606. The condition of the air modifies speaking and singing. As pure air is more elastic and resonant than impure, and as easy, melodious speaking or singing requires atmospheric elasticity, so school-rooms and singing-halls should be well ventilated, if we would be entertained with soft intonations in reading, or sonorous singing.
Observation. The imperfect ventilation of churches and vestries is another cause of laryngitis among clergymen. 278 This affection is almost unknown among those who speak in very open rooms, where stoves are not used.
Give 2d. observation. 606. Why does easy and melodious speaking require pure air? What is another cause laryngitis among clergymen?
607. The condition of the nasal passages and throat modifies the voice. The enunciation of words is rendered more or less distinct, in proportion as the jaws are separated in speaking, and the fauces and nasal passages are free from obstruction. For these reasons, the scholar should be taught to open the mouth adequately when reading, speaking, or singing, that the sounds formed in the larynx and modified in the fauces may have an unobstructed egress.
Observations. 1st. If the fauces are obstructed by enlarged tonsils, (a condition by no means uncommon in children,) they should be removed by a surgical operation, which is not only effective, but safe, and attended with little suffering. The tonsils are situated on each side of the base of the tongue, and, when enlarged, they obstruct the passage through which the air passes to and from the lungs, and the respiration is not only laborious, but distressing.
2d. When the nasal passages are obstructed, there is a peculiar sound of the voice, which is called “talking through the nose.” This phenomenon arises, not from the expired air passing through the nose, but from its not being able to pass through the nasal passages.
608. The state of the mind and health exerts an influence upon the vocal organs. “The organs of the voice, in common with all other parts of the bodily frame, require the vigor and pliancy of muscle, and the elasticity and animation of mind, which result from good health, in order to perform their appropriate functions with energy and effect. But these indispensable conditions to the exercise of vocal organs, are, in the case of most learners, very imperfectly supplied.”
607. Does the condition of the throat and nasal passages modify the voice? Name the influences that produce clear enunciation of words. What is the effect when the nasal passages are obstructed? 608. How are the vocal organs influenced? What do they require?
609. “A sedentary mode of life, the want of invigorating exercise, close and long-continued application of mind, and, perhaps, an impaired state of health, or a feeble constitution, prevent, in many instances, the free and forcible use of those muscles on which voice is dependent. Hence arises the necessity of students of elocution practising physical exercises adapted to promote general muscular vigor, as a means of attaining energy in speaking; the power of any class of muscles being dependent on the vigor of the whole system.”