Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/44

 of the glottis may be produced, making a distinct clicking sound; upon increasing the tension, and the velocity of the breath, this clicking is lost, and the sound becomes continuous, but of an extremely grave pitch: it may, by a good ear, be distinguished two octaves below the lowest A of a common bass voice, consisting in that case of about 26 vibrations in a second. The same sound may be raised nearly to the pitch of the common voice; but it is never smooth and clear, except perhaps in some of those persons called ventriloquists. When the pitch is raised still higher, the upper orifice of the larynx, formed by the summits of the arytænoid cartilages and the epiglottis, seems to succeed to the office of the ligaments of the glottis, and to produce a retrograde falsetto, which is capable of a very great degree of acuteness. The same difference probably takes place between the natural voice and the common falsetto: the rimula glottidis being too long to admit of a sufficient degree of tension for very acute sounds, the upper orifice of the larynx supplies its place; hence, taking a note within the compass of either voice, it may be held, with the same expanse of air, two or three times as long in a falsetto as in a natural voice; hence, too, the difficulty of passing smoothly from the one voice to the other. It has been remarked, that the larynx is always elevated when the sound is acute: but this elevation is only necessary in rapid transitions, as in a shake; and then probably because, by the contraction of the capacity of the trachea, an increase of the pressure of the breath can be more rapidly effected this way, than by the action of the abdominal muscles alone. The reflection of the sound thus produced from the various parts of the cavity of the mouth and nostrils, mixing at various intervals with the portions of the vibrations directly proceeding from the larynx, must, according to the temporary form of the parts,