﻿Head-sounds of the Human Voice. 291 



in bringing back immediately a fair chest-sound, the difference 

 being so remarkable that anybody in the next room could not 

 have believed the same person was speaking ; an inspection of 

 the larynx now showed both cords to meet well throughout their 

 whole length. For some time, however, my patient did not re- 

 tain his chest-voice ; so that I had several opportunities of con- 

 firming the correctness of this observation. I then lost sight of 

 him for some weeks, during which time his voice remained good ; 

 but he finally again applied to me, his speech having relapsed 

 into the falsetto sound. I now observed with the laryngoscope 

 that the anterior half of the left cord was at fault, a chink re- 

 maining visible between the anterior portions of the cords during 

 the act of phonation. On the application to the larynx of a so- 

 lution of iodine in olive-oil, the chest-voice was again brought 

 back, and both cords were seen to come into mutual contact 

 throughout their whole length. The cause of this relapse was due 

 to a swelling of the left side of the larynx (left false cord), extend- 

 ing to the true cord and interfering with its movements. I find 

 in Sir Duncan Gibbs's book on diseases of the throat the ac- 

 count of two cases of what he calls double voice, apparently due 

 to a similar circumstance. In one of them the motion of the 

 left vocal cord was sluggish, slowly coming into action, approxi- 

 mation beginning more at its posterior third. In the other the 

 left vocal cord was narrowed and contracted near its attachment 

 to the arytenoid cartilage, and did not meet its fellow at that 

 situation during phonation. 



A case of cracked voice, due to a state of swelling of the cords, 

 has also come under my notice ; but the falsetto sound was not 

 so well marked as it had been in the other instance. 



I now thought of inspecting the throat of a professional Ty- 

 rolese singer while singing falsetto or head-notes; and one 

 of the well-known Tyrolese artists now giving concerts at St. 

 James's Hall, and possessed of the power of singing head-notes 

 in a high degree of perfection, kindly acceded to my request 

 to submit himself to a laryngoscopic examination. I had a 

 fair view of his larynx ; but the irritability of his throat pre- 

 vented me from making so close an examination as I should 

 have liked. His vocal cords were beautifully developed, and the 

 action of his laryngeal muscles was full and rapid ; he had some 

 little difficulty, as might have been expected, in singing with 

 the laryngeal mirror in the mouth ; still he succeeded with 

 his head-notes. I could then see the cords considerably short- 

 ened and applied tightly against each other throughout the 

 whole of their length ; this was attended with a rapid play of 

 the laryngeal muscles. 



How are we now to apply the facts reported in the present 



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