ne, each quality best adapted to be sung only in a portion of the
voice's compass.

In the early decades of the nineteenth century the registers of the
voice received much attention from vocal theorists, especially in Paris.
Garcia's first published work, _Memoire sur la Voix humaine_, was
presented to the Academy of Sciences in 1840. This Memoire gives the
results of observations which Garcia made on his own pupils; it deals
mainly with the position of the larynx during the singing of tones in
the various registers. Garcia describes how the larynx is raised and
lowered in the throat, according to the register in which the tones are
produced. He also notes the position of the tongue and the soft palate.

Widespread interest was awakened by the account of Garcia's
laryngoscopic investigations of the registers, published in 1855. The
attention of the great majority of vocalists was at once drawn to the
subject, and the actions of the vocal cords in the different registers
were studied by many prominent physicians and voice specialists.
Exhaustive treatises on the registers have since been published by Mme.
Seiler, Behnke, Curwen, Mills, Battaille, Curtis, Holmes, and by a large
number of other investigators.

All the results of the laryngoscopic investigation of the vocal action
have been disappointing in the extreme. In the first place, no two
observers have obtained exactly the same results. Writing in 1886, Sir
Morell Mackenzie says: "Direct observation with the laryngoscope is, of
course, the best method at our disposal, but that even its testimony is
far from unexceptionable is obvious from the marvelous differences as to
matters of _fact_ that exist among observers. It is hardly too much to
say that no two of them quite agree as to what is seen." (_The Hygiene
of the Vocal Organs_, London, 1886.) Wesley Mills, in his latest work,
endeavors to show a substantial agreement among the best equipped
observers of the registers, but his attempt can hardly be called
convincing. (_Voice Production in Singing and Speaking_, Philadelphia,
1906.) Opinions on the subject of registers, held by the leading voice
specialists to-day, are fully as divergent as in 1886. Widely different
statements are made by prominent authorities as to the number of
registers, the vocal cord action by which each register is produced, and
the number of notes which each one should properly include.

Another deficiency of the doctrine of registers is