288 



ON VOICE AND LANGUAGSJ, &c. 



form no conception of the use of a tongue in other people. Neither were 

 her teeth, in any respect, able to supply the place of the deficient organs ; 

 for they were but few in number, and rose scarcely higher than the surface 

 of the gums, in consequence of the injury to their sockets from the disease 

 that had destroyed the tongue. The case thus introduced before the 

 Royal Society, was attested by the minister of the parish^ a medical prac- 

 titioner of repute, and another respectable person. From its singularity, 

 however, the Society evinced a commendable tardiness of belief. They 

 requested another report upon the subject, and from another set of wit- 

 nesses, whom they themselves named for the purpose ; and for whose 

 guidance they drew up a line of categorical examination. This second 

 report soon reached the Society, and minutely coincided with the first ; 

 and to set the question completeh' at rest, the young woman was shortly 

 afterwards brought to London, and saiisfied the Royal Society in her own 

 person.* 



It appears obvious, then, that the tongue, thoour -i natoral and common 

 organ in the functions of voice, taste, and degluti ion, is not absolutely ne- 

 cessary to these functions : that on various occasions it has been, and, 

 therefore, may be, totally lost, while the functiony themselves continue 

 perfect. 



In singing, every one knows that the larynx is the only organ employed, 

 except when the tones are not merelv uttered but articulated : it is the 

 Ciily organ employed, as 1 have alreac y observed, in the mocR articulations 

 of parrots and other imitative birds , it i? che only orgari of all natural 

 tones, or natural language ; and hence Ij -rd Men! oddo ingeniously con- 

 jeiiiures, that it is the chief organ of aiticuiate langiage in its rudest and most 

 barbarous state As natural crjes,' be observes, even though .modu- 

 lated by m isic, are from the throat and la -ynx^ or part of the throaty with 

 little or no operation of the organs of the -nouth ; it is natural to suppose 

 that the first ia.iguages were, for the greater part, spoken from the throat ; 

 and that what consonants were used to vary the criss, were mostXy guttural ; 

 and that the organs of the mouth would at first be but very httle em- 

 ployed."t 



I have thus endeavoured to account for the chief difificulty, and the most 

 extraordinary phaenomenon that occurs in the art of Ventkiloquism,! that 

 I mean of speaking without appearing to speak, on discovering any motion 

 of the lips : the larynx aloue, by long and dexterous practice, and per- 

 haps by a peculiar modification in some of its muscles, or cartilages, being 

 capable of answering the purpose and supplying the place of the associate 

 organs of the mouth. 



It is this curious power, in the art of ventriloquism, that most astonishes 

 us, and puts us off* our guard ; for tbe two other powers connected with 

 it, of imitating various cries or voices, and of appearing to throw the voice 

 from remote objects, are far more common and comprehensible. The 

 power of vocal imitation where the tongue is allowed to-be employed is 

 possessed, by most persons, to a certain extent ; and, by many, to a de- 



♦ Stud, of Med. i. 499, Edit. i. where other examples are noticed, 

 t Orig. am) Progr. of Lang. vol. i, 6. iii ch. 4. 



j According to M. Magendie, whose work first appeared in our own country seren years 

 after the delivery of the above Lecture, in 1811, the larynx is supposed to be the organ chiefly 

 or altogether operated upon in France : and ventriSoquism to consist in adjusting the ojea- 

 sure of its ai ticulations according to the effects which the ventriloquist has observed that 

 distance, or other cirtuuastances, produce upon the natural yoice. See Edin. Med. and 

 Surg. Journ. Ixi. 577» 



