There are still some writers who teach a different doctrine. For
instance, Miss Sabilla Novello, in her "Voice and Vocal Art,"
embodied in the "Collegiate Vocal Tutor," published by Novello,
Ewer, and Co., says on p. 9, that "The head voice results from the
upper [_i.e._, the false] vocal cords" (these we shall see
presently), and on page 13, that the falsetto tones "are created
principally by the action of the trachea [windpipe] and not by that
of the vocal ligaments." Another writer, Mr. Rumney Illingworth, in
a paper "On the Larynx and its Physiology," read before the Royal
Medical Society of Edinburgh, on March 3rd, 1879, and communicated
to "The Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette" (Vol. IV., No. 91,
p. 151), says that "The falsetto voice is produced by the laryngeal
sacculi [the pockets of the voicebox, which will be described
further on] acting in the same way as a hazel-nut can be made to
act as a whistle, when the kernel has been extracted through a
small hole in the shell; or as part of the cavity of the mouth acts
in whistling." I shall refer to these theories again as the
opportunity for their proper discussion arises; for the present I
will quote a few authorities on the subject.
Dr. CARPENTER, in his "Human Physiology," eighth edition, page 914,
says, "The true theory of the voice may now be considered as well
established in regard to this essential particular that the sound
is the result of the vibrations of the vocal cords," &c.
Professor MARSHALL, in his "Outlines of Physiology," page 255,
says: "Experiments on living animals show that the vocal cords are
alone the essential organs for the production of voice, for so long
as these remain untouched, although all the other parts in the
interior of the larynx be destroyed, the animal is able to emit
vocal sounds.... The existence of an opening in the larynx of a
living animal, or of man, _above_ the glottis [glottis means the
vibrating element of the voicebox] in no way prevents the formation
of vocal sound; such an opening if situated in the trachea
[windpipe] causes total loss of voice, but by simply closing it,
vocal sounds can again be produced. Such openings, in man, are met
with, either as the results of accidents, of suicidal attempts, or
of operations performed on the larynx or trachea for the relief of
disease."
Dr. TOBOLD, Professor in the University of Berlin, in his
"Laryngoscopie and Kehlkopf Krankheiten" (Laryngoscopy and Diseases
of the Larynx), p. 131, says, "Soft palate, lid, pockets, and
pocket-bands are not directly active in the production of either
chest or falsetto tones; they only modify the tone produced in the
glottis."
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