376 



to watch the motions* of the lips and the tongue $ his hand to feel the 

 vibrations^ and the utterance of sound: and thence he must learn to use 

 his organs of speech : this has been done. What Pereira had begun, Si- 

 card has brought to perfection; and such command of articulate sounds 

 has been given to the deaf and dumb by birth, as has enabled them to 

 utter words and connected discourse. Even something of inflection of 

 strong and weaker tones has been taught them by using the arm as a re- 

 gulator, as pedals are employed to modify the touches of the piano-forte. 



But instruction to the deaf and dumb must be given them by another 

 language. Written language they learn, not as a representative of speech, 

 but as hieroglyphic characters for ideas; and a manual language, in which 

 each letter is expressed by the position of the fingers or hands, is used as 

 a more convenient and rapid representation of that hyeroglyphic language 

 of written characters. It is by this that conversation with them is best 

 carried on ; and it is with an ease and rapidity which astonishes those, 

 who, for the first time, are witnesses to the use of it. 



To conclude this chapter, I have still to speak of a phenomenon, well 

 worthy, by its singularity, of the attentiou of physiologists. It is known 

 under the name of -ventriloquism, because the voice weak, and little sono- 

 rous, appears to issue from the stomach. There was at the Palais-Roy- 

 al, at the Coffee-house de la Grotte, a man, who could carry on a dia- 

 logue so naturally, that you would think you were listening to the conver- 

 sation of two people, at some distance from -one another, and quite 

 different in voice and tone. I have observed, that he was not inspiring 

 while he spoke from his belly, but that less air came from his mouth and 

 nostrils than in his ordinary speaking. Every time that he did so, he 

 found a swelling in the epigastric region; sometimes he felt wind mov- 

 ing lower down, and could not go on long together without fatigue. 



I had at first conjectured that, in this man, a great part of the air driv- 

 en out by expiration, did not issue from the mouth and nasal fossae, but 

 that, being swallowed and carried down into the stomach, it struck 

 against some part of the digestive tube, and produced a real echo, but 

 having since observed, with the greatest care, this curious phenomenon 

 in Mr. Fitz-James, who exhibits it in the highest perfection, I have satis- 

 fied myself that the name of ventriloquism no way suits it; since its 

 whole mechanism consists in a slow, gradual, attenuated expiration, 

 whether for that purpose the artist employ the power of the will upon 

 the muscles of the parietes of the chest, or whether he hold the epiglot- 

 tis slightly lowered, by means of the root of the tongue, of which he 

 scarcely brings the point beyond the dental arches. 



I find this long expiration always preceded by a strong inspiration, by 

 means of which he introduces into his lungs a large quantity of air, of 

 which he afterwards husbands the use. Accordingly, repletion of the 

 stomach is a great hindrance to the action of Mr. Fitz-James, by pre- 

 venting the descent of the diaphragm which the chest would require, to 

 dilate itself for the full quantity of air the lungs should receive. 



By accelerating or retarding expiration, he can imitate different 

 voices, make it seem that the speakers, in a dialogue, which he carries on 



* It is known, that old men, grown deaf; fix their attention very closely on the mo- 

 tions of the lips, as well as on the varying 1 expressions of the i'ace, to see the words as 

 well as thoughts of those who are speaking. Author's JVbte 



