Back Ring-Pyramid Muscle," while they utterly collapsed when coming to
"Crico-Arytenoideus posticus."

This is, however, in my humble opinion, of minor importance. The great
point is, that my terms--which by the way are not inventions, but simply
translations--convey a meaning to the general reader, and the originals
do not. This is a fact which I dared not ignore, because my essay is
intended for the people and not for men of science. As I have taken care
also, for the sake of those who might wish to consult other and more
learned books than mine, to give the terms generally used by
physiologists by the side of my translations, I do not think there is
anything that could ever confuse my readers.

I conscientiously believe that these are good and weighty reasons for
the plan I adopted in the first edition, and trust my reviewers, as well
as my readers, will accept them as a sufficient justification of the
same practice in the present volume.

E. B.

_February, 1881._

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The number of books bearing more or less directly on the Theory of Voice
Production which have been published during the last few years is very
large, and shows clearly the extraordinary interest taken in this
subject, not only by professional singers and speakers, but also by the
general public. If I am now about to add another contribution to this
already extensive literature, it is simply because amongst all the many
excellent works on the Human Voice there is not one which brings before
the reader the whole subject from beginning to end. The student who
really wishes to get a clear understanding of the matter is obliged to
wade through a variety of scientific books, and to pick up here and
there, by means of very hard reading, such little scraps of information
as, with much labour and waste of time, he can extract from books which
were, in most instances, never written for the purpose for which he
consults them.

* * * * *

To supply this generally-admitted want I have written these pages, in
which I have endeavoured, to the best of my ability, to place before the
reader in a simple and comprehensive form the Physiology of the Human
Voice. I have, as far as possible, discarded all scientific terms, and
it has been my aim to treat my subject in so simple and direct a manner
as really to enlighten my readers instead of bewildering them. A
treatise like this can, under no circ