The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-09-21
VOICE OF ANIMALS.
THE SLOW RISE AND FUTURE FALL
OF THE HUMAN SPEECH.

Once No Living Thing Had n Voice, and
the Time will Come When the Same
Thing VIII be True Again, at Least So
Far as Human Beings Are Concerned.
There was a time in the history Of the
world when even the animals had no voice.
There were no sounds or noises then but
those made by the winds whistling about
tops and bowling through prim.
eval forests, or of the waves dashing on
shores absolutely silent and dead The an.
imals of those geological epochs, being in
the plastic state preceding the develop
ment OF the osseous structure that now
gives form and comeliness to the human
body, were just beginning to breathe the
external air with a gentle respiration.
Ages, it should rather be said epochs, were
passed in this manner, in the course OF
which the habit of respiration developed
the lungs Then the use of the throat es-
sential to the taking of food produced
those organs necessary TO speech, which
are called the pharynx, Elottis and larynx.
1t seems that Providence, as matter Of
supreme convenience, made the same pas
sage serve for eating, speaking and breath
ing, although another arrangement was
possible, like the respiratory apparatus of
the grasshopper, which is placed at the
sides. This is one of the very few exeep-
tions 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 development the
act OF respiration began to be accompanied
by certain inarticulate sounds, at first re-
sembling the rough breathing of person
whose air passages are INSTRUCTED by bad
cold. Instinct soon taught the animal
that these noises could be increased by
forcing slightly the inspiration or expira-
ton of the breath, or by contracting the
muscles of the throat and so emitting the
voice in n rapid succession of indefinite
sounds. We have the right to suppose that
the yclping 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 all instruments, the result Of
a vibration of chords, and are grave or
acute according to the size of these chords
This change Yves more rapid in animals
living on the land the voice of those whose
habits continued to be amphibious remain
ing much the same. There came in the
course Of time to be great variety In the
voices of animals, determined partly by
their size, but generally by the circum-
stances 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 do
mestication, having acquired ~ sort of hui
man sentiment, he yelps and whnes in the
higher tones to express feelings that are
but imperfectly understood. The cat imi-
tates the high sopranos. The horse, having
ia long neck and u head nearly as long, i'm
itates in his neighing most of the modern
tenors.
The animals of the bovine tribe produce
the voice from low down in the throat,
ionly occasionally venturing on certain
higher and exceedingly unnatural notes.
A great variety of tone and compass Is
found among the birds, from the shrill
scream of those of ravenous kind down
to the parrots, among which are found the
bassos, baritones and eontraltos Of the
race. The singing birds combine the high
and low tones with extraordinary iexi-
bility of voice and perfection of vocalism
at which they arrived probably at very
remote period of the worlds history.
Man inherited from his immediate an
cestors, the apes and monkeys, voice of
considerable altitude in which the lower
tones were almost unknown. The mon.
keys chartered to their fellows from tree
to tree in shrill head tones, the natural
vocal expression of weak and timid race,
in whose physical formation the head had
begun to hold an important place. The
upper notes of the register were character
istic OF the first men, as they still are Of
savage tribes and peoples, and of the half
civilized members of modern society
whose voices have never been subjected to
discipline.
The music of the Chinese, Japanese and
of all wild tribes is keyed high and sung
usually in falsetto, the lower notes being
obtained by drums, tomtonls or some other
instruments Of the Kind. Although their
songs are far from agreeable to the ear,
they still think they can sing, an illusion
shared, it must be confessed, by "A con
siderable number of persons in the most
refined modern society.
These facts and suggestions contain
probably the reason for the belief ex-
pressed bya French writer that the human
High tenors and sky scraping sopranos are
more and more difficult to find, great
misfortune in these times when the Wag.
ner operas demand such extraordinary
vocal efforts The Chronicle has already
endeavored to explain the awful conse
quences Of this theory carried to its logical
results. 1t las shown how the sopranos
will gradually become contraltSa; the con
ltraltOs tenors regardless of Sexl fine tennrs
hartones, and the baritones bassos. II
would be well il the misfortune ended
, here, but this is by no means ALL Wher
the whole human race is only able to speal
In bass tones there will continue TO he {
depression of the higher OF these, INIT
one single dead level is reached, aboy,
which the voice will be unable to rise. 4,
this unfortunate voice music in all it
forms will long have been impossible. Fo
awhile conversation, whose ghostll
solemnity can only be imagined, will b,
carried on, and then the vocal organs viii
rease entirely to exist.-San Francisct