V E N 



voice. The fimilarity of effeft which connefls this pheno- 

 menon with ventriloquifm convinced the author, whenever he 

 lieard it, that what we know to be the caufe in one inftance 

 is alfo the caafe in the other, viz. that the echo reaches the 

 car, while the original found is intercepted by accident in the 

 cafe of the bells, but by art in the cafe of the ventriloquift. 

 In order that the caufe which gives rife to the amufing 

 tricks of this uncommon talent may be pointed oat with the 

 greater clearnefs, it will be proper to defcribe certain cir- 

 cumftances that take place in the aft of fpeaking, becaufe the 

 Ikill of the ventriloquift feems to confift in a peculiar manage- 

 ment of them. Articulation is the art of modifying the found 

 of the larynx, by the affiftance of the cavity of the mouth, 

 the tongue, teeth, and lips. The different vibrations, which 

 are excited by the joint operation of the feveral organs in 

 aftion, pafs along the bones and cartilages, from the parts 

 in motion to the external teguments of the head, face, neck, 

 and cheft ; from which, a fucceflion of fimilar vibrations is 

 imparted to the contiguous air, thereby converting the fu- 

 perior moiety of the fpeaker's body into an extenfive feat of 

 found, contrary to general opinion, which fuppofes the paf- 

 fage of the voice to be confined to the opening of the lips. 



When an orator addreffes an audience in a lofty and 

 fpacious room, his voice is refledled from every point of the 

 apartment, of which all prefent are made fenfible by the 

 confufed noife that fills up every paufe in his difcourfe ; 

 neverthelefs, every one knows the true place of the fpeaker, 

 becaufe his voice is the prevailing found at the time. But 

 were it poflible to prevent his words from reaching any one 

 of the audience direftly, what would then follow ? Un- 

 doubtedly a complete cafe of ventriloquifm would be the 

 confequence, and the perfon fo circumftanced would tranf- 

 port the orator, in his own mind, to the place of the prin- 

 cipal echo, which would perform the part of the prevailing 

 found at tlie inftant. This he would be obliged to do, be- 

 caufe the human judgment is bound, by the diftates of 

 experience, to regard the perfon as infeparable from the 

 voice ; and the deception in queftion would be unavoidable, 

 being produced bv the fame concurrence of caufes which 

 makes a peel of bells, fituated in a valley, feem to change 

 place in the opinion of a traveller. It is the bufinefs of a 

 vctnloquifl to amufe his admirers with tricks refembling the 

 foregoing delufion ; and it will be readily granted, that he 

 has a fubtle fenfe, highly correfted by experience, to ma- 

 nage, on which account the judgment muft be cheated as 

 well as the ear. This can only be accomplidied by making 

 the pulfes, conftituting his words, Itrike the heads of his 

 hearers, not in the right lines that join their perfons and his. 

 He muft, therefor;, know how to difguife the true direc- 

 tion of his voice, becaufe the artifice will give him an op- 

 portunity to fubftitute almoft any echo he chufes in the 

 place of it. But the fuperior part of the human body has 

 been already proved to form an extenfive feat of found, from 

 every point of which the pulfes are repelled, as if they di- 

 verged from a common centre. This is the reafon why 

 people, who fpeak in the ufual way, cannot conceal the 

 direction of their voices, which in reality fly off towards all 

 points at the fame inftant. The ventriloquift, therefore, 

 by fome means or other, acquires the difficult habit of con- 

 trafting the field of found within the compafs of his lips, 

 which enables him to confine the real path of his voice to 

 narrow hmits. For he, who is mafter of the art, has no- 

 thing to do but to place his mouth obliquely to the com- 

 pany ; and to dart his words, if the expreffion may be ufed, 

 againft an oppofing objeft, whence they will be reflefted 

 immediately, fo as to ftrike the ears of the audience from an 

 iinexpefted quarter, in confequence of which the rcfleftor 

 I 



V E N 



will appear to be the fpeaker. Nature feems to fix no 

 bounds to this kind of deception, only care muft be taken 

 not to let the path of the direft pulfes pafs too near the 

 head of the perfon who is to be played upon ; for, if a line, 

 joining the exhibitor's mouth and the reflefting body, ap- 

 proach one of his ears too nearly, the divergency of the 

 pulfes will make him perceive the voice itfelf, inftead of the 

 reverberated found. 



The author has given the following narrative of a ventri- 

 loquift, whom he attended in the exercife of his art. His 

 audience was arranged in two oppofite lines, correfponding 

 to the two fides of a long narrow room. The benches on 

 which they were feated reached from one end of the place 

 to the middle of it, the other part remaining unoccupied. 

 The feats exhibited by him were the three following. 

 Firft : he made his voice come from behind his audience, 

 but it never feemed to proceed from any part of the wall, 

 near the heads of the people prefent ; on the contrary, it 

 was always heard refembling the voice of a child, who 

 feemed to be under the benches. He ftood during the time 

 of fpeaking in a ftooping pofture, having his mouth turned 

 towards the place from which the found iffued ; fo that the 

 line, joining his lips and the reflefting objeft, did not ap- 

 proach the ears of the company. Second : advancing into 

 the vacant part of the room, and turning his back to the 

 audience, he made a variety of noifes, that feemed to pro- 

 ceed from an open cupboard which ftood direftly before 

 him, at the diftance of two or three yards. Third : he 

 placed an inverted glafs cup on the hands of his hearers, and 

 then imitated the cries of a child confined in it. His method 

 of doing it was this ; the upper part of the hearer's arm 

 laid clofe along his fide ; then the part below the elbow was 

 kept in a horizontal pofition, with the hand turned down- 

 wards, which was done by the operator himfelf. After 

 taking theie preparatory fteps, the man bent his body for- 

 wards in a fituation which prefented the profile of his face 

 nearly to the front of his hearer, whilft his mouth pointed to 

 the cup ; in which pofture he copied the voice of a confined 

 child fo completely, that three pofitions of the glafs were 

 eafily diftinguifhed by as many different tones, viz. when 

 he preffed the mouth of the cup clofe againft the palnj, 

 when one edge of it was elevated, and when the veffel was 

 held near the hand, but did not touch it. The fecond and 

 third inftances of ventriloquifm afford ftrong proofs, that 

 this delufive talent is nothing more than the art of fubfti- 

 tuting an echo for the primary found ; for, befidcs the 

 change perceivable in the direftion of the voice, it was found 

 to be blended with a variety of fecondary founds ; fuch as 

 we know by experience are produced, as often as a noife of 

 any kind iffues from a cavity. 



The method of preventing the vibration of the vocal 

 organs from reaching the external teguments is ftill wanting, 

 as our author acknowledges, to complete his theory of 

 ventriloquifm ; and this, he prefumes, can only be fupplicd 

 by an adept in the art. 



VENTRY, in Geography, a fmall town of the county of 

 Kerry, Ireland, fituated on a harbour to which it gives 

 name, on the Atlantic ocean. It is 4^ miles W. of Dingle. 



VENTURINE, or Adventurine, is fometimes ufed 

 for the fineft and flendereft gold wire, ufed by embroiderers, 

 &c. 



When reduced into powder, as fine as it can be clipped, 

 or filed, this powder may be ftrewed on the firft layer of 

 pure varnifli, made ufe of in japanning, after the varnifh is 

 dry, in order to lay any colour over it. 



VENUE, or Venew, in Law, a neighbouring or near 

 olace. hocus quern vicnii hahitaat. 



Thus 



