1, 2.Pyramids (Arytenoid Cartilages).
3, 3.Front Projections of the Pyramids.
4.Lever of the Right Pyramid.
5.Upper Border of the Ring.
6, 3, 3.Vocal Ligaments.
7.Lid.
8.Shield.
9.Left Upper Horn of the Shield.
10.Ring.
11.Windpipe.

These vocal ligaments are generally called the vocal cords, but this term is misleading, as it implies strings like those, for instance, of the violin, which are attached only at either end and are free at every other point. This, however, as we have just seen, is not the case, the "Cords" being free only along their inner edges. The name "Vocal Bands," which German physiologists have substituted for "Vocal Cords," does not mend the matter, as it is open to exactly the same objections. The term "Vocal Lips," also used by some writers, is, in my judgment, the most unfortunate of all, because it conveys a totally wrong idea of these parts, as will be seen from a description in another chapter of their movements in the act of singing. I have, therefore, sought for a word which, as a proper description of the thing it is to designate, shall always call a correct image to the reader's mind, and as I cannot find a better one than "Ligament," I have adopted it. I shall consequently in these pages always speak of the tone-producing element as the "Vocal Ligaments."

The vocal ligaments, having met, are struck by the air blown against them from below, and being elastic they yield, allowing themselves to be forced upwards. A little air is thereby set free, and the pressure from below diminished, in consequence of which the vocal ligaments resume their former position, and even move a little more downwards. The renewed pressure of the air once more overcomes the resistance of the vocal ligaments, which again recede as soon as another escape of air has taken place, and this process is repeated in rapid and regular succession. In this manner, and in this manner alone, is vocal tone produced, whether it be called chest, falsetto, head, or by any other name.

There are still some writers who teach a different doctrine. For instance, Miss Sabilla Novello, in her "Voice and Vocal Art," embodied in the "Collegiate Vocal Tutor," published by Novello, Ewer, and Co., says on p. 9, that "The head voice results from the upper [i.e., the false] vocal cords" (these we shall see presently), and on page 13, that the falsetto tones "are created principally by the action of the trachea [windpipe] and not by that of the vocal ligaments." Another writer, Mr. Rumney Illingworth, in a paper "On the Larynx and its Physiology," read before the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, on March 3rd, 1879, and communicated to "The Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette" (Vol. IV., No. 91, p. 151), says that "The falsetto voice is produced by the laryngeal sacculi [the pockets of the voicebox, which will be described further on] acting in the same way as a hazel-nut can be made to act as a whistle, when the kernel has been extracted through a small hole in the shell; or as part of the cavity of the mouth acts in whistling." I shall refer to these theories again as the opportunity for their proper discussion arises; for the present I will quote a few authorities on the subject.

Dr. Carpenter, in his "Human Physiology," eighth edition, page 914, says, "The true theory of the voice may now be considered as well established in regard to this essential particular that the sound is the result of the vibrations of the vocal cords," &c.

Professor Marshall, in his "Outlines of Physiology," page 255, says: "Experiments on living animals show that the vocal cords are alone the essential organs for the production of voice, for so long as these remain untouched, although all the other parts in the interior of the larynx be destroyed, the animal is able to emit vocal sounds.... The existence of an opening in the larynx of a living animal, or of man, above the glottis [glottis means the vibrating element of the voicebox] in no way prevents the formation of vocal sound; such an opening if situated in the trachea [windpipe] causes total loss of voice, but by simply closing it, vocal sounds can again be produced. Such openings, in man, are met with, either as the results of accidents, of suicidal attempts, or of operations performed on the larynx or trachea for the relief of disease."

Dr. Tobold, Professor in the University of Berlin, in his "Laryngoscopie and Kehlkopf Krankheiten" (Laryngoscopy and Diseases of the Larynx), p. 131, says, "Soft palate, lid, pockets, and pocket-bands are not directly active in the production of either chest or falsetto tones; they only modify the tone produced in the glottis."

Dr. Luschka, Professor in the University of Tubingen, in his great work "Der Kehlkopf des Menschen" (The Human Larynx), says in the introduction: "Only the vocal cords, with the slit they form, have specifically functional signification, in a narrower sense, of a voice apparatus, as the parts of the larynx which lie under and over them have no material and deciding influence on the production of sound."

I will bring my quotations to a close with the following, which seeks to prove the contrary. Dr. C. B. Garrett ("The Human Voice," J. and J. Churchill, London, 1875, p. 17) says, "It is recorded that the larynx of a blackbird was removed by severing the windpipe just below it; that the poor 'thing continued to sing, though in a feebler tone.' This proves that notes can be formed behind the instrument and before the air reaches it." This argument, however, is of no value, because it so happens that birds have two larynges, one at the bottom and the other at the top of the windpipe. Dr. Garrett seems not to have been aware of this fact.