ABSTRACT
P R E L IM IN A R Y OBSERV ATION S AS TO T H E VOCAL ORGANS, AND T H E IR FUNCTION IN SPEEC H
F or th e purpose in han d it will no t be necessary to give more th an a very rough outline of th e various organs involved in th e production of speech and song. The source of energy is the lungs (see Fig. 17 ). These are a p a ir of tig h tly packed
masses of m inute a ir vessels each surrounded b y blood vessels, which together form th e dense foliage of an inverted branching system of air-pipes. A lternatively, if the reader prefers it, th e whole arrangem ent m ay be com pared w ith tw o clotted
are an alm ost perfect absorber of sound and destroyer of resonance. Their branching tubes-becoming ever sm aller and sm aller till th ey term inate in a m ultitude of infinitesim al a ir cells-act tow ards a sound wave like a shelving beach acts tow ards a w ave of th e sea. The wave gets broken up in to an ever-thinning stream , which expends its energy in forcing its way up th e beach. The energy of th e wave is in fact m ostly converted in to hea t b y friction against th e beach.
