MONTHLY 
MAGAZINE, 
OR 
BRITISH REGISTER. 

es 


No. Wi—For APRIL, 1796, 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ie your laftt Magazine, a correfpondent, 
who fiens Scrutator, propofes a difficul- 
ty for folution, which has occurred to 
him, concerning the place in which the 
human voice is formed. Having, as he 
fays, the higheft deference to written 
guiborities, he has propofed the ftory of 
the pippin-woman, of Orpheus, of Phi- 
lomela, and of a Brabancon gentleman, 
all of whofe beads {poke after they were 
cut off, as phenomena which fome of 
your readers may poffibly explain, and 
upon which they may form a new doc- 
trine concerning the formation of the 
Voice. 
_ Although, fir, it will not be in my 
power to give Scrvtaior all the fatisfac- 
tion he is entitled to expeét from him 
who prefumes to anfwer his letter, yet 
as I alfo pay a great deference to written 
autborites, 1 will not cut the argument 
fhortly off, by enquiring into the truth 
of thefe marvellous relations. I am too 
fond of a new theory, to give it up merely 
becaufe it may chance to depend more 
upon fancy than fact. Befides, fir, for 
the pippin-woman’s pofihumous exclama- 
tion we have the authority (and the only 
authority | know) of our ingenious coun- 
tryman Gay, who, in his very excellent 
and ufeful poem, entitled Zrwa, hath 
thus recorded that memorable event : 
** Doll every day had walk’d thefe treacherous 
i roads*, in 
Her neck grew warpt beneath autumnal loads ~ 

* The Thames, when frozen oyer. 
Monruty Mac.No. UI, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Of various fruit: fhe now*a bafket bore : 
That head, alas! fhall bafket bear no more. 
Each booth fhe frequent paft in queft of gain, 
And boys with pleafure heard her fhrillmg 
ftrain. 
all mortals muft refign, their 
breath, 
And induftry itfelf fubmit to death, 
The cracking cryftal yields; the finks, fhe 
dies ; 
Her head, chopt off, from her loft fhoulders 
flies : 
Pippins fhecry’d, but death her voice confounds, 
And pip, pip, pip, along the ice refounds,”’ 
Ah! Doll! 
If fuch authority as this is to be 
regarded, and the other ftories are 
founded upon what may be reckoned as 
good, I fhall, with Scrutator, take for 
granted, that we have fallen into an 
error refpecting the place where the 
voice is formed, although we may not, 
perhaps, be able to fix upon the right 
place after all. We have heard—per- 
haps we have heard with our ears, the 
ventriloquifis. It is impoffible that fuch 
men can lofe their voices by fimply lofing 
their heads, bez organs of {peech being 
placed at fo great a diftance from that 
part of the body, that I cannot conceive 
any other method of effe€tually filencing 
them, than by embowelling them, after 
the manner of great men. Again, fir, 
we have not only inftances of men fpeak-~ 
ing with their breaits (I do nor mean 
fpeaking fiom the beart, for that is a 
metaphorical expreffion, and not much 
underftocd) but we have a very ingeni- 
ous folution given of this: phenomenon 
by Rolandus, in that elaborate work, 
entitled, Aploffofomographia. We there 
RNa fays, 
