The Talking Deaf Man | Page 5

the Voice,
according to Will and Pleasure; which, even as Speech also, is not
natural to us, but a Habite, contracted by long Use or Custom. Hence it
is, that the Unskilful are not only Ignorant how to Sing, but also cannot
so much as imitate others who are Singing; so also such as are ignorant
of any Language, do not only not understand others who are speaking
that Language, but also do not know how presently to repeat that Voice
which they received by their Ears.

Things principally requisite to the Voice, are, that the _Wind-pipe_, the
former thereof be solid, dry, and of the nature of Resounding Bodies.
By this Hypothesis, two of the most Eminent _Phænomena's of the
Voice_ are discovered; why the Voice should then at length become
firm and ripe, when the Bones have attained unto their full Strength,
and due Hardness, which cometh to pass much about the Years of ripe
age, when the vital Heat, doth in a greater degree exert itself: The other
Phænomenon is Hoarsness or an utter loss of the Voice, which is, when
the Cartilages, or Gristles of the Throat, especially the Epiglott, or
Coverlid of the _Wind-pipe_, is lined or besmeared all over with a
slimy Viscosity, whereby they lose their Elasticity, or Springiness.
Now these Symptoms of the Voice are also common to other
_Wind-instruments_, when they become too much moistned by any
vapourous wetting Air. The same reason also is to be assigned why the
Voice doth at last quite cease in those who have made too long
Harrangues, in speaking, and whose Jaws are quite dried with an
immoderate Heat; for in both these cases the top of the _Wind-pipe_ is
covered over with a clammy Tenacious Phlegm.
There remains yet two other Symptoms of the Voice, which I have
undertaken to explicate, viz. why the Voice sometimes leaps from one
Eighth to another; and, as it is rightly said by the Vulgar Expression,
that it is broken: and why, when we strive to make our Voice either too
sharp, or too flat, it at last plainly faileth us. As to the first, let us
consider when and how it cometh to pass; and first, it's what principally
happeneth to Orators, when they endeavour to lift up their Voice too
high, or strongly; but how this cometh to be, _Organ-pipes_, and the
Monochorde, do teach us, _viz._ when some Impediment interposing,
doth divide the ordinary Sound into two; if therefore those parts are
equal, either of them is by one Eighth more sharp than the former
Sound, neither are they distinguished from one another; but if they
prove to be unequally divided, then two distinct Sounds are made at the
same time, whereof one is flatter than the ether, and this is commonly
called a _broken Voice_: But why our Voice should fail us, when we
endeavour to make it more sharp, or more flat than it ought to be, the
reason is, because we strive either so to contract the Cleft of the
_Wind-pipe_, and to press the _Spout-like Cartilage_, by help of the

Bone of Tongue, towards the Epiglott, that the going forth of the Voice,
and of the Breath, may be precluded, or else, on the contrary, because
that the said Cleft, through the drawing down of the Cartilages, is so
much widened, that the departing out of the Breath, finds no
hinderance.
But here I had almost forgot to compare the more dry, the more moist,
the more solid, and the more thin Constitution of the Larynx, or
_Wind-pipe_, which also make very much to the rendering the Voice,
to be either sharp, or flat. That same humming Noise, which many
flying Insects make, not so much by the Wings, (for when they are cut
off, the humming still remains) as by a most swift and brisk Motion of
certain Muscles, hid in the Cavity of their Breasts, seems to have
somewhat of an affinity to the _Voice_; wherefore I desire the Learned
to examine, whether those small _Muscles, which are proper to the
Cartilages of the Wind-pipe_, cannot perform somewhat like to that.
Many more Particulars concerning the Voice might yet further be
inquired into, such as, how it is, that every one may be known by his
_Voice_? How that Sound, which in Singing is called Quavering, or
Trilling, by a peculiarity, is excited, &c, But seeing that these things do
not properly respect the nature of the Voice, I, for Brevities sake, do
omit them.

CHAP. II.
Expounding the Nature of the Letters, and the manner how they are
formed.
Hitherto we have treated concerning the Voice and Breath, and of the
manner of the formation of both of them, in general; now let us see
how the said