_Garcia_ states, in his observations, that sometimes when the
rims of the vocal ligaments have come together, there remains
between the arytenoid cartilages a triangular space, which
does not close until the tone is produced. _Czermak_ likewise
describes this process in his pathological investigations,
and also a similar one with the laryngoscope. While, namely,
the arytenoid cartilages seem to be wholly closed, one sees
just before the beginning of the tone the vocal ligaments
standing apart in a square-shaped form, and only closing
together with the tone. At first, before I had attained to
much practice in observation, I often saw these processes
in myself, and later often in others.
That these accidental forms of the glottis bear no relation to
the generation of sounds, as _Funke_ truly says, is made evident
by an irregularity in the combined action of the muscles of the
larynx, by which the coming together of the arytenoid cartilages
takes place later than that of the ligaments, or that of the
ligaments later than that of the arytenoid cartilages.
As recently great importance has often been ascribed to these
abnormal movements of the glottis in the generation of sound,
I have felt bound to mention them.