The old Italians began with quite young pupils, commonly when they were in their ninth or tenth year. The great demands which were then made in regard to the technical culture of the voice required a long time for instruction, usually five or six years. The extraordinary fulness and power of tone possessed by the earlier artists could be acquired only by persevering and adequate practice of the vocal organ, taken while in the process of growth. Those singers, men and women, whose voices have been celebrated for their fulness and strength of tone, such as _Catalani_, _Perini_, &c., sang in their fifth year, under the careful oversight of persons musically cultivated. In childhood the impulse to imitation is strongest, the vocal organs are more tender and pliant than in adults; and hence, when care is taken to avoid fatiguing and straining the voice, children learn much easier and better than grown persons. They are also preserved by early and correct singing from the many bad habits with which the teacher has to contend in adults. That special skill and care are required in a teacher who has in charge the voices of children, there can be no question. But unhappily, no regard is paid to this consideration in the system of teaching singing in the schools, universally introduced in France, Germany, and Switzerland. To any teacher who can sing at all, or play on any instrument, the tender voices of children are entrusted, and he allows them to sing together in chorus, satisfied if the tones are not grossly false and the time is kept, paying no regard to the formation of the voice. Now it is well known that even practised singers avoid singing much in chorus, considering it injurious to the voice. Although schooled and educated voices can endure a much greater strain than children's voices, yet children are often, without any understanding, required to sing loud, in order “to bring out the voice.” In such a way of singing it is simply impossible that every separate voice should be attended to, even were the teacher competent to attend to it; while it often happens that at the most critical age, while the vocal organs are being developed, children sing with all the strength they can command. Boys, however, in whom the larynx at a certain period undergoes an entire transformation, reach only with difficulty the higher soprano or contralto tones, but are not assigned a lower part until, perceiving themselves the impossibility of singing in this way, they beg the teacher for the change, often too late, unhappily, to prevent an irreparable injury. Moderate singing, without exertion, and, above all things, within the natural limits of the voice and its registers, would even during the period of growth be as little hurtful as speaking, laughing, or any other of the exercises which cannot be forbidden to the vocal organs. But it is wiser not to allow boys to sing at all while the larynx is undergoing its change.