air in issuing from the lungs produces that state of vibration which causes vocal sound. In the ordinary state, when we are not attempting to speak or read aloud, the breath passes and repasses through them freely, without any sound whatever being produced. In order to produce sound at all, they must be brought into what is properly called the vocalizing position. They are acted upon in different ways by various minute muscles connected with the several cartilages, of which I have already given you a brief description. Now when they are brought into this vocalizing position, their precise relation to each other and the air which is passing out between them is so marvellously and delicately modified as to produce all the variety of high and deep notes in the musical scale, which we exemplified in the fullest degree in the cultivated singer. This seems to be effected chiefly by their vibration and their elongating or contracting, narrowing or expanding. I may observe that the laryngoscope, as it is named, invented by Professor Czermak, of the city of Prague, has very beautifully confirmed this theory, and has thrown much light, in every sense of the word, upon the functions of the more deeply situated organs which are concerned in the production of vocal sound. The instrument, and the various physiological phenomena already ascertained by it, will be found fully described in an article by Dr. G. D. Gibb, which appeared in "The Lancet" of September the 29th, 1860.*

But this is not all that is concerned in the production of sound. There is the glottis, which is the name given to the sonorous opening between two cartilages of the larynx and is situated just above the ligaments forming the vocal chords. It is provided with wonderfully delicate muscles by which it is contracted or expanded. At the period

*FALSETTO VOICE.-Dr. Marcet, of the Brompton Consumption Hospital, has been looking down the throat of one of the Tyrolese singers who have lately been warbling at St. James's Hall, the object of the inspection being to ascertain the physiological conditions which produce the beautiful falsetto notes for which the Swiss artists are celebrated. The observations were made by means of a laryngoscope, a little instrument whereof the principal member is a mirror placed at the back of the patient's mouth. It is pretty generally known that the human vocal apparatus consists of a pair of membranes situated horizontally in the throat, and just touching at their edges. A drum-head, with a slit across it, may convey a popular idea of them. In the act of singing, the lips of these cords, as they are called, are brought into contact, and they approach each other throughout their whole length and remain parallel. When they are set in vibration, by the passage of air through them, under these the ordinary conditions, a full chest note is emitted; but if they do not meet in their entire length, either a posterior or anterior portion of them remaining apart, the sound is no longer full, but feeble and shrill: the note emitted is what the stringed instrument player calls a harmonic, and what the singer calls a falsetto, or head note. The violinist who would bring out a harmonic, so touches a string that, instead of making it vibrate as a whole, he divides it into segments, each of which vibrates by itself, and emits the note due to its short length, instead of that which the full length of the string would yield. The same sort of thing appears to be done by the falsetto singer: the adept can at will shorten his vocal cords so as to pass instantly from any note to its harmonic. The muscular process by which this transition is effected is not clearly made out, so that it cannot be determined whether all singers are alike gifted with powers of head-singing equal to the Tyrolese, or whether Alpine melody grew out of peculiar capabilities of Alpine throats.-Once a Week.

when the boy becomes the young man, and the girl becomes the young woman, a marked change takes place in the size of the glottis as well as in the character of the tone produced by the vocal organs. Usually in less than a year at this period of life, the opening of the glottis increases in man in the proportion of five to ten, its extent being doubled both in length and breadth. In woman the change is not so remarkable in character; her glottis usually increases in the proportion only of about five to seven, which at once accounts for the much greater change which takes place at this time in the voice of man. As the glottis enlarges with the progress of years and the continual practice, on sound physiological principles, of public speaking or reading aloud, the voice becomes stronger, fuller, and deeper. In woman the voice always remains comparatively weaker and higher in pitch, her glottis being, according to the eminent physiologist Richerand, a third smaller than in man. Sometimes we meet with instances of men retaining in mature life the effeminate, cracked, falsetto, disagreeable voice which marked the period of puberty. In almost every case where there is no organic defect or malformation, a single course of lessons under a good elocution master, acquainted with the anatomy and physiology of the organs of speech, will remove the evil. The epiglottis is the uppermost of the five elastic cartilages forming the larynx, and its office is to direct the expired sound and to open and shut like a valve the aperture of the exterior glottis.

Such then is a brief description of the larynx and its functions, and these are manifestly so highly important in connexion with the production of voice, that the necessity is apparent to all that care should be taken by every one, but especially by the public speaker or reader, to avoid contracting bad habits in speaking or reading, which may in any way injure so wonderful and delicate an organ.

So much then as regards the general structure and action of the vocal organs. Now let me call your attention in the next place to what may be called distinctively the articulating or enunciative organs. By these terms I mean those organs by which the stream of sound is so modified and acted on after issuing from the larynx as to produce the several letters, which are the elements of human speech. A vowel is a simple sound formed by the impulse of the voice only, by the opening of the mouth in a particular manner, whilst a consonant is an interruption of the vocal sound arising from the application of the organs of speech to each other. Now all the articulating organs are found in the mouth, and consist of the tongue, the lips, the uvula, and soft palate, which are moveable, and the gums, teeth, and bony palate, which are fixed. It must be remembered that the cavity of the mouth is modified in various ways by the action of the tongue, as well as by the motion of the lower jaw. The influence of the passage from the nostrils must also be taken into consideration, for if this passage be not free. the purity, clearness, and distinctness of the voice and pronunciation, will evidently be affected by this circumstance, and the formation of one of those elements which so frequently occurs in our language, I mean the sound of ng, as in the word "singing," becomes impossible. Let any one of you suffer from a severe catarrh, or, as people call it, a bad cold in the head," or

close the nostrils by compressing them with the fingers, and then try to produce the sound of ng, and he will find it is impossible to do so. Moreover, he will find how much the clearness and purity of tone of his voice is affected by the obstruction more or less, of the passage of the nostrils. The voice at once assumes that most disagreeable quality called "nasality," and by which certain races also, are more or less characterised. I urge upon you the importance of attentively considering the structure and action of the various organs of speech contained within the mouth, and especially of the tongue and lips, because, I assure you, it is upon the precision, firmness, and vigour with which they discharge their respective offices, that the distinctness of spoken language chiefly depends. The element of audibility is the pure, well sustained vowel: the element of distinctness is the firm, clearly articulated consonant, and of course in good reading or speaking both elements should be combined.

I shall reserve a detailed account of the mode in which the various vowels and consonants are formed, until I come to a subsequent lecture, which will be specially addressed to those who may at any time be suffering from stammering, stuttering, or any other impediment or imperfection of speech. Till then, these lectures will treat only of subjects which are of universal application, and of general importance to all who are interested in the study and practice of the art of elocution.

LECTURE IV.

Physiology of the Vocal and Speech organs continued. The right mode of Respiration and the proper management of the breath in Public Reading and Speaking. Testimony of Mr. Thelwall, Mr. Howlett, Mr. Cazalet, Mr. George Catlin, &c. Sanitary advantages that result from proper Respiration. Analogy between the systematic mode of managing the breath in Singing, and in Reading and Speaking. Quotation from Mr. Kingsbury's work on Singing.

N my preceding lecture I endeavoured to give a general description of those portions of our frames which play so important a part in the formation of the voice and the articulation of the speech. In this lecture I have to make you acquainted with what, from my own experience, as well as the testimony of others, seems the best way of using this wonderful and complicated vocal machine, so as to enable it to discharge all its various functions in such a manner as will not only afford most pleasure and satisfaction to our hearers when we read or speak, but, at the same time, will contribute most to our own personal health and comfort.

I quite agree with a well-known physician,* when he says, "It is certainly great inconsistency to lavish all our care and attention in storing the mind with knowledge, and yet make no provision for cultivating the medium by which this knowledge may be made available to others." It is now, while the vocal organs are flexible, and the whole frame exults in the fresh and elastic vigour of early manhood, that you may cultivate the art of speaking, reading, and other branches of elocution, with such comparative ease to yourselves and such advantage to others. Now is the season when you can most profitably bestow attention on the cultivation of the voice, and the improvement of delivery, as well as the correction of those faults of accent and intonation, which in general spring from ignorance, inattention, or instinctive imitation. In a word, as I have said before, so now I say again with all emphasis and earnestness, the human voice, with its wonderful and varied powers, its infinite and delicate shades of expression, ought to have as much care and attention as we bestow on the development and cultivation of any of our other faculties.

From what I have observed in my own experience as a teacher of the art of public reading and speaking, I really think few persons out of the medical profession reflect on the enormous space which the lungs occupy in our frames, and how all-important their sound and healthy condition is to us. To nearly all those who soon break down from

* Dr. Mackness on "Dysphonia Clericorum."

physical exhaustion after reading or speaking, I would say:-" How much of your lungs do you think you habitually use in this same act of breathing ?" A very limited portion, I fear; in fact, just that portion which lies at the upper part of the chest, and no more: and what is the result when you attempt, thus breathing, to read or speak for any length of time? I fancy I can tolerably well describe what you experience. Do you not find that your breath very soon becomes exhausted, and being again taken hastily, and not sufficiently deeply, the results which ensue are the following, with more or less aggravation, according as the natural constitution is more or less robust: you feel a sense of weight at the chest, of general oppression, exhaustion, and weariness, and very possibly other and more alarming symptoms. And can you wonder at these disastrous consequences not unfrequently following? Can you feel surprised that your health should suffer by so wrong an exercise of such an important organ in the system? I want to impress upon you that proper breathing is healthy breathing; and that reading aloud, speaking and singing, are, when correctly performed, most healthful, invigorating, and beneficial exercises to the body as well as to the mind. If, however, from habit or inattention, you do not as a rule properly inflate the lungs, why, a portion only, instead of the whole, is brought into play, and the portion so overworked often pays the penalty for the additional labour imposed upon it while the great mass of the lungs is left unused and uninflated, by morbid symptoms of various kinds which often lead to serious diseases, of which the "clerical sore throat" is the most common.

Now, then, on this head alone, viz., the right management of the breath in respiration generally, but especially when reading aloud or speaking in public, there is much to be said. It is in the first place highly important that the speaker or reader should, both for the sake of complete ease and freedom in the performance of the function of respiration, as well as for the influence of those secondary vibrations of the upper portion of the trunk of the body, place himself in the best position for the discharge of the task he has undertaken-the position that is most favourable for speaking at the same time with energy and personal comfort. What, then, is this position? It is, in fact, just the attitude in which the drill-sergeant would make you stand-the chest thrown fully open, and kept properly expanded by the shoulders being thrown back and the head held easily erect. Do not here misunderstand me. I do not mean to assert anything so absurd as that a man should always stand in the same position. But the speaker ought to have a normal position to which he habitually returns after every brief deviation from it. These deviations may sometimes be for relief, by a slight change in the attitude, sometimes for the sake of expressing some particular passion or emotion. But I again strongly urge upon you that this is to be the normal and habitual position; because it is that which is the most favourable for the full and free inflation of the lungs in consequence of the expansion of the chest; and also for the production of those secondary vibrations which tend to increase the power and volume of the voice. Above all things, then, avoid the