260 



ON VOICE AND LANGUAGE ; 



into the hands of Lewis Brabant, and felt some pleasure that by postponing 

 the payment for a day, he had at least been able to rescue the whole family 

 of the Cornus for the same sum of money as was at first demanded for his 

 father alone. The dexterous ventriloquist, having received the money, 

 instantly returned to Paris, married his intended bride, and told the whole 

 story to his sovereign and the court, very much to the entertainment of all 

 of them. 



It is certain, that hitherto no satisfactory explanation has been offered of 

 this singular phenomenon ; and I shall, therefore, take leave to suggest, that 

 it is, possibly, of a much simpler character than has usually been appre- 

 hended ; that the entire range of its imitative power is confined to the larynx 

 alone, and that the art itself consists in a close attention to the almost infinite 

 variety of tones, articulations, and inflections the larynx is capable of pro- 

 ducing in its own region, when long and dexterously practised upon, and a 

 skilful modification of these effects into mimic speech, passed for the most 

 part, and whenever necessary, through the cavity of the nostrils, instead of 

 through the mouth. The parrot, in imitating human language, employs the 

 larynx and nothing else ; as does the mocking-bird, the most perfect ventri- 

 loquist in nature, in imitating cries and intonations of ail kinds. 



But the parrot and the mocking-bird, it may, perhaps, be said, open their 

 mouths and employ their tongues, which the ventriloquist, on many occa- 

 sions, does not do ; and that hence the organ of the tongue is equally neces- 

 sary to inarticulate and to articulate language. 



Such, I well know, is the general opinion ; but it is an opinion opposed by 

 a variety of incontrovertible facts, and facts of a most important and singular 

 nature, though they have seldom been attended to as they deserve. 



Every bird-breeder knows that it is not necessary for birds to open their 

 bills in the act of singing, except for the purpose of uttering the note already 

 formed in the larynx, that would otherwise have to pass through the nostrils, 

 which, in birds, prove a much less convenient passage for sound than in man ; 

 and of so little' use is the tongue towards the formation of sound, that 

 instances are not wanting of birds that have continued their song after they 

 have lost the entire tongue by accident or disease. But without dwelling 

 upon these points, which are of sub rdinate consideration, I pass on to ob- 

 serve, and to produce examples, that it is not absolutely necessary for a man 

 himself to be possessed of a tongue, or even of an uvula, for the purpose 

 either of speaking or singing ; or for that of deglutition or taste. In a course 

 of physiological study, and in a lecture upon the nature and instruments of 

 the voice, this is an inquiry, not only of grave moment, but immediately 

 issuing from the subject before us. 



Among almost innumerable instances of persons who have been able to 

 articulate and converse without a tongue, too loosely recorded in ancient 

 times to be fully depended upon, we occasionally meet with examples that 

 are far better entitled to our credit. Such is the assertion of the Emperor 

 Justin,* who affirms, that he had seen venerable men " whose tongues having 

 been cut out at the root, complained bitterly of the torture they had suffered;" 

 and who tells us, in another place, of some others, upon whom Honorichius, 

 king of the Vandals, had exercised the same barbarity; and who had, not- 

 withstanding, "perfectly retained their speech."! 



Upon the irruption of the Turks into Austria, in 1683, this cnielty was again 

 put in practice upon many of those who unfortunately fell into their hands. 

 Tulpius, whose veracity no man will lightly impeach, was at this time in- 

 formed that one of the sufferers had escaped, and had recovered, and was 

 still in possession of the use of speech, and residing at Wesop, in Holland ; 

 and, half doubtful of the truth of the common report, to Wesop he imme- 

 diately set off, to satisfy himself by a personal examination. He saw the man, 

 and found that he could not only speak, but could articulate those consonants 

 and words which seem chiefly to depend upon the tip of the tongue for their 



• Coa. Tit. 4e Off. Prst. t 'Phil Trans, 1742, p. 143 ; ib. 1747, 621 ; in the Abridg. viu. 586 • ix. 375. 



