PHYSIOLOGY. 473 



2884. A single world is dead, so also are many. 



2885. Words, which are connected together according 

 to organic laws, form an organic system, are at once alive, 

 and have a meaning. 



2886. Speech originates gradually like the organs, 

 like Man. Speech grows like a plant ; at first it is only 

 root, next it puts forth a stem, then leaves, and finally 

 blossoms, when it is the perfect expression of the animal 

 body. 



2887. The organ of speech is composed of the three 

 terrestrial organs of sense, the air-, water-, and earth- 

 sense. 



2888. The air-organs are the principal medium, 

 because they must produce the sonorous figures ; the 

 tongue imparts to them the specific modification ; but 

 the lips and jaws, as being motor members, afford the 

 articulation or the movement proper. The lungs and 

 nose breathe out the tones ; the tongue digests them ; 

 the lips move them, and fashion them into perfect bodies 

 words. 



2889. A word is at once for itself a regularly inter- 

 articulated body. The sounds are its members, its organs 

 or fundamental formations. 



2890. Speaking is a gentle respiration, carried on by 

 the mouth, nose, and limbs or jaws. 



2891. As respiration has a special thorax, so also has 

 speaking. The speech- (or voice-) thorax is the larynx. 



2892. The larynx represents the ribs and arms, which 

 all move in order to form a sound. The tongue is, so to 

 speak, the head upon this thorax. 



2893. The nose imparts euphony to the sounds. It 

 tests their fragrancy. The tongue gives them a special 

 quality, their chemical character or taste ; the teeth and 

 lips furnish the cadence as a kind of joint to the sounds, 

 or in other terms the words. 



2894. Four organs of sense belong to speech, viz : 



Touch in the Jaws. 

 Taste in the Tongue. 

 Smell in the Nose. 

 Hearing in the Ear. 



