VOICE TIMBRE. 475 



this variety of voice. 1 Mr. Gough 2 attempts to explain the phenomenon 

 upon the principle of echoes : the ventriloquist, he conceives, selects a 

 room, well disposed for echoes in various parts of it, and produces false 

 voices, by directing his natural voice in a straight line towards such 

 echoing parts, instead of in a straight line towards the audience, who 

 are supposed, by Mr. Gough, to be placed designedly by the ventrilo- 

 quist on one or both sides of him. A sufficient answer to this is, that 

 the practised ventriloquist is careless about the room chosen for his 

 exhibitions ; and habitually performs where this system of echoes would 

 be totally impracticable. 



But it is well to inquire what the ventriloquists themselves say of the 

 mechanism of their art. We pass over the explanation of Baron von 

 Mengen, an Austrian colonel, who forms a kind of vocal organ between 

 his tongue and his left cheek, if we understand his description correctly, 

 and keeps a reservoir of air in his throat to throw the organ into vibra- 

 tion. His object must evidently have been to mislead. 



In 1811, M. L'Espagnol, a young physician, maintained a thesis on 

 this subject before the Faculte de Medecine of Paris, which may be 

 regarded as at least an honest exposition of his belief regarding the 

 mode in which the phenomenon was effected in his own person. Ac- 

 cording to him, the whole is dependent upon the action of the velum 

 pendulum palati. In ordinary voice, he remarks, a part of the sound 

 passes directly through the mouth, whilst another part resounds in the 

 nasal fossae. If we are near the person who is speaking, these two 

 sounds strike equally and almost synchronously upon the ear; but if at 

 a distance, we hear only the first of the two sounds; when the voice 

 appears more feeble, and, especially, has another timbre, which experi- 

 ence makes us judge to be that of the voice at a distance. The differ- 

 ence, says M. L'Espagnol, between the voice that proceeds from a near, 

 and that from a more distant object is, that in the former we hear the 

 mixture of the two sounds; whilst in the latter we hear that sound 

 only, which issues directly from the mouth. Now, the secret of the 

 ventriloquist is, to permit this direct sound only to pass to the ear, and 

 prevent the nasal sound from being produced, or at least from being 

 heard ; and this is done by the elevation of the velum pendulum palati : 

 the vocal sound does not then resound in the nasal fossae ; the direct 

 sound is alone produced ; the voice has the feebleness and timbre that 

 belong to the distant voice, and is judged to proceed from a distance; 

 and if, during the performance, it seems to come from any determinate 

 place, it is owing to the ventriloquist attracting attention to it: the 

 voice itself need only appear to proceed from a distance; and this it 

 does more or less, according as the pendulous veil has more or less com- 

 pletely prevented the sound from issuing by the nasal fossae. The 

 ventriloquist thus, according to M. L'Espagnol, makes the voice appear 

 nearer or more remote at pleasure, by raising or depressing the velum 

 palati. He denies, that he speaks with his mouth closed ; and affirms, 

 that he articulates, but to a trifling extent only. 



1 Baly and Kirkes, Recent Advances in the Physiology of Motion, the Senses, Generation, 

 and Developement, p. 11, Lond., 1848. 



2 Manchester MemoirSj 2d edit., v. 622, Lond., 1789. 



