THE VOICE AND SPEECH. 449 



ences in respect to the time that may be occupied in the irutterance ex- 

 ist in the vowel sounds, and principally constitute the differences of long 

 and short syllables. Thus the a as in "far" and "fate," the o as in 

 "go" and "fort," may be indefinitely prolonged; but the same vowels 

 (or more properly different vowels expressed by the same letters), as in 

 " can" and "fact," in "'dog" and " rotten/' cannot be prolonged. 



All sounds of the first or explosive kind are insusceptible of combina- 

 tion with vocal tone ("intonation"), and are absolutely mute; nearly all 

 the consonants of the second or continuous kind may be attended with 

 "intonation." 



Ventriloquism. The peculiarity of speaking, to which the term 

 ventriloquism is applied, appears to consist merely in the varied modifi- 

 cation of the sounds produced in the larynx, in imitation of the modifi- 

 cations which voice ordinarily suffers from distance, etc. From the ob- 

 servations of M tiller and Columbat, it seems that the essential mechanical 

 parts of the process of ventriloquism consist in taking a full inspiration, 

 then keeping the muscles of the chest and neck fixed, and speaking 

 with the mouth almost closed, and the lips and lower jaw as motionless 

 as possible, while air is very slowly expired through a very narrow glottis; 

 care being taken also, that none of the expired air passes through the 

 nose. But, as observed by Miiller, much of the ventriloquist's skill in 

 imitating the voices coming from particular directions, consists in de- 

 ceiving other senses than hearing. We never distinguish very readily 

 the direction in which sounds reach our ear; and, when our attention is 

 directed to a particular point, our imagination is very apt to refer to 

 that point whatever sounds we may hear. 



Action of the Tongue in Speech. The tongue, which is usually 

 credited with the power of speech language and speech being often 

 employed as synonymous terms plays only a subordinate, although very 

 important part. This is well shown by cases in which nearly the whole 

 organ has been removed on account of disease. Patients who recover 

 from this operation talk imperfectly, and their voice is considerably modi- 

 fied; but the loss of speech is confined to those letters, in the pronuncia- 

 tion of which the tongue is concerned. 



Stammering depends on a want of harmony between the action of 

 the muscles (chiefly abdominal) which expel air through the larynx, and 

 that of the muscles which guard the orifice (rima glottidis) by which it 

 escapes, and of those (of tongue, palate, etc.) which modulate the sound 

 to the form of speech. 



Over either of the groups of muscles, by itself, a stammerer may have 

 as much power as other people. But he cannot harmoniously arrange 

 their conjoint actions. 

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