902 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 77. 



piano, swell it to forte and diminish it again, 

 without getting off the pitch ? 



In regard to respiration an elaborate discus- 

 sion leaves one in doubt as to what method to 

 use, unless it be a slightly amplified natural 

 breathing, which is, of course, correct. The 

 author seems an advocate of ' chest resonance ' 

 as being very ef&cacious, whereas, in fact, it is 

 extremely difficult to see how vibrations in a 

 closed cavity of constantly changing volume 

 can be called resonance or can reinforce a 

 tone. A cavity to reinforce a tone must have a 

 definite volume and opening ; it must be open 

 to the air, else how could its resonance increase 

 the intensity of the tone outside ? 



Vocal resonators and their importance are 

 well emphasized and treated, except for the in- 

 clusion of the sinuses, antra and chest among 

 the reinforcing cavities. The latter part of this 

 chapter is especially good. 



Under ' tones and overtones ' a deal of acous- 

 tics is introduced which ought to be free from 

 such ideas as that " a simple fundamental tone 

 is not known in music," or that " there are also 

 lower partials or undertones." 



The chapter on registers is very peculiar and 

 inconsistent, and some remarliable ideas as to 

 the mutual action of the vocal cords and res- 

 onant cavities are put forward which will 

 scarcely receive the approval of physicists, even 

 though supported by a mass of supposed evi- 

 dence furnished by the stroboscope. The author 

 is continually referring to the voice as if it 

 were the result of reeds or membranes. The 

 voice has a mechanism to control the length, 

 tension and weight of the vocal cords; these are 

 the factors which control the pitch of a string. 

 The overtones in the voice belong to the series 

 in which the first overtone is twice the rate of 

 the fundamental, the second three and so on. 

 This is the series of string overtones. The pitch 

 of a reed depends upon its length, thickness and 

 elasticity ; the larynx has no means of varying 

 such factors. The series of overtones given by 

 a reed is different from that experimentally 

 found in the voice. 



We are thus forced to consider the vocal ap- 

 paratus as a stringed instrument. Under tone 

 placing we find Dr. Curtis' specialty, ' nodules of 

 attrition ' and their cure. His idea is that the 



cords rub together, irritating each other, tearing 

 each other, and even forming callous nodules. 

 These he removes in a few hours by simple ex- 

 ercises. Other throat specialists have not ob- 

 served these phenomena'; and indeed how shall 

 we believe a ragged or callous vocal cord could 

 be cured by any exercises in a few hours. 

 These ideas are fortified with numerous cuts of 

 photographs of the vocal cords that associate 

 none too well with the author's caustic remarks 

 about touching up photographs to meet ' pre- 

 conceived requirements.' Some of the advice 

 given in this chapter is, however, worthy of 

 approval. 



It is rather remarkable that, after an elaborate 

 discussion of the larynx, and breathing and the 

 rest, the author should ciuote with evident 

 approval Jean de Reske's epigrammatic state- 

 ment that, ' la grande question du chant devient 

 line question du nez.' All we can do with the 

 nose is to leave it open. 



The chapter on voice building doubtless con- 

 tains many good exercises and much good ad- 

 vice, inspired as it was by such a master of 

 tone production as Madame Melba. The con- 

 cluding chapter on voice figures contains numer- 

 ous pretty pictures and interesting matter which 

 is, however, foreign to the subject of the book. 



There is much that is good in the book, but 

 a desire to give a full discussion often leaves 

 one in serious doubt as to the correct conclu- 

 sions and renders it difficult for a novice to dis- 

 criminate between the good and the bad. 



W. Hallock. 



Ch'undriss der Krystallographie filr Studirende und 

 zum Selbstunterricht. By De. Gottlob Lince, 

 Professor of Mineralogy at the University in 

 Jena. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1896. 8°. VI. 

 and 255 pp. 2 colored plates and 482 figs. 

 Although the best treatises in crystallography 

 are to be found in the German language, 

 elementary text-books on the subject are as 

 rare in Germany as in England or America. It 

 is true that in nearly all books on mineralogy 

 the principles of crystallography are discussed 

 to some extent ; and that occasionally the dis- 

 cussion is of value to the student. But in the 

 great majority of cases it serves merely to 

 bother him and to give him a distaste for that 



