254 



ON VOICE AND LANGUAGE ; 



inaction of the vital organs ? Because in the "present instance, as in every 

 instance of suspended animation from hanging- or drowning, the vital princi- 

 ple, whatever it consist in, had not ceased, or deserted the corporeal frame. 

 It continued visible in its effect, though invisible in its essence and mode 

 of operation. 



Let us apply this remark to the subject immediately before us: it will 

 serve as a ready clew to its intricacies. In many animals, then, and in 

 most vegetables, the living principle often continues in the same man- 

 ner to reside in and to actuate the organic frame ; while the vital functions, 

 as they are called, and, in conjunction with these, all the other functions 

 of the system, remain inactive, not for an hour only, but for months and some- 

 times for years. It does so in the seeds of plants and the eggs of animals, so 

 long as they are capable of germinating or pullulating. It does so in most 

 animals, and perhaps in all vegetables, that sleep or become torpid during the 

 winter-season ; for though in a few hibernating animals, as the hedgehog and 

 Alpine marmot, we trace a small degree of corporeal action from their ap- 

 pearing thinner on returning to activity in the spring, the greater number, 

 like dormice and squirrels, exhibit no diminution whatever. It does so, in a 

 more extraordinary manner, in the ears of blighted corn ; which, though inca- 

 pable of filling and fattening, and seemingly lifeless and effete, still contain a 

 seed that may be rendered productive of a sound and healthy increase. It 

 does so in various species of the moss ; in various species of the snail, in one 

 or two of the snake, in the wheel-polype, sloth, and tile-eel, and a variety of 

 other animals and animalcules, that, like many of the preceding, have been 

 kept apparently dead and in the form of dried preparations, totally destitute 

 of irritability, altogether withered, and in substance as hard as a board for 

 months and years, — in some instances as long as twenty years, — and have 

 afterward been restored to life and activity upon the application of warmth, 

 moisture, or some other appropriate stimulus.* 



These are extraordinary facts, and may be -difiicult to be comprehended; 

 but they are facts, nevertheless, and may be proved at any time and by any 

 person. But there is a fact still more extraordinary, and of infinitely higher 

 moment ; and one in which we are all infinitely more interested — a fact to 

 which these remarks naturally lead, and which they may serve in some de- 

 gree to illustrate; it is the termination of the sleep of death, the resurrection 

 of the body from the grave. 



LECTURE Vin. 



ON VOICE AND LANGUAGE ; VOCAL IMITATION, AND VENTRILOQUISM. 



Language, in the fullest scope of the term, is of two kinds ; natural and 

 articulate or artificial. The first belongs to most animals ; the last is pecu- 

 liar to man : it is his great and exclusive prerogative. This also is of two 

 divisions: oral or vocal, which constitutes speech; and literal or legible, 

 which constitutes "writing. The first of these divisions shall form our subject 

 for the present study ; the second we will examine in a subsequent lecture. 



At the root of the tongue lies a minute semi-lunar shaped bone, which, from 

 its resemblance to the Greek letter v, or upsilon, is called the hyoid or u-like 

 bone ; and immediately from this bone arises a long cartilaginous tube, which 

 extends to the lungs, and conveys the air backward and forward in the pro- 

 cess of respiration.! This tube is denominated the trachea or windpipe ; and 



* Snails revived after being dried fifteen years and more.— Phil. Trans. 1774, p. 432. . . 



See also Mr. Bauer's Croonian Lecture " On the Suspension of the Muscular Powers of the Vibno Tn 

 tici.— Phil. Trans. 1823, Art. i. He has revived this curious worm after perfect torpitude and apparrait ^ 

 death for five years and eight months, merely by soaking it in water. 



t Study of Medicine, vol i p. 457, edit. L 



