1804.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
B* ‘permiffion of the writer, I trans- 
mit, for infertion in your refpectable 
Mifcellary, a communication with which 
I have recently been favoured by that 
well known fcientific phenomenon, Mr. 
John Gough. “fhe ingenious eflay ‘On 
the Caufes of the Variety of the Human 
Voices,” communicated, fome years ago, 
by that gentleman, to the Literary and 
Philofophical Society of Manchefter, is of 
courfe well known to a numerous clafs 
of fcientific readers, to whom the Me- 
moirs of that once active and flourifhing 
inftitution heretofore prefented a fund 
of rational amufément. The theory of 
unifons and fecondary vibrations by which 
that eflay fo ingenioufly accounts, firft 
‘for the different tones of different inftru- 
ments of the fame nominal and appa- 
rent ftructure, and thence, by inference 
and analogy, for the diverfities of tone 
fo remarkable in different human voices, 
muit have carried its conviction to the mind 
of every fcientific mufician and every 
reflecting obferver of thofe characterittic 
varieties which that theory profeffles to 
explain. With the fpeculative theorems 
of that effay the praétical obfervations 
of the enfuing letter are naturally and 
intimately connected: and the judicious 
obfervations it contains, receive additi- 
onal intereft from the fource whence 
they are derived. Cut off, in his 
earliet infancy, from all intercourfe 
with the world of knowledge and obfer- 
vation, through the cultomary inlet, the 
organ of fight, Mr. Gough has been 
induced by the co-operation of this pri- 
vation with his ardent and infatiable 
thirft of- feience, to cultivate with ex- 
treme diligencethe fupplementary faculties 
of hearing and of touch. The acute 
perfection to which the latter of thefe 
has been improved and expanded, has 
been fufficiently demonftrated by the ex- 
tent to which he has carried his praétical 
refearches into the minute f{cience of 
botany.; and the exquifitenefs of his per- 
ceptions in the other kind—the prompti- 
tude with which ‘he difcovers the flature 
of the mereft ftranger by the firft re- 
foundings of his voice (of which I have 
myfelf been witnefs), and the facility with 
which he recognizes the prefence, and 
dileriminates the identity of his acquainr- 
ance, by merely liftening to their refpec- 
tive breathings, equally illuftrate the 
unprecedented degree of improvement to 
which he has expanded his hearing facul- 
ties: fo that Mr. Gough is, in reality, 
MontTHLY MaG, No, 111. 
Mr. Thelwall and Mr. Gough on the Voices == § Q 
one of thole demonftrative inflances of the 
omnipotency of mental energy, who 
juftify the apparent hyperbole, with which 
I occafionally ftimulate the perfeverance 
of my pupils—that where determined 
effort and enthufiaftic diligence are not 
wanting, the blemifhes of phyfical nature 
effectively difappear, ‘the blind them~ 
felves are penetrating ; and the mute have 
tongues of fire!” aa 
The communication originated (as will 
be apparent from the context) from the 
circumftance of Mr. Gough’s attendance 
upon my Lecture, ** On the Education 
and Management of the Organs of Voice,” 
during the fhort ‘courfe of Leétures 
(eight in number) that I have recently — 
delivered in the town of Kendal “ On the 
Science and Praftice of Elocution ;”’ and, 
the fuggeftion of the writer is perfedily 
correct, that his remarks will tend to the 
improvement of my theory. With that . 
theory, however, thofe remarks are in 
perfect confonance. In a previous Lec- 
ture «* On the Stru€éture, Phyfiology, and 
Offices of the Organs of Speech,’? which 
Mr. Gough (the remotenefs of whofe 
refidence interfered with the regularity 
of his attendance) did not happen to 
hear, the fecondary vibrations of the 
human voice through the whole of the 
cavities and fibres of the head were 
exprefsly traced ; the refpeftive charac- 
teriftic tones were fpecified, and demons 
ftrated, in their connexion with. the 
refpective organs of promulgation and 
modification, (the rvaf, the noftrils, the 
maxillaries, &c.) and the prattical ap- 
peal to the coléateral evidence of the 
fenfe of touch, by the application of 
the finger to the vibrating fibres of the 
head, during the fpecific intonations, was . 
dictated for the confirmation of the faét, 
Beyond this effential member of the 
animal frame, I confefs, however, that 
my refearches into the ramificaticns. of 
the organ of voice had never, been ex- 
tended. The obfervations of my corres 
{pondent expand the theory through a 
ftill wider circuit; and the extenfion is 
demonftratively juft. The fuggeftion. of 
the expanfion of fonorous power, and 
confequent diffufion of found, through a 
wider circuit, in proportion to the num- 
ber (not loudwe/s) of the vibrating uni 
fons, and of the application of the powers 
of volition to the bringing of the refpec- 
tive vibratory fibres into the fate of 
unifon required, (which may. be ex- 
tended to every defcription of enuncia- 
tive effort, as well as to-the theatrical 
whifperiag to which it is. here applied) 
ey. will 
