false cords. The false cords or ventricular bands (a name given to
them by Mackenzie) are the lower edges of membranous folds that form the
upper entrance to the larynx. Here are two pairs of small cartilages,
the cartilages of Santorini and the cartilages of Wrisberg. Usually
they are dismissed as of little or no importance. Yet they have, in
connection with muscles located in that part of the larynx, their roles
to play in those numerous adjustments and readjustments which, as I
shall show a little later on, are of the greatest importance in
voice-generation. For I consider, as I also will show, that the
numerous, indeed innumerable, and extremely subtle and exquisite
changes of shape of which the larynx is capable within itself, have
much to do with the actual creation of the tone which eventually issues
from the lips; although I believe this statement to be contrary to all
accepted authority. For the present, however, I must content myself
with this mere statement.

The larynx is protected above by a lid, a flexible, leaf-shaped
cartilage, the epiglottis. The gullet, or food-passage to the stomach,
is situated behind the larynx and windpipe, and the function of the
epiglottis is to close the larynx and to act as a bridge over which
food passes from the mouth into the gullet. But for the epiglottis, food
might get into the larynx and thence into the windpipe every time we
swallowed, with what distressing and even disastrous effect any one who
has ever "swallowed the wrong way" well knows. When open, on the other
hand, the epiglottis forms a beautifully smooth cartilaginous curve,
over which the sounding air, the tone, as it issues from the larynx,
is guided to the resonance cavities above the larynx, which are the
cavities of the mouth and of the nose. While parts of these cavities are
solid, like the roof of the mouth, other parts, like the soft palate,
are pliable; while the tongue is so astoundingly mobile that it
constantly can alter the resonance cavity of the mouth as to dimension
and shape.

The larynx is swathed and lined with membrane and muscle. These
membranes and muscles are named after the cartilages to which they are
attached, between which they lie, or which they operate. There is no
reason why they should be enumerated now. The function of the muscles
of the larynx is stated by all authorities with which I am familiar to
be twofold--to open and close the glottis (the space between the vocal
cords),