JUNE 7, 1901.] 
material thus collected. The fishes have al- 
ready been described in the Report of the U. 
S. Fish Commission just published ; and of the 
other forms which were sent to the various 
universities for examination and study, Dr. 
Hargitt reported on the material received here. 
The collection comprises the ‘ Aleyonaria,’ and 
among the forms were several genera new 
to American waters, and six species new to 
science. The descriptions of all these will be 
published in the Reports of the Fish Commis- 
sion during the present summer. 
Puitie F. SCHNEIDER. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE LARYNX AS AN INSTRUMENT OF MUSIC. 
In the American Journal of Science for April, 
1901, Vol. XI., p. 302, an account was given of 
some speech curves that confirm the view that 
yowels are usually produced by intermittent 
puffs of air and not by vibrations of the form 
generally supposed. The following conclusions 
were reached : (1) The movement of the air in 
the mouth cavity is a free vibration and not a 
forced one; (2) the impulses from the larynx in 
making vowels are of the nature of explosive 
openings or sharp puffs of air. It was shown 
that the characteristic mouth tones in vowels 
are generally inharmonic to the larynx tone. 
The elaborate vowel tracings of Professor 
Hermann (Konigsberg) and the late ones of 
Dr. Pipping (Helsingfors) had already proved 
that in song the mouth does not reinforce an 
overtone of the cord; my curves showed the 
same condition for ordinary speech. Similar 
results have been obtained by Boeke (Alkmaar), 
Bevier (New Brunswick), Donders (Utrecht), 
Merritt (Cornell), Samojloff (Moscow), and 
others, and can be seen in plates published by 
Nichols and Merritt (Cornell). The proof 
is on all sides complete and incontestible that 
Willis’s theory (‘Camb. Philos. Trans. ,’ 1830) of 
vowel formation is the correct one and that the 
theory of Wheatstone (‘Lond. and Westm. 
Rey.,’ 1837) iserroneous. Although the adoption 
of the Wheatstone theory led to numerous 
investigations and secondary hypotheses by 
Grassmann, Helmholtz and others, its pho- 
netic difficulties were never overcome. 
SCIENCE. 
918 
It was also pointed out that the structure of 
the larynx practically forbids any consideration 
of the vocal bands as membranous reeds. The 
accompanying figure is an outline section of the 
vocal muscles (aa) whose vibrations produce the 
tone in song and speech. They bear no re- 
semblance in structure or action to membran- 
ous reeds. When they are brought together by 
the action of the arytenoid cartilages, they 
close the passage of the larynx until forced 
apart by the air pressure. When this occurs a 
puff of air is emitted and they closeagain. The 
sharpness or smoothness of the puff is regu- 
lated by the contraction of the various portions 
of the thyro-arytenoid muscles which compose 
the vocal bands. The puffs in their physical 
forms resemble those that can be produced by 
a siren disk with differently shaped openings 
(Seebeck). 
Structures of the nature of the vocal bands 
yield to the air pressure and vibrate wholly or 
mainly bya side movement, and not by the flap 
or lateral movement of membranous reeds. 
Professor Ewald (Strassburg) has illustrated 
their action by constructing cushion pipes. 
That the vibratory movement affects the bands 
through most of their depth is shown by the 
nodal lines seen with the laryngo-stroboscope 
of Oertel (Munich). Helmholtz’s statement : 
‘(Tm Kehlkoffe spielen die elastischen Stimm- 
bander die Rolle membranoser Zungen. Sie sind 
von yorn nach hinten gespannt, ahnlich den 
Kautschukbandern * * * ,’? was based on the 
anatomical and physiological knowledge of the 
time at which he wrote the first edition of the 
‘Tonempfindungen.’ 
Professor Le Conte (California) in SciIENCE 
for May 17, N. §., Vol. XIII., p. 790, points 
out that he had already said that the larynx 
‘ cannot be likened toa stringed instrument nor 
