrations of the inferior liga- 

 ments of the glottis. 12 MM. Piorry and Jadelot, however, consider the 

 glottis an instrument sui generis, eminently vital, which, of itself, exe- 

 cutes the movements necessary for the production of vocal sounds. 

 All we know of the physiology of the production of voice is, that the 



I Precis, &c., i. 242. a Opera, lib. ii. Problemat., xi. 

 a Opera : de Larynge, lib. vii. 



* The flute, here alluded to, is the common flute or flute a bee, in which the embouchure is 

 at one extremity. 



s De Locutione, &c., in Oper., Lugd. Bat., 1737. 



6 Institutiones Physiologicae, 154, Golting., 1798. 



7 Icones Organorum Gustus et Vocis, Francof., 1808; and Corp. Human. Fabric., vi. 93. 

 s Journal de Physiologic, v. 367. 



9 Memoir, de 1'Acad. Royale des Sciences, 1700, p. 244, and 1707, p. 409. 

 '0 Ibid, pour 1741, p. 409, and Haller, Elem. Phys., ix. 3. 



II Lectures on Natural Philosoph., i. 400, and Philos. Trans., for 1800, p. 141. 

 12 Willis, in Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. iv. 



