V O I 



Saxe Gotha. What the name and dignity of a vogt im- 

 ported in thofc ancient vogts of the empire is not yet agreed 

 among the learned. One of the moft probable conjeftures 

 is, that this dignity of a vogt was an hereditary office be- 

 longing to the empire, and the vogts themfelves fubordinate 

 to the palatine of the Rhine, as arch-vogt of the empire. 

 No lefs uncertainty exiils concerning the epocha of this title, 

 though it appears to have been ufed in the ilth century, 

 the ancient Itatutes of the town of Weyda having been 

 given to it in the year IC27, by Henry, vogt of Weyda. 

 Towards tlie middle of tiie 14th century this title was dif- 

 continued. 



VOGULES, a tribe or nation of Finns, who inhabit 

 the wellern, and, in a greater degree, the eaftern part of the 

 northern Ural, and nomadize chiefly about the rivers which 

 unite with tlie Irty{h and the Oby to the Frozen ocean, or 

 with the Kama and the Volga into the Cafpian, and there- 

 fore piincipally in the governments of Perma and Tobolfl< : 

 they call themfelves Voguli, or according to M. Georgi 

 Manfi, and are denommated by the Ruffians VoguHtlchi. 

 They allege their traditions m evidence of their having 

 always refided where they are now found : and they came 

 under the Ruffian fovereignty previoully to the conqucll of 

 Siberia, at which time they were fo brave and warlike, that 

 they were with difficulty fubdued. For fome time they 

 were thought to be the fame with the Olliaks ; but in exift- 

 ing documents, which are more than 300 years old, they 

 are fpecified as a diltiniSt nation. All the ftems of the Vo- 

 gules, difperfed in various diftridls, taken colledUvcly, com- 

 pofe a numerous nation, of unafcertained population. The 

 Vogules nomadizing in the circle of Tfcherdyn, in the go- 

 vernment of Perma, amounted in the year 1783 to no more 

 than 1 1 1 pcrfons, compohng nine families, and fo nearly 

 related in confanguinity, that they were obliged to fetch 



women to be their wives from other races. Tooke's Ruffia, 



vol. i. 



VOHBURG, a town of Bavaria; 10 miles E. of In- 



goldlladt. 



VOHEMARO Bay, a bay on the illand of Madagaf- 



car. S. lat. 12=25'. E. long. 51° 8'. 



VOHENSTRAUS, or Fohenstraus, a town of Ba- 

 varia, in the principality of Sulzbach ; 8 miles E. of 



Weiden. 



VOHIRIA, in Botany, Juff. Gen. 141, a barbarous 



name, altered, if not improved, from Aublet's Voyria. See 



JLlTA. 



VOHL, or VoMl.n, in Geography, a town of Heffe 

 CaiTel ; 5 miles W. of VValdeck. 



VOHLENBACH, a river which runs into the Lau- 

 chart, 2 miles N. of Voringen, in the principallity of Ho- 

 hen/.oUern. 



VOICE, Vox, in Phyfwlogy, a found produced in the 

 throat and mouth of an animal, by an apparatus of inllru- 

 ments for that purpofe : or, it is the found produced by 

 the paflage of the air through the rima glottidis of the 

 larynx. 



Voices are cither articulate or Inarticulate. 



Voices, Articulate, are thofe of which leveral confpire 

 together to form fome affi;mblagc, or little fyllem of fo\inds. 

 Such are the voices cxpreffing the letters of an alphabet, 

 numbers of which, joined together, form words. 



VoiCKs, Inarticulate, are fiich as are not organized, or 

 afTembled into words ; fiich is the barking of dogs, the 

 braying of affi'S, the luffing of ferpents, the finging of 

 birds, &c. 



The formation of the human voice, with all its varieties 

 obfcrvcd in fpecch, mufic, &c. makes a very curious article 



V O I 



of invefligation ; and the apparatus and organifm of thf. 

 vocal parts which contribute to the formation of mufical 

 tones, conllitute a very complicated and furprifing anatomi- 

 cal article of enquiry. 



The ftrufture and mechanifm of the larynx adapted to 

 this purpofe are defcribed under Lakvnx ; which fee. But 

 as the fubjcft is curious and important, we fhall here refume 

 it, and furuilh the reader with a connefted detail of fome 

 obfervations, that may ferve farther to elucidate this opera- 

 tion of nature. The human voice depends principally on 

 the vibrations of the membranes of the glottis, excited by 

 a current of air, which they alternately interrupt and fuffer 

 to pafs ; the founds being alfo modified in their fubfequent 

 progrefs through the mouth. The parts fubfervient to the 

 formation of found are, the trachea, or wind-pipe, through 

 which the air palTes and repaflies into the lungs ; and which 

 ferves, as it were, for a bellows ; the larynx, which is a 

 (hort cylindrical canal, at the head of the trachea, particu- 

 larly defcribed, with its cartilages, &c. under that article ; 

 and the glottis, which is a little oval cleft, or chink, ovec 

 which the epiglottis inclines backwards, as it afcends from 

 its origin at the upper part of the thyroid cartilage. Within 

 the glottis are extended its ligaments, contiguous to each 

 other before, where they are inferted into the thyroid carti- 

 lage, and capable of diverging confiderably behind when- 

 ever the aretynoid cartilages feparate. Thefe ligaments, as 

 they vary their tendon, in confequence of the motions of 

 the aretynoid cartilages, are fufceptible of vibrations of 

 various frequency, and as they vibrate, produce a continuous 

 found. Properly fpeaking, there are two ligaments on each 

 fide ; but this mode of operation is not fully underflood ; 

 probably one pair only performs the vibrations, and the 

 other affifts, by means of the little cavity interpofed, in 

 enabling the air to aft readily on them, and in communi- 

 cating the vibrations again to the air. 



Thclong canal of the trachea, terminated at the top 

 with the glottis, appears fo like a flute, that the ancierts 

 made no doubt but the trachea contributed the fame to the 

 voice, as the body of the flute does to the found of that in- 

 flrument. Galen himfelf fell, in fome meafure, into the 

 miflake : he perceived, indeed, that the principal organ of 

 voice was the glottis ; but he flill allowed the trachea acon- 

 fiderable fliare in the produftion of found. 



Galen's opinion was followed by all the ancients after 

 him, and even by all the moderns, before M. Dodart. But 

 that author obferves, that we do not either fpeak or fing, 

 when we infpire, or take in the air, but only when we ex- 

 pire, or expel it ; and that the air, coming out of the lungs, 

 paffes always out of the minuter veficlcs of that part into 

 larger ; and at laft into the trachea itfelf, which is the 

 largcil of all : that thus its patfage becoming Itill more free 

 and eafy, and this more than ever in the trachea, it can 

 never undergo fuch a violence, and acquire fuch a velocity 

 in that canal, as is required to the jiroduftion of found ; 

 but that, as the aperture of the glottis is very fmall, iit 

 comparifon with the width of the traciiea, the air can never 

 get out of the trachea by the glottis, without a vail con.- 

 preffion, and augmentation of its velocity ; and that, by 

 this means, in paffing, it communicates a bride agitation, to 

 the minute parts of the two lips of the glottis, and gives 

 them a kind of fpring, and occafions them to make vibra- 

 tions ; which, communicated to the paffing air, arc \\h;.t 

 really occalion the found. 



Tiiis found, thus formed, proceeds into the cavity of iho 

 mouth and nollriis, where it is refledU-d and refounds ; anil 

 on this refonance, M. Dodart fliews, it is, that tha agree- 

 ablcnefs of the voice entirely depends. The different con, 



fiflcncits, 



