contains the nerve-centre which controls the formation of articulate speech, that is, the pronunciation of vowels and consonants in such fashion as to form words. These facts are well illustrated by the symptoms of a peculiar disease which, although it has no doubt always existed, has only recently attracted the attention of the medical world, and which consists in a wasting away of those nerve-cells in the medulla which preside over the functions just named. As the disease progresses, more and more letters of the alphabet become lost, the vocal cords become at length paralysed, and voice ultimately is completely lost. "But one of the most suggestive results of recent researches," continues Dr. Althaus, at p. 1028, "has been to show that the faculty of intelligent language, as distinguished from articulate speech, is situated in that portion of the hemispheres of the brain, which is called the third left frontal convolution, and its immediate neighbourhood. We have already seen that the pronunciation of letters and words is effected in the lowest portion of the brain, viz., the medulla, but this, and all the other inferior organs concerned in speaking, form only, as it were, the instrument on which that small portion of the brain's surface, which I have just named, is habitually playing. Lower centres are able to hear spoken words, and to see written words, but the intelligent appreciation of the connection which exists between words and ideas, and the faculty of expressing thoughts in sentences-that is, what the Greeks called 'logos-only reside in the third left frontal convolution. This discovery was foreshadowed by Gall, but actually made by Broca." Well indeed may such discoveries as these be given in illustration of the remark of the late Charles Kingsley, which I quoted in my opening Lecture, that, "to the minute philosopher, few things seem more miraculous than human speech."

NOTE. In a most interesting article by Mr. J. G. Romanes on "Animal Intelligence," which appeared in the "Nineteenth Century," for October 1878, he says: So that all our lines of evidence converge to one conclusion, viz., that the only difference which analysis can show to obtain between the mind of man and the mind of the lower animals, consists in this-that the mind of man has been able to develop the germ of rational thought, which is undeveloped in the mind of animals, and that the development of this germ has been due to the power of abstraction, which is rendered possible by the faculty of SPEECH. I have therefore no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that the faculty of SPEECH is alone the ultimate source of that enormous difference which now obtains between the mind of man and the mind of the lower animals." If this be so, it is no wonder that in the earlier history of mankind, we continually meet with divine powers attributed to Speech. The idea of Speech as a divine emanation or energy first arose in the human mind in India. There can be traced continually in the old Sanscrit literature a deification of Speech, and this idea wherever it spread seems to have exercised a fascination on mankind.

LECTURE V.

Respiration and the proper mode of Managing the Breath in Public Reading and Speaking-Dr. Morell Mackenzie-Dr. Shuldham-Mr. Lennox Browne-Mr. Lunn, &c.

N my preceding Lecture I endeavoured to give a general description of those portions of our frames which play so important a part in the formation of the voice and the articulation of the speech. In this Lecture I have to make you acquainted with what, from my own experience, as well as the testimony of others, seems the best way of using this wonderful and complicated vocal machine, so as to enable it to discharge all its various functions in such a manner as will not only afford pleasure and satisfaction to our hearers when we read or speak, but, at the same time, will contribute most to our own personal health and comfort.

I quite agree with a well-known physician,* when he says, "It is certainly great inconsistency to lavish all our care and attention in storing the mind with knowledge, and yet make no provision for cultivating the medium by which this knowledge may be made available to others." It is now, while the vocal organs are flexible, and the whole frame exults in the fresh and elastic vigour of early manhood, that you may cultivate the art of speaking, reading, and other branches of elocution, with such comparative ease to yourselves and such advantage to others. Now is the season when you can most profitably bestow attention on the cultivation of the voice, and the improvement of delivery, as well as the correction of those faults of accent and intonation, which in general spring from ignorance, inattention, or instinctive imitation. In a word, as I have said before, so now I say again with all emphasis and earnestness, the human voice, with its wonderful and varied powers, its infinite and delicate shades of expression, ought to have as much care and attention as we bestow on the development and cultivation of any of our other faculties.

From what I have observed in my own experience as a Public Lecturer in this College, as well as a private teacher of the art of Public Reading and Speaking, I really think few persons out of the medical profession reflect on the enormous space which the lungs occupy in

* Dr. Mackness on "Dysphonia Clericorum."

our frames, and how all-important their sound and healthy condition is to us. To nearly all those who soon break down from physical exhaustion after reading or speaking, I would say :-"How much of your lungs do you think you habitually use in this same act of breathing?" A very limited portion, I fear; in fact, just that portion which lies at the upper part of the chest, and no more: and what is the result when you attempt, thus breathing, to read or speak for any length of time? I fancy I can tolerably well describe what you experience. Do you not find that your breath very soon becomes exhausted, and being again taken rather hastily, and not sufficiently deep, the results which ensue are the following, with more or less aggravation according as the natural constitution is more or less robust: you feel a sense of weight at the chest, of general oppression, exhaustion, and weariness, and very possibly other and more alarming symptoms. And can you wonder at these disastrous consequences not unfrequently following? Can you feel surprised that your health should suffer by so wrong an exercise of such an important organ in the system? I want to impress upon you that proper breathing is healthy breathing; and that reading aloud, speaking, and singing are, when correctly performed, most healthful, invigorating, and beneficial exercises to the body as well as to the mind. If, however, from habit or inattention, you do not as a rule properly inflate the lungs, why, a portion only, instead of the whole, is brought into play, and the portion so overworked often pays the penalty for the additional labour imposed upon it, while the great mass of the lungs, being left unused and uninflated, is often marked by morbid symptoms of various kinds, which lead to serious diseases, of which the "clerical sore throat" is the most common.

Now, then, on this head alone, viz., the right management of the breath in respiration generally, but especially when reading aloud or speaking in public, there is much to be said. It is, in the first place, highly important that the speaker or reader should, both for the sake of complete ease and freedom in the performance of the function of respiration, as well as for the influence of those secondary vibrations of the upper portion of the trunk of the body, place himself in the best position for the discharge of the task he has undertaken-the position that is most favourable for speaking at the same time with energy and personal comfort. What, then, is this position? It is, in fact, just the attitude in which the drill-sergeant would make you stand-the chest thrown fully open, and kept properly expanded by the shoulders being thrown back and the head held easily erect. Do not here misunderstand me. I do not mean to assert anything so absurd as that a man should always stand in the same position. But the speaker ought to have a normal position to which he habitually returns after every brief deviation from it. These deviations may sometimes be for relief, by a slight change in the attitude, sometimes for the sake of expressing some particular emotion. But I again strongly urge upon you that this is to be the normal and habitual position; because it is that which is the most favourable for the full and free inflation of the lungs in consequence of the expansion of the chest ; and also for the production of those secondary vibrations which tend to increase the power and volume of the voice. Above all things, then,

avoid the habit which so many men have, who have never received any training in the art, or at all considered the subject, of advancing on a platform to the railings in front, leaning upon them with one or both hands, and making that their normal position. With the larynx and chest so contracted, nothing can be more ungraceful and nothing more destructive to all energy and freedom in speaking.

Mr. Lennox Browne says very truly that the lungs may be primarily expanded or inflated in three different ways, viz. :-(1.) By pressing them downward against the lower wall, which is purely muscular and elastic, and has on its opposite or inferior side soft and yielding parts. In this manner the shoulders remain unmoved, and the chest-walls are gradually dilated from below upwards. (2.) By pressing the lungs outwards against the more or less elastic framework of the ribs. this method also the upper part is not brought into movement. (3.) By drawing the lungs upwards with the collar-bone (clavicle) and shoulderblades (scapula), those parts which are fixed in the first and second methods.

In

The first way is called the abdominal or diaphragmatic (after the muscles which regulate the movement); the second is known as the lateral, or better, as the costal (costa, a rib); the third as the clavicular, or scapular. All breath-taking, alike in speaking, reading, singing, and in ordinary life, should be diaphragmatic or abdominal. Inspiration should commence by the action of the abdominal muscles, and the descent of the diaphragm-in other words, by pushing forward the

walls of the abdomen and chest. As the lungs inflate with the descent of the diaphragm, the inspiration, being prolonged, becomes lateral, and the ribs expand on all sides equally, but the shoulder-blades and collarbone still remain fixed.* If respiration be further and unduly pro

I advise all who wish to have a clear knowledge of the process of respiration, and indeed of vital functions generally, to study the admirable "Science-Primer on Physiology" of Professor Michael Foster, or the "Elementary Lessons" of Professor Huxley, both published by Macmillan.

longed, it becomes clavicular; but clavicular breathing is a method totally vicious and to be avoided. By it the whole lower part of the chest is flattened and drawn in, instead of being distended; consequently the lower or larger part of the lungs is not inflated. It is a method never exercised by nature in a state of health, but only when from disease, either the abdominal or chest muscles cannot act; and it is the method least efficacious in filling the lungs, as it is the one calculated most to fatigue the chest; for it compresses the vessels and nerves of the throat, and this leads to engorgement and spasmodic action of the muscles. The lateral method is more commonly exercised by women than by men, and is, to some extent, considered necessary to them; for in women the sternum or breast-bone is always pushed more forward than in men; but it is an error to suppose that the clavicular method is ever necessary to either sex in a state of health. (See Figs. 10, 11.)

The above diagrams illustrate the varying capacity of the chest, according to the method in which the lungs are inflated. The front outline A, of the shaded figure represents the chest after complete expiration; the black continuous line B gives the increase in size of the chest and the descent of the diaphragm, indicated by the curved transverse lines, in full abdominal respiration. The dotted line C, shows the retraction of the diaphragm and of the abdominal muscles in forced clavicular inspiration. The varying thickness of the line B, indicates the fact of healthy breathing in man being more abdominal than in woman. The outlines of forced inspiration in both sexes are remarkably similar.

In sleep or repose respiration goes on with regularity; but in speaking, or singing, there is always a certain struggle between the inspiratory and expiratory muscles. It is clear that, as the elasticity of the opposing parts is least in the clavicular, and greatest in the diaphragmatic respiration, the resistance is in the same relation greatest in the former method, and consequently the fatigue experienced by this method is in proportion increased.*

In regard to expiration in speaking and singing, which is not less important than the act of inspiration, Mr. Lennox Browne very justly remarks that "the expiration should be equally easy, not wasted, jerky, or in gasps, but steady and gradual; for it is on the extension combined with the regularity of expiration, that the intensity or power, the steadiness and duration, of vocal vibrations depend. And here it may be remarked that he is the best singer (and it is almost needless for me to add the best reader and speaker also) who can so control the expiration, that the least possible amount of air sufficient to cause vibration is poured with continuous effect upon the vocal organs. † Hence, as one so well knows, the greatest singers appear to have an inexhaustible supply of breath. The method of respiration I have indicated as the

"Medical Hints on the Management of the Singing Voice," by Lennox Browne, F.R.C.S., pp. 14, 16. London : Chappell & Co. Price Is.

The direction of Senor Garcia, to practise his voice with a lighted candle before his mouth, is known to many. If the flame be extinguished, or even wavers, it is a sign that too much air is being expended.