516 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



Dr. Brachet contends that the muscular power of the extreme 

 bronchial twigs and air cells operates both in these violent and in 

 the ordinary degrees of respiration. He divided the spinal chord 

 in the neck of cats so that respiration ceased and was continued 

 artificially. He then applied hellebore to their nostrils, and little 

 expiratory shocks took place, very evident and necessarily inde- 

 pendent of the respiratory muscles. x 



Haller is well worth reading on these subjects, y 

 Most authors assert that the opening of the glottis enlarges at 

 inspiration and lessens at expiration; but Dr. H. Ley makes it 

 probable that, in simple and undisturbed breathing, the glottis 

 remains open. 2 In strong muscular efforts the glottis closes, that 

 the chest may be immovable. Swimming and leaping are shown 

 by M. Bourdon to be impossible unless it is closed ; for he pre- 

 vented them by inserting a tube into a wound made by him in 

 the trachea of poor brutes. 



Although, with the exception of mocking birds, brutes make no articulate 

 sounds, they have a language perfectly intelligible to one another. They 

 make one noise to express joy, another terror, another to summon their 

 young, &c., and comprehend the meaning of sounds made by us, not only 

 of an inarticulate kind, but also articulated. The sagacity of some dogs in 

 this respect is astonishing. " They learn to understand not merely sepa- 

 rate words or articulate sounds, but whole sentences expressing many ideas. 

 I have often spoken," continues Gall, " intentionally of objects which 

 might interest my dog, taking care not to mention his name, or make any 

 intonation or gesture which might awaken his attention. He, however, showed 

 no less pleasure or sorrow, as it might be ; and, indeed, manifested by his be- 

 haviour that he had perfectly understood the conversation which concerned him. 

 I had taken a bitch from Vienna to Paris; in a very short time she compre- 

 hended French as well as German, of which I satisfied myself by repeating be- 

 fore her whole sentences in both languages." 3 An accurate observer of nature, 

 and one familiar with brutes, Hogg, the late Ettrick shepherd poet, to substan- 

 tiate the same opinion, relates the following anecdote. He was going to visit 



* 1. c. p. 298. sq. 



y El. Physiol. lib. viii. sect. iv. p. xxx : xl. 

 z London Medical Gazette, June 27, 1834. 



Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, t. v. p. 49. sq. 



