82 ‘The Voice and its Modifications. 
refuted by a ventriloquist, for constant or frequent inspirations ren- 
der it impossible to perform. Fournier believed that by some sing- 
ular movement of the glottis, sound was carried into the lungs and 
this appears to be only the opinion of Haller, rendered a little more 
mysterious. ‘The theory is so contrary to all the principles of phil- 
osophy and physiology, that its mere recital is enough to condemn it 
in the view of those acquainted with the organization of man. Des- 
pincy believed that the glottis is open and the epiglottis pressed down. 
If this position were unaltered during the performance or, to speak 
more correctly, during the effort to speak, articulation could be 
shown to be impossible, and much less could the voice go through the 
varied tones of the ventriloquist. 
Baron Manger, an excellent ventriloquist, was the first to give an 
idea of the art, and although he did not speak as an anatomist or 
physiologist, yet had others followed the clue he gave them, (A. D. 
1772,) they might have been spared all their hypotheses. He said 
that he stored in his throat a quantity of air which he used with great 
labor. Now all know that air must have been retained in his lungs, and 
the pressing it out, at will, could not have been caused by the larynx, but 
by the action of the diaphragm and muscles of expiration. After 
this statement, physiologists neglected what ventriloquists had offered, 
and still attempted to work out an exposition of their own, without 
appealing to him that practised the art. Magendie thought it consist- 
ed of certain modifications of sound or speech, produced by a larynx 
of the common formation, with a strict attention to the different effects 
of sound thrown at different distances and through different modes 
of conveyance. 
Here we have a maze of words and no exact knowledge is com- 
municated from such expositions. Good thought ventriloquism, to 
be an imitative art, founded on aclose attention to the almost infinite 
variety of tones, articulations and inflexions, which the glottis is capa- 
ble of producing in its own region alone, when long and dexterously 
practised upon. But the art appears not to be always gained by 
practice, for | have heard ventriloquists say, that chance not disci- 
pline developed to them the possession of this art. When itis assert- 
ed, that the glottis or larynx is tbe only agent which is called into 
operation, the assumption is unsupported by examination. Hooper 
maintains, that ventriloquists have no organization different from that of 
other men; this assurance is unsupported by investigation, and if true, 
it amounts only to negative evidence. Ido not maintain, that the 
