"When the vowel A, as in 'man,' was sung, I could, after long-continued practice, plainly see how the pyramids quickly rose with their summits in their mucous membranous case and approached to mutual contact. In like manner the vocal ligaments approached each other so closely that scarcely any space between them was observable. The pocket ligaments formed the ellipse described by Garcia in the upper part of the glottis."
The word "glottis" really signifies the vibrating element in the voicebox. I suppose, therefore, that by "the upper part of the glottis" Madame Seiler here means the "part above the glottis."
"When, in using the laryngoscope upon myself, I slowly sang the ascending scale, this movement of the vocal ligaments and pyramids was repeated at every tone. They separated and appeared to retreat, in order to close again anew, and to rise somewhat more than before. This movement of the pyramids may best be compared to that of a pair of scissors. With every higher tone the vocal ligaments seemed more stretched, and the vocal chink somewhat shorter. At the same time, when I sang the scale upward, beginning with the lowest tones, the vocal ligaments seemed to be moved in their whole length and breadth by large, loose vibrations, which extended even to all the rest of the interior of the voicebox.
"The place at which the pyramids, almost closed together, cease their action and leave the formation of the sound to the vocal ligaments alone, I found in the thick register of the female voice at C, C♯
[LISTEN], more rarely at B
[LISTEN]. In the thick register of the male voice this change occurs at A, B♭
[LISTEN]. With some effort the above-mentioned action of the pyramids may be continued several tones higher. But such tones, especially in the female voice, have that rough and common timbre which we are too often compelled to hear in our female singers. The glottis also, in this case, as well as the parts of the voicebox near the glottis, betrays the effort very plainly; as the tones ascend, the glottis and the surrounding parts grow more and more red. As at this place in the thick register there occurs a visible and sensible straining of the organs, so also is it in all the remaining transitions, as soon as the attempt is made to extend the action by which the lower tones are formed beyond the given limits of the same. These transitions, which cannot be extended without effort, coincide perfectly with the places where J. Müller had to stretch the ligaments of his exsected voicebox so powerfully in order to reach the succeeding half-tone. Garcia likewise finds tones thus formed disagreeable and imperfect in sound.