cases where they have been instructed by associating with other nightingales." But this is not the fact. If the comparison be permitted, it is with the singing of birds, as with the language of men of the same country. In essential particulars it is the same, but it undergoes modifications within a circuit of some leagues only, in each inconsiderable district, even in a little island. Young birds, raised in the house, do not sing so well the first years, but they improve themselves from year to year, without ever having heard other birds of their own species sing.

How can we conceive the invention of music in man, if the musician must have heard before, all the music which he makes? Who does not perceive, that the composer of music derives these compositions from the interior of his soul? That whatever he expresses on paper by notes, he had previously perceived and conceived within himself? Why then are not persons, endowed with the finest ear, likewise endowed with the most distinguished talent for music?

I am aware that Buffon, Cabanis, and others, charge the musical faults of certain composers to the inequality which exists between the two ears; but daily experience refutes this assertion. It is difficult to find an individual, who has both ears equally good. Holzbauer, the celebrated chapel master at Manheim, was deaf of one ear, and heard very imperfectly with the other; that did not prevent him from composing very harmonious music. Astley Cooper speaks of a man who was very hard of hearing from his childhood, and who, notwithstanding, was very sensible to harmony; this person played very well on the flute, and performed with great success in concerts. "I have known a child," says Darwin, "who loved music extremely, who easily retained an air after hearing it sung distinctly, and whose organ of hearing was yet so imperfect, that it was necessary to speak very loud in adddressing him." I have read in the work of a French physician, the case of a boy who had lost his

hearing in consequence of the small pox, and who, notwithstanding, composed songs himself, and sung them very correctly. All these facts prove, that the ear is, at most, but one of the conditions for executing musical compositions; but that it cannot be considered as the cause of the perception of music and of musical invention.

Those who attribute to the throat, the note, whether of birds or of man, also pass a judgment equally superficial. The throat is for the note only a means of execution, as the hand is for the painter and the sculptor. A counter-tenor or bass voice, the flexibility of the voice, &c. depend, it is true, on the structure of the windpipe. But must not such a faculty, whether in the bird or man, have conceived the whole succession of tones before impressing on the windpipe such or such movements? For the rest, I know perfectly, that the windpipe or the glottis is in connexion with the instinct of propagation and with that of song. The glottis in singing birds is differently formed in the male from its formation in the female. Gelded birds do not sing. The voices of women and of eunuchs differ from that of men. A great number of the species of birds sing only in pairing time. The red-breast, the wren, the canary bird, and the goldfinch, on the contrary, sing through the whole winter. All physiologists know the relation, which exists between the windpipe and the sexual parts, as well in animals as in man.

Willis deduced aptitude for music from the softness of the brain; but he could not sustain this opinion, either by facts or by reasoning. There remains, therefore, no other course to take, but to admit, that there exists in the brain, a peculiar organ for music.

History of the Discovery of this Organ.

There was shown me a young girl, named Bianchi, aged about five years, and I was asked to decide what was the most remarkable talent of this child. I discovered nothing in her, which indicated extraordinary memory; and the idea had not yet presented itself to my mind, that the talent for music could be recognised by the form of the head; I did not even know, at this period, the different species of memory. My friends, however, maintained, that the young Bianchi had an extraordinary memory for music, and they inferred from this, that the ideas, which I professed in relation to the external signs of memory, were false. This child repeated all that she had heard sung or executed on the piano; she retained by heart whole concertos, which she had heard at most twice. I inquired whether this young girl learned every thing, without distinction, with the same facility. Her parents assured me, that she was endowed with this astonishing facility, for music only. What could I conclude from this declaration? That there exists a well marked difference between memory for music, and the other species of memory which I knew at that period; and that each species of memory must have its distinct organ.

From that moment I devoted myself to more connected researches into the different species of memory. In very little time I became acquainted with a considerable number of persons, who had an excellent memory for certain objects, and a very feeble memory for others. These observations led me to augment the number of my denominations for memory, and I admitted a peculiar memory of tones.

While occupying myself with these researches, I did not fail to perceive, that the individuals, endowed with an excellent memory of tones, were ordinarily good musicians, and sometimes composers in this art.

This observation led me to conclude, that the denomination, memory of tones, was too limited; that it does not express all that constitutes the talent of the musician; that the sphere of this talent extends much beyond the memory; that it comprehends all which regards the relations of tones. I therefore adopted the expression, faculty of the relations of tones, an expression which refers the manner, in which the intellect of the musician brings into operation the relations of tones, to the mode of action of the senses in general.

I was fully assured, that the talent for music was not dependent on the aggregate force of the intellectual faculties in general; but that it belongs to an individual, fundamental faculty, and has consequently a particular organ. I had then to reflect on the means of discerning this organ; for, it is only when the seat of an organ is discovered, so as to leave no doubt upon the subject, that I can consider myself secure from all the specious reasonings by which others would combat its existence.

I applied myself to observing the heads of musicians. Chance so ordered, that I met with several, in whom the superior lateral part of the forehead was very narrow, and the temporal part, on the contrary, very broad; whence it resulted, that their foreheads formed a segment of a truncated cone. At this period, I was not far enough advanced in my observations, to seek the external mark of each particular faculty in a determinate region of the head. I therefore thought, for some time, that a forehead, in the form of a segment of a truncated cone, was the external sign of musical talent.

But soon I had an apportunity to see great musicians, Beethoven, Mozart, the son, Kreibig, &c., who had the superior part of the forehead large and prominent; which made me renounce my idea, that a forehead formed like the segment of a truncated cone, was the characteristic sign of a talent for music. It was not difficult for me, at Vienna, to observe a great number

of musicians, among whom were some of the highest merit. I moulded the heads of several of them, in order to be able to make these comparisons more easily. I finally succeeded in discovering a region, in which all musicians, endowed with inventive genius, have a prominent projection, produced by the subjacent cerebral mass.

The better to establish my discovery, I endeavoured to ascertain the counter proof. I observed children and adults who manifested no taste for music, some of whom, in fact, gave evidence of antipathy to it. In all these individuals, I found the same region of the brain absolutely flat. Finally, I procured for myself the skulls of some great musicians, and their examination at length convinced me, that my discovery, relative to the faculty of the relation of tones, was absolutely exact. After this, nothing prevented my professing this truth publicly. I am going to lay open to my readers the natural history of the faculty of the relation of tones, both in animals and in man; after which I shall explain in detail, the proofs of the existence of this fundamental faculty and its organ.

Natural History of the Faculty of the Relation of Tones in Man.

The innate forces of man have manifested themselves at all times. Song has also been in all ages, one of the favorite amusements of the human race. Music and song are not the inventions of man; the Creator has revealed them to him by the aid of a peculiar organization. By means of his organization, man is placed in relation with the laws of the vibrations of bodies, as the painter is with the laws of colors. There exist without us certain laws, according to which sonorous vibrations are produced and propagated. The experiments of Chladni have rendered sensible to the eyes some of the laws of these vibrations,