and determined by Prof. Helmholtz; and in the physical section of the present work all may be found that is of value in the culture of the singing voice. Whatever can be definitely communicated in regard to the working of the muscles of the larynx may likewise be found in any anatomical work. An acquaintance, however, with the action of these muscles is not directly necessary to our purpose, and is of interest only to the physiologist.

It is not to be denied that Garcia's observations do not, by any means, lead to satisfactory conclusions as to the functions of the vocal organ. He has, as we shall see in the sequel, attached special importance to much that is unessential and abnormal, and the main facts, the elucidation of which is particularly needed, he has scarcely mentioned. Thus he tells us nothing of that series of tones which he calls the head register. The transition also of the registers he has not carefully examined and observed in different voices: the chest register in the male and the falsetto of the female voice.

Nevertheless, these investigations possess much that is valuable, and are of special value to the art of singing, because they teach a method

hitherto unknown of observing the larynx, by which sure and satisfactory results are reached. And when an acquaintance with these results comes to be universally diffused, and the art of singing is thereby led into the right direction, we shall owe it most especially to the excellent experimental observations of Garcia.

Garcia has accepted the division made by Müller, and universally adopted in science, of the chest, falsetto and head registers. I employ the same distinctions—a fact which it seems worth while to mention, simply because every teacher and school have their own terminology, and instead of falsetto we have fistel, throat, and middle or neck voice, &c. These denominations of the same registers have thus far only increased the obscurity prevailing in the art of singing.

MY OWN OBSERVATIONS WITH THE LARYN

GOSCOPE

In giving an account of my own observations with the laryngoscope, I premise that laryngoscopy has of late attracted much attention among the learned, and that Czermak, Turk, Merkel, Lewin, Bataille, &c., have published a

series of valuable observations, all of which, however, with the exception of Bataille's, were made in the interest of science, for pathological purposes especially. My aim, in the employment of the laryngoscope, has been directed exclusively to the discovery of the natural limits of the different registers of the human voice; and although I have thus been able to observe many other interesting processes, it would not at all accord with the design of this book to communicate observations which have no direct relation to the culture of the voice in singing, and which come better from men of science than from a teacher of vocal music.

In using the laryngoscope while the breath is quietly drawn, I saw, as Garcia did, the whole larynx wide open, so that one could easily introduce a finger into it, and the rings of the trachea were plainly visible.

a. Arytenoid cartilages.

b. Epiglottis.

c. Trachea.*

d. Vocal chords.

*It must be remarked that the diagrams here given are copies of reflected images, and therefore the upper side of the representation shows the front of the larynx, and the lower the farther side of the larynx.

When those who had become accustomed to the introduction of the instrument sang, at my request, a, as pronounced in the English word man, in a deep tone, the epiglottis rose, the tongue formed a cavity from within forwards, and thus rendered it easy to see into the larynx. So soon as the a, as in father, was sung, the cover quickly fell, the tongue rose, and prevented all observation of the organ of singing. The other vowels are still less favorable to observation, because they do not admit of any such wide opening of the mouth. Strong tones also are unfavorable to observation, as Garcia also remarked; and this is very natural, because strong and sonorous tones require greater exertions of the singing organ, and, above all things, the right position of those parts of the larynx and mouth which serve as a resonance apparatus in the formation of sound. In order to be able to see perfectly the whole glottis, all this resonance apparatus must be drawn back as far as possible, and the rim of the larynx must be tolerably flat. Thus only faint and weak sounds are favorable to observation.

THE CHEST REGISTER

When the vowel a, as in man, was sung, I could, after long-continued practice, plainly see how the arytenoid cartilages quickly rose with their summits in their mucous membranous case and approached to mutual contact. In like manner, the chorda vocales, or inferior vocal chords, approached each other so closely that scarcely any space between them was observable. The superior or false vocal ligaments formed the ellipse described by Garcia in the upper part of the glottis.

When, in using the laryngoscope upon myself, I slowly sang the ascending scale, this movement of the vocal chords and arytenoid cartilages was repeated at every tone. They separated and appeared to retreat, in order to close again anew, and to rise somewhat more than before. This movement of the arytenoid cartilages may