The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-10-08
RISE AND FALL OF THE VOICE.
Once No Living Thing Had One, ard 5ie
Same Will be Trna sra

Same Will be Trna ar
There was time in the i , he
world when even the amin; i lad nc
voice. There were no sounds or noises
then but those made by the winds
whistling about mountain tops and
bowling through primeval forests. or OF
the waves dashing on shores absolutely
silent and dead. The animals of those
geological epochs being in the plastic
state preceding the development Of the
osseous structure that now gives form
and comeliness to the human body, were
just beginning to breathe the external
air with gentle respiration. Ages it
should rather be said epoehs, were
passed in this manner, in the course of
which the habit of respiration developed
the lungs Then the use of the throat
essential to the taking of food pro-
duced those organs necessary to speech,
which are called the pharynx, CLOTHS
and laryn&- 1t seems that Providence
as matter of supreme convenience,
made the same passage serve for eating,
speaking and breathing, although
another arrangement was possible, like
the respiratory apparatus of the grass
hopper, which is placed at the sides.
This IS one of the very few exceptions
to the rule which applies in common to
man and most animals.
When the upper part of the throat
was in an advanced state of develop
ment the act of respiration began to be
accompanied by certain inarticulate
sounds. at first resembling the rough
breathing of Of a person whose air pas
sages are INSTRUCTED by bad cold. In
stinct soon taught the animal that
these noises could be increased by forc-
ing slightly the inspiration or expira-
! ton Of the breath, or by contracting
the muscles of the throat and SO emit
ting the voice in rapid succession of
indefinite sounds. We have the right
to suppose that the yelping of sea lions
represents very nearly the human voice
in its early stages of development. The
sounds of the voice of the human being
are, like those of all animals and of all
instruments, the result of vibration
of chords, and are grave or acute ac-
cording to the size of these chords.
There is little reason to doubt that the
first sounds made by animals were low
down in the musical scale, but as the
voice, guided by instinct. was more and
more used, either for the purpose of
amusement or to inspire terror, they
would naturally, in the case of many
species in which there was more pro-
nounced development of the Uranium,
be made more in the head and become
what we now call head tones. This
change was more rapid in animals
living on the land, the voice
OF those whose habits continued
to be amphibious remaining much
the same. There came in the
course of time to be a great variety in
the voices of animals, determined partly
by their size, but generally by the cir
cunstances in which they were placed.
The different species of the feline race
living in forests cultivated the higher
tones. The lion adapted his voice to
the vast desert spaces where he roamed
and gained a scanty subsistence. The
dog in his wild state probably confined
himself to the lower notes of the scale
and expressed his hostility only by
barking. Since his demonstrations, hav-
ing acquired sort OF human sentiment,
he yelps and whines in the higher tones
to express feelings that are but iraper-
fectly understood. The cat initiates
the high sopranos. The horse having a
long neck and a head nearly as long,
initiates in his neighing most of the
modern tenors. The animals of the boz
vine tribe produce the voice from low
down in the throat, only occasionally
ventUring on certain higher and exceed
ingly unnatural notes. A great variety
of tone and compass is found among the
birds, from the shrill scream of those
of a ravenous kind down to the parrots,
among which are found the bassos,
baritones and contraltos of the race.
The singing birds combine the high
and low tones with extraordinary fexi-
bility of voice and a perfection of vocal
ism at which they arrived probably at
a very remote period of the worlds his
tory.
Man inherited from his immediate
ancestors, the apes and monkeys, a
voice of considerable altitude, in which
the lower tones We're almost unknown.
The monkeys chartered to their fellows
from tree to tree in shrill head tones,
the natural vocal expression of weak
and tinid race, in whose physical for
nation the head had begun to hold an
important place. The upper notes Of
the register were characteristic of the
first men, as they are still of savage tribes
members of modern society. whose
voices have never been subjected to dis
cipline, The voices OF country people
accustomed to magnificent distances
and conversation at long range are. II
not keyed higher, oftener used in the
upper ranges than those of city people,
who feel obliged by the necessities of
good breeding to moderate their tones.
When q man is self-contained he uses
the middle and lower tones of his voice;
when angry the voice mounts gradual
ly to the head. II the gentler sex would
oftener bear in mind the eulogies of
Shakespeare and Scott of that voice
gentle and low which is an excellent
thing in woman they would more rare
~ have occasion to wonder why they
have ceased to be attractive. The mu-
sic of the Chinese, Japanese. and of all
wild tribes is keyed high and sung usu-
ally in falsetto, the lower notes being
obtained by drums, tomtons or some
other instruments of the kind. Al
though their songs are far from agree !
able to the ear, they still think they
can sing. an illusion shared. it must be
confessed. By considerable number Of
persons in the most refined modern so
ciety.