side on the purely theoretical issue as to
whether he was not a baritone instead.

In the case of one of New York's most experienced singers, it required
two years of persistent effort on the part of both patient and physician
to overcome the habits of a lifetime. The case is of general importance
for the reason that the habits he had formed are more or less common to
all of us, though perhaps not to such an aggravated degree. He was an
inveterate smoker and a confirmed coffee drinker. These habits reflected
themselves upon the poor, defenceless mucous membrane, whose function
was perverted as shown in the constantly congested appearance of the
respiratory tract. I have seen this artist with congested vocal cords
rehearse an oratorio in the afternoon at a public rehearsal and sing the
same work in the evening at the regular concert performance, when, to
use his own words, "I feel as if every note will be my last. I have no
grip on my voice." It was a clear case of indomitable will and sheer
physical strength carrying the singer over obstacles that even to my
mind seemed well-nigh insurmountable. A cure was effected in this
obstinate case simply by insisting upon observance of hygienic law.
There is no better instance of efficacy of vocal hygiene than in the
case of this man. The gradual reassertion of nature, as indicated by the
clearing up of the inflamed mucous membrane of the nose, the thickened
condition of the pharynx and the chronically congested cords, was an
all-sufficient reward for anxious thought spent upon an important
subject. You may ask what was the remedy in this case. It was simply
advice given and heeded, together with needed incidental treatment. I
cut off his coffee and cigars, not immediately but gradually. He had
sufficient force of character to aid me by heeding the counsel. The
result was a diminution of secretion of the mucous membrane and a return
to normal conditions.

Right here there is another phase of the situation to which I desire to
call particular attention, not alone because of its vital importance
to the singer, but also because of the danger to the unschooled student
of neglect of what we ordinarily term a cold in the head in its first
stages. By the first stage of the cold I mean that condition which
obtains before the stage of secretion is arrived at, where the mucous
membrane is being congested, where it is almost impossible to
distinguish what is the highest point of normal sti