The record-union., 1893-11-13
HAS AN ARTIFICIAL VOICE.
Frenchman Who Talks With the
Aid of Bellows and Valves.


At one of the recent sessions of the
French Academy Of Medicine, DR.. Perier,
surgeon of the Lariboisiere Hospital, pre-
sented for the examination of his coll
leagues a mute who expressed all his
ideas by speech-that is to say, by nodu-
lated sounds. The history of this man,
as given in La 1ndg9Sin PittOeSq1Le, is
most curious and interesting from a
scientific point OF view. He was habit
ually enjoying robust health when he
was stricken with an incurable affection
of the larynx, the first symptoms of
which he observed in January, 1891.
Tired of the treatment which he had
to undergo for two years, he expressed
desire to be operated upon as radically as
possible. Fortified with such authorize
ton, DIR. Perier proceeded. on the 18th of
June last. to operate on him for the total
eXtirpation of the larynx.
Everyone knows that the region of the
larynX contains the very organs of the
voice, and that the vocal apparatus of man,
if it is indisputably the most delicate, is
the most perfect Of that of the higher be-
ings. Its destruction through. .disease or
accident is consequently followed by
aphony. The operation once terminated
according to the rules of art, the skillful
surgeon formed in the anterior wall of
the neck a small oritice, which he left
open. This opening, consequently COM
municating with both the exterior and
the pnarynx, was reserved for expert
mentS upon the re-estabishment of the
voice by means OF an artificial larynX.
Convalescence proceeded quickly, and on
the 2Sth of June the health of the patient
was sufficiently re-established to permit
of such experiments
In concert with Mr.. Aubry, manufact-
urer of surgical instruments. Dir. Perier
directed these tentatives toward the adap-
tation of an artificial larynx, actuated by
blowing device, and not by the air issu-
ing from the trachea. The apparatus
relatively simple, that they decided to
adopt consists of a metallic reed inclosed
in tube, and the plates of which, ar
ranged in contrary directions, obiiterate
half of the light at each extremity. This
tube terminates above in a spherical sur
face, capable of being applied hermetic-
ally to the oritice in the front of the
neck. Below it is connected with two
elastic reservoirs. coupled and mounted
upon metallic S-shaped armature, per-
mitting of one communication with the
other, in order to obtain a continuous
current of air of mean intensity. One of
the reservoirs is put in communication
with q blowing device formed of bulb
similar TO those that actuate vapor-
iZers. Under the effect of the cur
rent of air the metallic reed enters
into vibration and emits a constant note
of Uniform tonality, which is approxi-
mately that OF the ordinary diapason.
The sound thus produced is led, so to
speak, into the buccal cavity. 1t remains
then, in order TO convert it into true
spoken language. only to make it un-
dergo, through the internedium of the
tongue, lips, and teeth, as in ordinary
phonation, the series of modulations that
produce the nuances and the difference
in the pronunciation of words. These
nuances, as incredible as the facts may
seem at first sight, are. it appears, OBJ
tanned quite easily. An education of
few days sutfices.
The individual who was the object of
the communication made to the Paris
Academy of Medicine was able, amid the
plaudits of the whole assem- blage. alter
receiving his operator with emotion, to
retrace the history and detailed phases of
his painful disease with a voice that was
distinct, although of a low and monoto-
nous tone.