Connecticut western news., 1877-08-17
Vocal Organs of Cats.

sant with the scope of the inquiries of the Pathological Society, which met here recently. to know whether the physiology of the vocal organs and the comparative tonic properties of the large layn tubes of different animals come under discussion as we'll as the parts of speech and their forms and differences. But if the voice, as well as the uttered sound, do, indeed, fall within the province of this learned so- ciety, we trust that they will pay some attention to subject hitherto sadly neglected, or, perhaps. despised the vocal organs of the domestic cat. The attempt has repeatedly been made to cultivate the organs of speech of other animals less advanced in the scale of nature. The parrot and the raven have been taught to speak, and the frog, the elephant, the donkey and the hog have had music lessons given them with more or less of success. As for the dog, the poodle and the Spitz have been made to laugh and to cry, to converse and to declaim, to sing and to chant. Poets have written eloquently about the dog and his honest bark, paying deep-mouthed welcome and all that, about the music of the chase and the exhilarating yelp of the terriers in pur- suit of badger and otter, rat or rabbit.
 The same poets, if eat but raises his voice in self-assertion or sentimental flow anywhere in the neighborhood, go for the bootjack at once. All the human race (except the Chinese) have com bined to put down the vocal aspirations of our feline friends. There is an un- questionable hardship in this, for cats are of imaginative and tender disposi- tion. Music enraptures and the sound of their own voice is dear to them. They love the moonlight and the gentle hush of midnight. They are as fond of the housetops as if they were Syrians or Algerians, and they are as full of electricity as the State of Maryland will be when ''Mr. Thomas and myself' have done manipulating it. The vocal powers of the cat have been preposter- ously neglected. If any animal can be taught to speak and sing it is the cat, There is a resemblance which is almost startling between uoe hatnean0 and vOG felin0, and this likeness will impress every one who attends diet of women s rights women with the recollection on his mind of a convocation of cats. In the tones belonging to what is known as the upper register particularly the similarity is so close as to make them almost identical, and there must needs be very great resemblance between the vibratile vocal chords and laryngeal sacculi of the two classes of tabbies.
 The undeveloped possibilities of the cats vocal organs will be revealed to all those who take pains to listen to the dialogues of the more cultivated mem- bers of the tribe secure from interrup- Eeion and brickbats on secluded area wall after midnight. In rich eloquence and even passion of utterance, in ebb and flow of sound, in crescendo and diminuendo. pitch and cadence, fexi- bility and vehemence of transition, brilliancy of appogiature. and in that mellow warmth of tone which is dear to every true artist, the cat excels above all other creatures. Vocal scope of this sort should surely be easy to expand into speech.
 Now the science of language rests upon the laws of phonology. If cats can speak they ought to be made to speak. The operations of Grimm's law cannot be concluded from the race of grimalkins, An animal which has al the hissing sounds of Saxon speech, so unpleasant to foreigners, at her tongues end, so to speak; which does not need to convert aspirates into sonants, nor sonants into surds; which can roll the IS Chinamen cannot pro- nounce, and is at ease with the conso- nants which the Kanaka does not even have in his alphabet-such an animal should not be suffered to waste her powers in the dreary fugues of the off, fensive back area patols. Cats' voices should be cultivated and developed both for the cats good and our own. This Is subject which comments it. self to the attention of the benevolent and the pious equally. The Society for the Protection of Profane Swearing could find no object more worthy its endeavors than this plan for the con- servation of human wrath by the civili- zation of the feline voice. Of course we have no desire to intrude any sub | iect upon the attention of the Philo- logical Society; but if at this season of the year, when bedroom windows must needs be kept open at night to prevent suffocation, the society could, without too much trouble, manage to give this community the benefit of its opinion upon this matter it will certainly earn our gratitude.-BGltin1ore Bulletin.
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