by bass,
tenor, contralto, or soprano, is again produced by one mechanism
(although a different one from the last), that is to say, by the vocal
ligaments vibrating only with their thin inner edges. Then there remains
the small register, which belongs almost exclusively to sopranos, and
which represents the series of tones above [Illustration: musical
notation].

I thus maintain, not only that the great break between the thick and the
thin occurs (individual differences apart) at the same place in both
sexes, but that (leaving for the moment sub-divisions out of
consideration) the male voice has but two registers--_i.e._, the Thick
and the Thin, while the female voice has three registers--_i.e._, the
Thick, the Thin, and the Small. From this it follows that the female
voice is _not_, as supposed by some, simply a reproduction of the male
an octave higher.

I have spoken of the above results of the investigations with the
laryngoscope as startling, because the female voicebox is generally
imagined to be exactly like the male, save in size, and the inference
that the female voice must be exactly like the male, save in pitch, is,
therefore, a very natural one. Neither am I surprised that those who
hold an opposite view to mine are never tired of advancing this
argument.

Mr. Lunn says, in the book quoted before, on page 24, "Consequently
it may safely be asserted that the vocal cords are subject to the
same laws as all sounding bodies, and as the sole difference
between the male and the female larynx is one of size alone, the
voice from the latter _is_ a reproduction of the former on a higher
scale."

I have, however, shown by the measurements of Luschka, on p. 64, that
the proportions of the female voicebox are materially different from
those of the male, and I have also pointed out differences in shape
noticeable to any observer. Now, although I do not pretend that I have
by these facts and figures sufficiently accounted for the difference in
the registers of the male and the female voice; yet these facts and
figures are nevertheless greatly in my favour, and they are certainly a
sufficient answer to the above argument of those who differ from me.

My case is further strengthened by the testimony of that eminent
physiologist, Dr. Merkel, who says,[N] "In the male organ there are only
two materially different registers to be noticed, the chest and the
falsetto, ... on the other hand, i