VOCAL IMITATION, AND VENTRILOQUISM. 



287 



mail himself to be possessed of a tongue, or even of an uvula, for the pur- 

 pose either of speaking or singing ; or ibr that of deglutition or taste. 

 In a course of ph} biological 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 v^ithout 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 cf the Vandals^ had exercised the same barbarity ; and 

 who had, notwithsti^nding, " perfectly retained their speech."! 



Upon the irruption of the Turks into Austria, in 1683, this cruelty 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 informed 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 immediately 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 pronunciation. This is d, case the more worthy of at- 

 tention, because the man had been so cruelly mutilated at the roof of the 

 mouth, that he could not swallow the smallest quantity of food, without , 

 thrusting'it into the esophagus with his forefinger, | 



In the third volume of the Ephemerides Germanicee, is another case of 

 a similar kind, and most credibly authenticoted. It relates to a boy that 

 had lost his tongue at eight years of age hy the small-pox, but was still 

 able to speak. The boy was minutely examined in a full court before 

 the members of the University of Saumur, in France, who had suspected 

 some deception ; the report, however, was found correct ; and the Uni- 

 versity, in consequence, gave their official attestation to it, in order that 

 posterity might have no room to doubt its validity. 



To these let me add one more instance that occurred in our own coun- 

 try, in what may be almost called our own day, and which is very minutely 

 detailed and authenticated in the Transactions of the Philosophical So- 

 ciety that were published between the years 1742 and 1747.§ The case, 

 as drawn up by Dr. Parsons, relates to a young woman of the name of 

 Margaret Cutting, of Wickham Market, near Ipswich, in Suffolk, who, 

 when only four years old, lost ^he whole of her tongue, together with the 

 uvula, from what is said to have 1 een a cancerous affection ; but who still 

 retained the power of speech, c p;:^iutition,j and taste, without any imperfec- 

 tion whatever ; articulating, indeed, as fl lently. and with as much correct- 

 ness as other persons ; and, hke the individual whose history is given by 

 Tullius, articulating those peculiar syllables which ordinarily require the 

 express aid of the tip of the tongue for exact enunciation. She also ^ 

 sang to admiration, and still articulated her words while singing, and could 



* Con. Tit. de Off. Praet. 



t Phil. Trans. 1742. p. 143 ; id. 1747. 651 ; in the Abridgment, viii. b8G ; ix. 375, 

 i Tulpii Observ^. Medicae Amsterd. ' 

 § In their abridged form, vol. viii. 586. andix, 375, 



