S. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 167 
termine the three elements, carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine at a 
single combustion, without the introduction of any diffi 
hazardous manipulation, induces the belief that it will be found 
preferable to any other that has been devised. 
Art. XX V.— The Vowel Elements in Speech ; by SAMUEL PoRTER, 
of Hartford, Conn. 
THE division of the alphabetic elements into vowels and con- 
sonants is one which grammarians have ever been compelled to 
recognize, however hard they may have found it to mark the 
distinction by satisfactory definitions. The nature of the vowels 
is such, somehow, that every word must contain at least one of 
them. The same is true, for the most part, of syllables as well 
as words. The consonants J, n, r, m, do indeed occasionally 
take the place of a vowel in a dependent, unaccented syllable, 
times properly, and sometimes by a slightly incorrect pronunci- 
tion. Br nd no syllable under a full accent, is 
without a vowel. rare exceptions which may occur, as in 
ence in function rests upon a difference in essential nature,— 
what that is will be developed, in the sequel, as incidental to 
“mechanism of speech” may well denote the ob 
of inquiry. It is upon mechanical relations among the voca 
