.) (2.4 cent.)
of the ring cartilage. }

Length of the vocal chink ... 1 in. 3/5 in.
(25 mm.) (15 mm.)

According to this eminent anatomist, therefore, the differences between
male and female larynges are as follows: In height, 9/10; in width, 1/5;
in depth, 1/5; in the length of the vocal chink, 2/5 of an inch. As it
is plain that if there were "no difference between the male and the
female larynx save in size," all their proportions would be alike, I
think I may safely assume that I have proved my point, which is a rather
important one, as the reader will see when the registers in the male and
female voice come up for discussion.

We will now consider the question how the various classes of
voice--_i.e._, Sopranos, Contraltos, Tenors, and Basses--are to be
accounted for by corresponding differences in the voicebox. We know that
tone is produced by the vibrations of the vocal ligaments. It is clear,
therefore, that a voice will be high or low according to the number of
vibrations which the ligaments are capable of producing, or in other
words, according to their dimensions and their tension. This difference
is easily seen by comparing the voicebox of a soprano with that of a
bass, because there the proportions are so manifestly smaller in the one
than in the other. There are similar distinctions between soprano and
contralto on the one hand, and between tenor and bass on the other, but
they are not so striking. Neither can they, for various reasons, be
demonstrated with the laryngoscope; but they exist nevertheless.

It is true that the vocal ligaments of a soprano are sometimes longer
than those of a contralto, just as the ligaments of a tenor are
occasionally longer than those of a bass. But I maintain that the longer
ligaments of sopranos and tenors are correspondingly thinner, and that
their tension is greater, owing to the ring-shield or stretching muscles
being more powerful than their opponents--the shield-pyramid muscles.
Where this is the case the ligaments are more slanting than they would
be otherwise, and the consequence of this is that less power of blast is
required to make them speak. With this mechanism the higher registers
are very readily united with the lower ones, and the voices so produced
are of a light and flexible kind. Where, on the contrary, the vocal
ligaments of contraltos and basses are comparatively s