PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE OF THE VOCAL ORGANS. 515 
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parts, an immense advantage would be gained. These principal parts are 
easily enumerated. But even in this comparatively easy matter there is 
extreme disagreement. Nearly all teachers advise a widely opened mouth. 
But was Scalchi taught to protrude the lower jaw ? Hayden Tilla grandly 
proclaims that the secret of singing is to protrude the upper jaw—an ex- 
periment I hope no friend of mine will succeed in performing. Nearly 
all maestri advocate a smiling position of the lips; yet Weiss, a better 
authority than the average, wrote a little brochure antedating his larger 
work, and declared that the secret of tone lay in the pressure of the lower 
tip against the teeth. Many teachers spread the corners of the mouth for 
se and & (met) ; others do not. 
A great many, like Chater in England, say that the vocal tube must be 
shortened for higher notes and lengthened for lower ones, by the rising 
and falling of the larynx ; closing his eyes to the fact that single diatonic 
intervals on the flute shorten or lengthen its tube about an inch, while 
the whole possible movement of the larynx is, according to Meskel, only 
an inch and a half. Of course, there are other views; one of a fixed, 
immovable larynx, which I myself advise, because there is only one hard 
spot on the front of the spine, and at its natural position the larynx is 
really opposite this spot, from contact with which it gains resonance. 
Dr. Wyllie, of Edinburgh, a careful student, produced tones at the same 
degrees of pitch whether he applied his weights to the front of the hyoid 
bone, or to the front of the larynx itself ; and, in further illustration, it 
has long been suspected by some physiologists that the muscles which take 
the place of Wyllie’s weights and pull down on these parts are essential 
agents in stretching the vocal cords for both higher and more powerful 
tones. 
This experiment suggests the fact that vocal physiology treats not only 
of the true positions of the vocal parts mentioned, but also of the efforts of 
the muscles which can pull upon these parts, and also of those muscles 
which themselves constitute the parts—as, for instance, the muscles which 
form the major part of the vocal cords themselves, or of the tongue itself. 
Positions easy, efforts difficult. Were vocal physiology simply a ques- 
sion of positions, how simple the subject would be, comparatively! Yet 
sven on this question there seem to exist irreconcilable differences of opin- 
on. Nearly all amicably agree that the mouth should be widely opened 
jet how opened ? 
All this is strictly appropriate for the discussion of the voice-teacher’s 
knowledge of vocal physiology. The question concerns his qualifications, 
and surely implies a request for advice as to his best chances to qualify 
himself. It seems that there is little agreement even as to positions, and 
nearly all this agreement appears to me to be misleading. Perhaps there 
is a nearer approach to unanimity in the two following points; the one, 
that the throat must be open : the other, that it must be relaxed.