II. The semi-vowels are _nasal_, _m_, _n_, _ng_ (_n_ before _g_, which is nearly related to it), that is, the labio-nasal _m_, the dente-nasal _n_, and the gutture-nasal _ng_; or _oral_ (lingual), _r_, _l_, that is, _r_ with a vibration of the tongue, or _l_ with the tongue less moved. III. The consonants he distinguishes into _sibilant_ (pronounced in succession), _h_, _g_, _ch_, _s_, _sh_, _f_, _v_, _ph_, that is _h_, formed in the throat, as it were a mere aspiration; _g_ and _ch_, true consonants; _s_, _sh_, produced between the teeth; and _f_, _v_, _ph_--formed by the application of the lower lip to the upper front teeth--and _explosive_ (which are as it were suddenly exploded by an expiration for a time suppressed, or interrupted), namely _k_, _q_, formed in the throat; _d_, _t_, about the teeth; _p_, _b_, near the lips; and _double_ (compound), _x_, _z_.[3] It has been thought that the tongue was indispensable for the purposes of speech, yet there are instances on record in which this has not been found an invariable rule. Dr. Conyers Middleton mentions two cases of distinct articulation with at least little or no tongue. In his exposure of the _pious_ deceptions of weak and wicked Christians during the first centuries of the Christian era, he notices a pretty tale of an Arian prince cutting out the tongues of some of the orthodox party, and these being as able to talk as before; nay, one of them, who had been dumb from his birth, gained the faculty of speech by losing his tongue! We find various accounts of persons who spoke more or less fluently without this organ. Jussieu has inserted in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences_, 1718, the case of a Portuguese girl, who instead of a tongue had merely a little protuberance of about four lines in diameter in the middle of her mouth, and endowed with the power of contraction and dilatation; she spoke distinctly, but experienced difficulty in pronouncing _c_, _f_, _g_, _l_, _n_, _r_, _s_, _t_, _x_, and _z_, when she was obliged to bend her neck forward to upraise as it were the larynx. In this case, deglutition could not be well performed, and she was obliged to use her finger to propel the masticated food downwards.