It is, however, a noteworthy fact that with Germans the nearer you approach the sea, the more centrifugal becomes their action and personal appearance. The people of Northern Germany, therefore, though radically differing from them in most other respects, partake more of the general bodily features of Anglo-Saxon nations than those of the South of Germany, who are positively opposed to them.
Upon having ascertained the correctness of these statements by actual experiment, I want to ask the reader how he expects to reconcile these facts with the universally adopted theory that the larynx is the sole instrument productive of vocal utterance. An Anglo-Saxon, when stretching out his arms horizontally, can readily speak English, while a German in the same position cannot utter a sound of his language without difficulty. If the larynx in the case of an Anglo-Saxon, under these circumstances, produces vocal utterance, why is it not so easy with a German?
My explanation is this:
By extending your limbs, in stretching out your arms, or standing on your toes, the centrifugal action is instrumental in parting the jaws and giving the tongue an upward tendency. In so doing, the œsophagus and replica obtain ascendancy over the trachea and the larynx. The abdomen (the seat of gravitation for English speech) and its tributaries thus obtain the mastery over the thorax and its tributaries. The former being the main vehicle for English speech, such speech can be produced without molestation. These facts, while favorable to the production of English vocal utterance, obstruct and hinder German vocal utterance.
In lowering the arms or standing on one's heels, thus substituting centripetal for centrifugal action, the jaws close, the tongue assumes a downward tendency. The trachea and the larynx, as well as the thorax (the seat of gravitation for German vocal utterance), obtain the preponderance, and German may be freely spoken, while English is obstructed.
In raising the tongue, a free passage to the œsophagus is obtained, while that to the trachea is obstructed. In lowering the tongue, a free passage to the trachea is obtained, while that to the œsophagus becomes obstructed. It is necessary, however, to understand that, while English speech is centrifugal and German centripetal, these are tendencies only and not permanent conditions; centrifugal and centripetal action constantly interchanging and modifying one another. An uninterrupted tendency in one and the same direction, either centripetally or centrifugally, would soon come to an end and produce stagnation, inertia, death. There is no action without a counteraction. Hence, ingoing vocal sounds are counterbalanced by outgoing; the same as ingoing thoughts or thoughts produced by external vision are counterbalanced by outgoing, or thoughts produced by internal vision, etc.
In addition to the parts mentioned, there are many other parts of the body which, subjected to centrifugal or centripetal action, will produce results of the same order as those already mentioned. In stretching out your legs (while in a sitting position), you will find speaking German to be difficult; upon drawing them up, you will have trouble with English. The same results may be obtained, in connection with the toes and fingers, in a number of different ways. From all this, it will be readily seen that all parts of the body are closely related to each other, the tendency of the muscles in one prominent part producing the same tendency in all the rest.
There is one thing which must be mentioned, however. To obtain centrifugal action, it is necessary to stretch the part under consideration; the mere extension of a part, without stretching it, will be fruitless of results in either one direction or another; so will the mere contraction of any part be fruitless of results, unless such contraction is complete. You can let your arms hang down alongside of your body and yet speak English easily; and you can hold them out horizontally, and yet speak German easily. In either case the contraction and expansion must be thorough to produce results either centripetally or centrifugally.
All persons make similar motions to those mentioned with every sound they utter, though these motions do not appear on the surface; in fact, they could not speak if they did not make them.
I have already mentioned, but want to repeat, that centrifugal action is the cause of the elongated faces, and especially of the elongation of the lower jaw of English-speaking persons. It is also the cause of their semi-parted lips while in repose, showing their teeth, and a full exhibition thereof while speaking; a fact which has caused much merriment to continental nations, and has given rise to an endless number of caricatures of "milord" and "milady" on their travels, etc. It is also the cause of the perfection of dentistry in this country and in England, where the teeth are always more or less on exhibition. In other countries, where they are hidden behind the curtains of the lips, which are usually closed, except while speaking or laughing, this necessity does not arise to nearly the same extent. To the centrifugal force there is also due much of the innate charm and beauty of English-speaking women.