Gruzinov made his discovery while dissecting dead bodies during and after the Battle of Borodino, and first described the audible properties of the membrane. Blowing air through, he found it to produce the sound, very similar to human voice. He described this best himself: "Anatomizing the dead bodies, by inflating the windpipe and stretching the membranous posterior wall of trachea, I have managed to produce a perfect vocal sound without engaging the vocal cords..." "Human voice is formed in the chest - in the bottom end of the windpipe (trachea), by means of the posterior membrane, attached to the cartilaginous cells..."