PHYSIOLOGY. 



culty. On the other hand, parr -s are 

 said, in two or ti.iee instances, to have 

 be 'aught, by vast labour, to produce 

 a kind of imitation ot" singing ; but no 

 barb,..roiis tribe Las been hitherto met 

 with, which lias not been accustomed to 

 employ singing as the natural expression 

 of their feelings and passions. 



Speech is a peculiar modification of the 

 voice, formed during the expulsion of the 

 air from the chest, chiefly by means of 

 the tongue, which is applied to the neigh- 

 bouring parts, as the palate and teeth, 

 assisted by the various motions of the 

 lips. A voice is common to brutes with 

 man; it exists already in the newly born 

 child, and has not been entirely wanting 

 in those miserable children, who have 

 grown up in a solitary and savage state, 

 or who have been born dumb. Speech 

 results from the enjoyment and cultiva- 

 tion of reason, and is, therefore, like 

 that endowment, a peculiar and distin- 

 guishing gift bestowed on man alone. 

 Instinct is sufficient for the purposes of 

 brutes ; but man, who does not possess 

 this, or several other assistances, in sup- 

 porting and defending himself by his own 

 powers, has received the endowments 

 of reason and speech. These have 

 brought him into the social state, which 

 seems to be his natural destination, in 

 which they enable him to utter his ideas 

 and impart his desires to others. 



Articulated sounds are represented by 

 letters that express all their power; and 

 it will be readily admitted that man 

 made a great step towards perfection, 

 when he invented these signs, adapted to 

 preserve and transmit his thoughts. 

 Sounds are expressed by the letters call- 

 ed vowels, which are letters produced 

 by the mere passage of the voice through 

 the mouth, requiring only a greater or less 

 Aperture of the mouth. Hence these are 

 the first that the child utters. The conso- 

 nants, which form the most numerous 

 class of the alphabet, serve to connect the 

 vowels, and are formed by a much more 

 artificial process. These are classed into 

 labial, nasal, oral, and lingual, according 

 to the parts more particularly employed 

 in their pronunciation. 



Stammering is a corruption of pronun- 

 ciation, arising from various causes. A 

 tongue too large and thick, diminished 

 power over its actions, as in drunkenness, 

 and unusual length of the frenum, belong 

 to this class. Yet sometimes the defi- 

 ciency does not seem organic ; at least, a 

 person who stammers will pronounce per- 

 fectly if he speaks slowly ; and it may 



even be entirely overcome by practice 

 and instruction. 



Similar causes give rise to lisping. 

 Want of the front 'teeth will have this ef- 

 fect. 



Dumbness may be accidental, or ma v 

 subsist from birth. In the former case* 

 it arises from organic injury, which af- 

 fects the mechanism of the parts. In 

 dumbness from birth, deafness seems to 

 be always the cause ; so that the absence 

 of speech should here rather be called 

 silence. This, at least, is constantly the 

 case, according to the observation of Si- 

 card, on the numerous pupils commiUecl 

 to his care. Here there is an absolute 

 ignorance of sounds, and of their repre- 

 sentative value in letters of the alphabet. 

 The vocal organs exhibit no marks of de- 

 ficiency ; they are fit, in short, to fulfil 

 the uses for which nature has destined 

 them, but thev remain in a state of inac- 

 tion, because the deaf infant is not con- 

 scious that he has the means of commu- 

 nicating his thoughts. 



Perhaps the mechanism of 'Ventriloquism 

 is not yet understood The following 

 quotation from Richerand's Physiology 

 will be sufficient to give the reader an 

 idea of the subject. 



" At first I had conjectured that a 

 great portion of the air expelled by expi- 

 ration did not pass out by the mouth and 

 nostrils, but was swallowed and carried 

 into the stomach, reflected in some part 

 of the digestive canal, and gave rise to 

 a real echo ; but after having attentively 

 observed this curious phenomenon, in 

 Mr. Fitz-James, who represents it in its 

 greatest perfection, I was enabled to con- 

 vince myself that the name ventriloquism 

 is by no means applicable, since the 

 whole of its mechanism consits in a slow, 

 gradual expiration, drawn in such a way 

 that the artist either makes use of the 

 influence exerted by volition over the 

 muscles of the parietes of the thorax, 01* 

 tli at he keeps the epiglottis down by the 

 ba.se ot' the tongue, the apex of which is 

 not carried beyond the dental arches. 



" He always makes a strong inspiration 

 just before this long expiration, and thus 

 conveys a considerable mass of air into 

 the lungs, the exit ot which he afterwards 

 manages with such address. Therefore 

 repletion of the stomach greatly incom- 

 modes the talent of Mr. Fitz,-James, by 

 preventing the diaphragm from descend- 

 ing .sufficiently to admit fa dilatation of 

 the thorax, in proportion to the quantity 

 of air that the lungs, should receive. By 



