step of the process; but its use must be limited to cases of this sort, whils at the same time, even here, it can receive no greater commendation than the small, round ligature.

OSSIFIED ARTERIES.

Besides these artificial means of stopping the current of the blood, there are some morbid processes which, in different degrees, produce a similar effect; such are, the production of cartilaginous and ossific deposits between the internal and middle membranes, and a squamous or steatomatous convex view of the middle tunic. These two conditions are very disadvantageous in the use of ligature, even when they do but begin to appear; and when they are more advanced, success in the operation is almost impossible; the middle and internal tunics have lost their vitality by the morbid changes, and the cellular coat alone is left to support the current of the blood; and this tunic sooner or later gives way, unless the formation of a coagulum be very much favoured, by the distance of a collateral branch. It becomes a matter of importance to decide on the best means to be pursued in these cases. If a small, round ligature be employed, the osseous plates are broken down into irregular fragments; the uniform pressure of the cellular coat, so advantageous in a healthy condition of the parts, is here prevented, and there is substituted for it an irregular and uneven pressure; in this state, a very slight inflammation and suppuration suffices to destroy any adhesions, and the formation of a clot and its agglutination are consequently prevented. For these reasons, the small ligature should be, in all such cases, proscribed. The only applicable mode appears to be, equable, moderate, well-regulated pressure. In these cases, from the change in the organization of the middle and internal tunics, no assistance can be expected from them in performing their normal offices; the cellular tunic alone remains, and it is necessary to protect this, as long as possible, from the effects of inflammation and suppuration. From these circumstances, it would appear that the method advised by Bayer is the most applicable, that of keeping up a moderate pressure, insufficient to destroy the vitality of the cellular membrane. But when an ossified vessel is found in an amputated stump, such a means cannot be employed, as too great irritation would be thereby produced. In these cases, the method of Dupuytren and Roux, of introducing a piece of bougie into the vessel, and over that an ordinary ligature, is the best. An inflammation of considerable violence often supervenes, and the effect is so considerable a destruction of the clot, that if it be not some distance from a collateral vessel, hæmorrhage must be the inevitable effect. Of course, in: these morbid states of arteries, torsion is totally inapplicable..

WOUNDS OF ARTERIES..

When an artery is completely divided, the cut ends retire into their cel lular sheath, to the extent of from four to five lines to one inch. This contraction of the vessel, together with the feebleness induced by hæmorrhage,. puts a stop to it, by closing almost entirely the mouth of the vessel. The effect of this is, the deposition of a coagulum within the vessel, which, in its organization follows the same laws as those which are formed after the

application of ligatures. Thus, the spontaneous cure of hæmorrhage following an entire division of an artery, is as complete as if a ligature had been employed. If a longitudinal incision be made in the artery of an animal, the blood escapes at first with force; but this does not, as in the former case, extend to such a degree as to effect complete exhaustion of the animal. The first action which takes place in the wound, is the inversion of the middle membrane, caused by its elasticity; the cellular coat is left loose, and agitated by every successive fit of blood. The force of the current is thus much diminished, and an effusion takes place into the surrounding cellular membrane. This forms a multitude of little clots, which, together, acting as one coagulum, close the mouth of the vessel. If a semi-transverse incision be made into a vessel, the hæmorrhage which follows is with more difficulty arrested than in the last instance; the clot is formed in a different manner, and has a different shape. When the animal is very much weakened, and, from its exhaustion, the blood almost ceases to flow, a little clot forms around the lips of the wound, which, increasing from the circumference to the centre, finishes by its complete occlusion. This clot never acquires great thickness; it leaves the cavity of the artery quite free, as in the former instance, and a temporary cure is the effect. In the case of incomplete division of an artery, the cure is but apparent, for the artery is not obliterated, and the least disturbance of the part will produce a movement in the clot; in the first case, or that of complete division, a permanent cure is effected. With regard to the after-treatment of operations for ligature of arteries, enough is said in other works on operative surgery; I will only add, that it is requisite to take great care that too much blood is not abstracted, as the plethora which exists is quite necessary to force the blood in the capillaries superior to the ligature, into those which are inferior. A sanguineous evacuation can only be useful, where there are congestions towards any organ of importance.

We have thus terminated our analysis of M. Manec's work. The experiments from which the author has drawn his conclusions have been necessarily performed upon animals, and must, of course, be received with some modifications in their application to man; but when we consider the difference of phenomena which show themselves in animals and man, under a similar irritating cause, we shall find the arguments which have been adduced in favour of one plan of treatment much strengthened. The degree of inflammation which is produced by any irritating cause whatever, and the consequent constitutional sypmpathies, are always in proportion to the perfection of the organization. In proof of this, may be mentioned the slight effects produced in animals by operations and injuries, e. g. the gelding of horses, the spaying of sows, the after-effects of which are comparatively trifling, the fracture of bones, which, in dogs, is producive of little more inconvenience than that which arises from the difficulty of moving; and, as we descend farther in the scale of creation, we find abundant illustrations of the same general law, until we arrive at those animals whose propagation may be, as it were, effected by their division, e. g. worms. Thus, if, in an animal, the use of one ligature (the small, round one, for example,) produce a much less degree of inflammation than that of another (the broad, flat ligature), how much is the objection to the latter increased when the argument is applied to man, in which it is fair to conclude that the inflammation would

acquire a proportionate increase. In the one ease, the evil to be apprehended might be confined to that of the local inflammation; in the other, to the local affection might be added the danger of constitutional irritation; and thus, to state the case strongly, the selection of one or another ligature may be a choice between life and death.

VI.

RECHERCHES SUR LE ME'CHANISME DE LA VOIX HUMAINE: OUVRAGE QUI A OBTENU UN PRIX A LA SOCIETE DES SCIENCES PHYSIQUES ET CHIMIQUES DE PARIS. Par F. Bennati, M.D. &c. Paris, 1832.

PHYSIOLOGISTS have studied, with peculiar attention, the formation of the voice in the larynx, and its subsequent modification by the tongue, lips, teeth, &c. which constitutes speech; but they have not investigated with similar care its various modulations in singing, when its full powers are called into action. In the search for instruments, the work of human hands, to which this most complicated piece of animal mechanism might be compared, the organ in which undoubtedly sound is produced has been too exclusively examined, and those parts have not been taken into sufficient account, which, from their intimate connexion with the larynx, must exert some considerable influence on the air which passes through them, after having been thrown into vibrations by the chorda vocales. One physiologist has compared the organ of voice to a wind, another to a stringed instrument, and others to musical instruments combining both these powers; flutes, hautboys, violins, reeds, French horns, Eolian harps, and Æolians have, in succession, served as illustrations to explain the structure and action of an organ composed of cartilages, ligaments, muscles, and glands, lined by mucous membrane, which is constantly kept in a moist state by its peculiar secretion, and preserved in action only by a proper supply of nervous influence and by life. The pithy remark of Dr. Hunter, after enumerating the various cooking machines to which the stomach was compared, that "the stomach, gentlemen, is a stomach," will apply, perhaps, with equal truth to the larynx; nor can we see the force of the objection, that this mode of disposing of a subject, if followed up, would crush all investigation whatsoever; it merely laughs at absurd comparisons, and at attempts to explain the action and structure of vital machines, by reference to those of human workmanship, which have no similarity of structure or mode of action. Dr. Bennati considers that, in order to study with precision the mechanism of the voice in singing, the observer must be both a physiologist and a musician; that he must have paid particular attention to singing; must possess an organ of voice which enables him to make experiments constantly on himself, and that, from his peculiar acquaintances and from travelling, he must have been able to examine the organs of the most celebrated vocalists of the day. Fortunately, Dr. B. unites in himself these qualifications, and, according to

Cuvier's Report, "a reçu de la Nature l'une des voix les plus étendues que l'on connaise." In a note to a translation of a paper by Dr. Rusch, M. Bennati mentions that he was the pupil of the celebrated Pachierotti, so that he has not neglected the study of a voice which compasses three octaves. He has been engaged during 12 years in these researches, during which time he has constantly examined, not only his own organ of voice, but those of the most celebrated singers. The results he has embodied in a memoir read before the Royal Academy of Sciences, which was referred to Cuvier, Savart, and Prony. The report is drawn up by Cuvier; and, as it contains a lucid explanation of M. Bennati's views, as well as a summary of the information possessed by us on this point previously to this publication, we cannot do better than commence by making some extracts from it.

The principal object of this memoir is to explain the function of an organ in the modulation of the voice, to which physiologists have paid but little attention, that is, the velum palati, or rather that part of the throat bounded superiorly by the velum, inferiorly by the base of the tongue, and laterally by the arches of the palate. Fabricius of Aquapendente, a man of genius, whose works are at the present day too much neglected, mentions the contraction of the arch of the palate during the formation of acute sounds, and its relaxation under opposite circumstances. The explanation which he gives of the action of the muscles in producing this is erroneous, but the phenomenon is correct. Dodart does not even mention the fauces. Ferrin, after having placed the organ of the voice in the inferior ligaments of the glottis, makes a restriction, and allows that the chordæ vocales are not the organs of every kind of voice, but that there is a voice of the throat, and a treble of the same nature, which are produced by a new organ which he has discovered, and which he promises at a future time to explain; but, although he lived 30 years after this, no other paper on this subject appeared. Haller supposes that Ferrein referred to the velum palati, the motion of which, he does not doubt, must influence the modulation of sounds; but Haller does not enter into particulars, nor have subsequent physiologists been more precise. Such was the information on the action of the parts of the mouth in the modulation of sounds, when M. Bennati, who joins to his professional knowledge great practice in singing, and a voice of the most extensive compass, undertook his researches. He is satisfied that the tongue itself, by being elevated or depressed, or curved into a channel, exercises a powerful influence on the modulations of the voice, and that before the larynx can produce any intonation whatever, it is necessary that the os hyoides should be fixed in a certain position. He has ascertained, besides, that the notes improperly said to come from the head (voce di testa), or the treble, are owing almost exclusively to the strongest contraction of this upper part of the vocal tube, and he calls them, in consequence, super-laryngeal notes ("notes surlaryngiennes,") and their union, "second registre," to distinguish them from the notes said to come from the chest (la voce di petto,) which he prefers calling laryngeal notes, and the whole of which he calls first "registre."*

The word "registre" is usually employed to denote the stop of an organ. We shall adopt M. Bennati's own term, which with this explanation, will perhaps be the best understood.

He does not mean to say that the larynx does not act in the one, nor the fauces of the other, but only that the fauces play the most essential part in the notes of the second" registre." As to a third registre, which is mentioned in some systems of singing, he regards it as imaginary, and owing only to greater or less vibration of the last notes of the first, and of the first of the second. Those singers whose voice is formed of the two registres require more art to pass from one to the other, so as to unite them, and are fatigued more easily than the others. In the soprani-sfogati, who, by means of the second registre, pass the ordinary scale of soprano, the edges of the tongue become elevated, so as to form a semiconical cavity. In perfect soprani, whose voice is almost exclusively modulated by the first registre, the superior surface of the tongue is, on the country, rounded by the depression of its edges, and what is not less remarkable, it is one-third more voluminous than in ordinary individuals. It is to this influence of the tongue, that Dr. Bennati refers the greater or less fitness of different languages for music, according as the motions which are required by the more or less frequent return of certain letters agree, or are opposed, to those which are made by the tongue, and the anterior part of the mouth, for the projection of the note. In grave sounds, at the same time that the larynx is lowered, the velum is elevated and carried backwards, and the uvula is shortened, and becomes thicker. The contrary takes place in acute sounds; whilst the larynx is raised, the velum is depressed and carried forwards, the uvula becomes doubled on itself, and in the most acute notes of the second registre, it disappears entirely. Thus, the tenors-contraltini and the sopranisfogati have these parts much more developed than the counter-tenors, and there are proportionate differences between the singers of other parts. Those who employ frequently the notes of the second registre, experience a feeling of fatigue at the velum, and if inflammation is the consequence it is confined to those parts; whilst those who make use in singing of the notes of the first registre feel fatigue in the thorax, and are more subject to inflammatory affections of the chest.

M. Bennati concludes by this proposition, that the muscles of the larynx are not the only ones which modulate the voice, but also those of the os hyoides, tongue, and soft palate; that, therefore, the organ of the voice is an organ sui generis, inimitable by art. This, although not entirely new, is an observation which M. Bennati has strengthened by fresh proofs; and M. Cuvier proposes that the Academy should testify their satisfaction to the author.

Dr. Bennati commences his memoir by stating, that the object of his researches is not the study of the formation of voice, nor the action by which it becomes speech, nor that more complicated one by which the inflection is modulated during declamation, but the modulation it undergoes during singing, which is distinguished not only by the calculated and harmonic succession of intervals, and the infinite variety of intonations, but especially on that property of song, of existing independently of speech, that is to say, of forming a complete discourse by the vowels, more or less modified. This high degree of modulation, which constitutes singing, is that which requires the most decided exertion, and the most numerous means of modification. Hitherto physiologists have, in accounting for grave and acute sounds, taken into account merely the internal muscles of the larynx, with the hyo-thyroi