486 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



maintenance of the same " pitch," cannot be rendered greater 

 by merely increasing the force of the current of air through 

 the glottis; for increase of the force of the current of air 

 cceteris paribus, raises the pitch both of the natural and the 

 falsetto notes. Yet, since a singer possesses the power of in- 

 creasing the loudness of a note from the faintest " piano " to 

 " fortissimo " without its pitch being altered, there must be 

 some means of compensating the tendency of the vocal cords 

 to emit a higher note when the force of the current of air is 

 increased. This means evidently consists in modifying the 

 tension of the vocal cords. When a note is rendered louder 

 and more intense, the vocal cords must be relaxed by remission 

 of the muscular action, in proportion as the force of the cur- 

 rent of the breath through the glottis is increased. When a 

 note is rendered fainter, the reverse of this must occur. 



The arches of the palate and the uvula become contracted 

 during the formation of the higher notes ; but their contraction 

 is the same for a note of given height, whether it be falsetto 

 or not ; and in either case the arches of the palate may be 

 touched with the finger, without the note being altered. Their 

 action, therefore in the production of the higher notes seems to 

 be merely the result of involuntary associate nervous action, 

 excited by the voluntarily increased exertion of the muscles of 

 the larynx. If the palatine arches contribute at all to the 

 production of the higher notes of the natural voice and the 

 falsetto, it can only be by their increased tension strengthen- 

 ing the resonance. 



The office of the ventricles of the larynx is evidently to afford 

 a free space for the vibrations of the lips of the glottis ; they 

 may be compared with the cavity at the commencement of the 

 mouth-piece of trumpets, which allows the free vibration of 

 the lips. 



SPEECH. 



Besides the musical tones formed in the larynx, a great 

 number of other sounds can be produced in the vocal tubes, 

 between the glottis and the external apertures of the air-pas- 

 sages, the combination of which sounds into different groups 

 to designate objects, properties, actions, &c., constitutes lan- 

 guage. The languages do not employ all the sounds which 

 can be produced in this manner, the combination of some 

 with others being often difficult. Those sounds which are 

 easy of combination enter, for the most part, into the forma- 

 tion of the greater number of languages. Each language con- 

 tains a certain number of such sounds, but in no one are all 

 brought together. On the contrary, different languages are 



