which is apparently one and the same sound, should under different
circumstances emanate from sources so entirely different in their
construction as the vocal cords to the trachea and those to the
œsophagus, the viscera of the kidneys, the bladder and the lungs, etc.
This fact also accounts for the mystery which, like an impenetrable
veil, has hung over the features of the voice. Who has ever thought of
looking for the spirit of the voice to reveal itself from _beneath_ the
tongue? Who has ever thought that the œsophagus was a breathing-tube
of a similar functional order as the trachea? Who has thought that the
viscera of the abdomen were playing as important a part in breathing as
the lungs? Who has thought that the hemisphere of the abdomen was as
directly amenable to the influence of the air as that of the thorax?
Who has, in fine, thought that the viscera of the abdomen together with
those of the thorax were primarily instrumental in producing the voice
and vocal utterance?
It may not be pleasant to know, and it may not quite conform with our
æsthetic taste, that the "voice divine" should have its origin in such
vessels as the kidneys and the bladder; but I have no quarrel with
the Creator, and can but wonder, as I have never ceased to wonder from
step to step in all these investigations, at the marvellous resources
of nature. There is one great lesson conveyed through this, namely,---
that the body is _divine_ in its _every aspect_; parts which have been
supposed to serve ends only of a comparatively low order participating
in the highest spiritual functions.
This knowledge is the sanctification of the "flesh," so constantly and
unjustifiably rejected and reviled as against that of the spirit. I
am not dealing with theories, but am stating facts which will be as
positively proven as any other scientific facts ever have been proven.
These proofs will not be all forthcoming in this book, however, there
being other subjects of equal, if not greater, importance that I have
to deal with before I can reach them; these subjects being of such a
nature that they must be explained before those immediately connected
with voice production can be properly dealt with.
I have been reproached with attempting too much; with dealing with too
many subjects at one and the same time; that I ought to complete one
theme and then take hold of another. Just so; but this cannot be done.
I must first deal with general principles. Our entire system being of
a homogeneous nature, I cannot deal with separate issues until these
principles have been dealt with and understood in their entirety.
Besides, I cannot hope to ever _complete_ any one thing. I shall be
well satisfied if I shall be able to simply touch upon every subject
that has come under my observation, lightly, suggesting things, and
leaving it to others to enter more thoroughly into the same.
INTROSPECTION
With our mortal eyes turned outwardly we cannot see spiritual things,
nor the motive power of life, nor the material form the spirit assumes
in moving the mechanism of the body. For there _is_ a material way
in which it is thus moved, as there necessarily must be, and I have
obtained glimpses thereat by turning my eyes inwardly--by looking into
myself with the _inner_ surface of my eyes.
Yet through all these centuries people have been using that portion
of their eyes which is intended for external vision only, in a vain
endeavor to arrive at spiritual-material facts. Thus the larynx, as
the supposed seat of the voice, has been subjected to scrutiny based
upon laws derived from phenomena which owe their origin to physical
causes only. During this vain endeavor the larynx has been subjected
to torture and maltreatment worse than that inflicted upon a mediæval
witch.
But its tormentors have derived no solace from this treatment, not even
that of a confession of imaginary sins. Why not? Simply because it had
not anything to confess, being a reflex, an indirect, and not a free
and original agent. Through torture (by means of the laryngoscope), the
destroyer of harmony, we cannot arrive at laws based upon harmony.
Is not all physiological research more or less of this order? The
"higher law" of science may demand its victims, even as did the "higher
law" of the church. I do not wish to say, however, that the sacrifice
of animals on the altar of science is as useless as that of human
beings used to be on that of religion. Vivisection, however, while it
may, and no doubt sometimes does, help to recognize the physical cause
of disorder, will never be of any value in arriving at spiritual causes
and the recognition of the inner motive power of life, nor to any great
extent at that of the exercise of our faculties and functions. For this
knowledge we require a different mode of proceeding. To penetrate into
the realm of the spiritual-material world (and all phenomena of life
are of that nature) we must not look externally but internally, not
into other beings but into ourselves. That is the only place where we
can hope to find it in action and arrive at the causes of such action.
As our being cannot enter into the inner life of another being and
identify itself with the same or become a part thereof, or remain apart
and become a spectator of the same or substitute therefor (not even for
that of the simplest and lowest living vegetable or animal organism),
we would have to despair of our ability of ever being able to arrive
at the laws governing life, if we were not able to look into our own
lives by substituting for our observations our inner for our outer
consciousness.
The word "Introspection" has heretofore meant reflection upon purely
spiritual phenomena only; I have proven by my personal example that we
can observe physiologico-psychological phenomena with considerable
accuracy--very little of this kind of work, as far as I can learn,
ever having been done before. The nearest approach at amalgamation,
probably, is that which is brought about by means of hypnotism. In this
instance the two factors, the positive and the negative, the operator
and the person operated upon, do not fuse, however, and become one,
but remain entities, each in his own right. Or, to speak still more to
the point, while the positive, that is the spiritual, factor of the
operator may, and no doubt does, join hands with the negative, that is
the material, of his subject, by which the operator becomes one with
the latter, there is still but an _influence_, and not an insight.
Besides, this condition is as yet too obscurely known to be made use of
as a practical means of observation.
After all this, the question will still be asked, "What must we _do_ to
look into ourselves?"
I will admit that I have not stated what others should do, but in
explaining what I have done I mean to explain what general course
others will have to pursue. By taking into consideration what I have
said, and adding thereto what I shall still have to say, a general idea
may be formed of what the reader must do to place himself in a position
to make original observations by means of introspection. No two cases
being just alike, from the fact that heredity, the mental capacity,
physical condition, education, temperament, nationality, etc., with
no two persons are just alike, it is not well possible to point out a
course quite suitable to all. I might as well attempt to arrive at a
law by the observance of which _all_ persons would be enabled to write
poetry.
Still, needing assistance in this vast undertaking, I am particularly
anxious to make this matter clear, as the results of these observations
are of vital interest to all, and I am but one weak, ignorant mortal
creature, with but a small fraction of a life left to me in which to
state that which it would at least take a full lifetime to properly
and fully explain. I am overburdened with an insight which is being
increased daily, even against my will, and which I shall never be able
to fully communicate to others. Let the flood-gates of truth once be
opened and come in upon you as they have upon me, and you will be
overwhelmed by the mass of their detail no less than by the vigor of
their mass. My great want, therefore, for the purpose of more fully
arriving at these facts and obtaining ever higher results is assistance
and coöperation. I wish it to be distinctly understood, however, that I
do not mean this in a personal sense--far from it; but in the interest
and the promotion of science, as everybody wanting to make original
observations must pursue these studies for himself and by himself.
Why such a course has not been heretofore pursued by others I am at
a loss to understand, except from the fact that it takes an unusual
amount of perseverance to reach the first results. Though _all_ persons
may not be able to personally obtain satisfactory results, _all_ may be
_benefited_ by the results obtained by those qualified to successfully
carry on a course of observations by means of introspection. The
world at large will always have to be satisfied with being simply the
beneficiary of scientific research; more especially of research in
matters spiritual or psychical. From facts thus obtained rules may
be deduced, which, translated into "physical forms," may become the
property of all. In this manner numerous observations I have made have
already assumed a practical shape; but I have not as yet been able to
devote the necessary time to them to produce a system which may be used
for general instruction.
Meanwhile I do sincerely hope that others will take hold of these
matters in all seriousness, and assist me in arriving at these
practical physical forms, which I trust, in fact _know_ beyond the
shadow of a doubt, will be fruitful of the most beneficent results
in the teaching of the deaf, of singing and elocution, of pure vocal
utterance in speaking; in curing stammering and other chronic faulty or
deficient utterance; besides numerous other matters of equal importance
not in immediate connection with vocal utterance.
That these matters must be and are of the greatest importance to the
medical student goes without saying. It is to be hoped that they may
lead to a more rational treatment of our frail and often ailing bodies.
I say "bodies" because this is the common phrase. Yet how false this
is, every true physician is but too conscious of. Our ailments cannot
be successfully treated from a mere physical standpoint. The question
of life is not a mechanical one; it is spiritual beyond anything else,
the spirit being the motive power giving life to the otherwise inert
physical body. Yet the only endeavor of the physician has always been
to cure the "machine," to set its mechanism right again when it is out
of order, simply because he has not been able to get at the spiritual
motive power which propels it.
I have been trying to get at this motive power, and to some extent
have been successful in so doing. Besides, the _body_ never suffers.
Its ailments make the soul suffer; while the ailments of the soul have
a comparatively less injurious effect upon the body. The body is the
habitation of the soul. The soul dwells in its _every_ part. As long
as this habitation is habitable the soul continues to dwell therein.
When it becomes uninhabitable the soul departs, never to return. Hence
a body, never so frail and ailing, will continue to live as long as a
vital part is not affected, that is, a part the soul _requires_ for its
habitation and cannot do without. Close such part to the indwelling
of the soul, prevent material and spiritual factors from joining
hands therein, and the spirit departs. Once departed it can never
be made to return. Hence a body in the full vigor of health, after
having been immersed in water sufficiently long to have any one vital
avenue positively closed against the indwelling of the soul, cannot be
resuscitated. As long as the soul clings to it, however, with never so
feeble a grasp, it may come to life again, in the same manner that a
flame nearly extinguished may be fanned to life again.
For me to _fully_ describe my mode of proceeding in arriving at these
matters would be equal to an attempt at crowding into a few paragraphs
_all_ I have gone through within something like forty years, more or
less, of observation.
MAKING PARTS RIGID
I have already stated that I was originally led into making these
investigations through my simple desire of getting rid of my _German_
mode of expression in speaking the English language. Being determined
to find out where the trouble was which prevented me from producing
pure English sounds while I experienced no difficulty in producing
pure German sounds, I pursued vocal sounds, through numerous phases,
to their original sources. The endeavor to arrive at the true nature
of vocal sounds through autology and by means of "introspection" has,
no doubt, been made by thousands before me. The reason they were not
more successful must be attributed to the simple fact that such persons
have been lacking in perseverance. It is one of the most misleading
endeavors one can pursue.
In the beginning I came to what I considered a _positive_ result
perhaps for the hundredth time, but to think I was on the wrong
track the one hundred and first time. I would then, perhaps, finally
determine that the first result arrived at, after all, was the correct
one. In this manner I have in the course of time arrived at positive
conclusions, which have been the basis of all my investigations, and
are undoubtedly correct, as they have yielded up one result after
another and have never proven false. For this, relatively speaking,
"perfect insight" I have waited, before saying anything more at all,
since my previous (preliminary) publication. To these conclusions I owe
my present trust and confidence, and the "boldness and temerity," as
some may say, in making such "startling declarations" in the face of
the accumulated wisdom of the science of this and of past ages. Yet I
am tired unto death of prevarication and of time-serving, and will say
what I consider to be the truth, no matter what may be the consequence.
Any one singing a false note or mispronouncing a foreign word or sound,
yet knowing what the right note, word, or sound is and should be, can
do the same thing, and by perseverance finally find what he has been
looking for and pronounce such note, word, or sound in its entire
purity. This will put him on the track to the production of _all_ pure
notes or sounds. To accomplish this, he must persistently watch one
result after another.
My mode of proceeding has been largely in making parts _rigid_, and
then observing the consequences. In pursuing this course for some time,
you will finally attain such a mastery therein that you will be able
to make almost any vessel, muscle, sinew, membrane, tissue, etc., or
any _part_ thereof, rigid. This is done for the purpose of neutralizing
parts which partake in the production of sounds, and will enable you to
closely watch cause and effect in your natural, as well as artistic,
course of breathing and sound production. _Having two languages at my
command, I was startled to find that cause and effect in both were
totally different from each other._ This gave me the original cue to
all my observations.
In place of sounds, others may pursue odor, taste, feeling,
motion, hearing, etc., to their original sources, and make similar
observations. In so doing they will find that _all phenomena, the
products of our faculties, abilities, or gifts, originally proceed from
the same or similar sources; that there is a homogeneity of proceeding,
mainly consisting in various modes of breathing, in the production of
them all; the end organs of our senses or gifts finally determining
definite special results_.
For vocal utterance, we draw our inspiration for various results to
be attained, from the air, and breathe in a different mode for every
special performance. These modes of breathing, though the same for all
persons in a general sense and leading through the same channels, in a
more restricted sense are different for every nationality.
There is no "danger" connected with these pursuits, in spite of Mr.
Heidenhain's fears; which fact is due to the duality of the nature of
each and all our various faculties, there being a safety-valve always
at the other end in the shape of the negative factor. The only danger I
have discovered was in connection with the "streams of life," which do
not permit tampering with without penalty. As these exist independent
of our ordinary mode of breathing, they are not apt to be interfered
with by any neophyte in the pursuits now under consideration. Of these
powerful streams, of which no notice has ever been taken by any one,
though ceaselessly streaming into and out of our system while life
lasts, I shall take occasion to speak later on.
EXTIRPATION
To make a part "rigid" is equal to the "extirpation" of such part.
While it is in a state of rigidity, it ceases to take part in any
action whatsoever; it is inert and the same as if it had ceased to
exist. What advantage, then, let me ask, is there in extirpating parts
in animals, when we can, by making parts rigid, directly extirpate such
parts in ourselves? We can in this manner suppress the action of any
muscle, or the participation of any vessel, or part of such vessel, in
any act, by the simple exercise of our volition. I find no difficulty
in thus "extirpating" any such part from myself for the time being,
and then observing the consequences. I can take hold of the innermost
part of myself, so to say, and take it _out of myself_. In regard to
vocal utterance, these consequences are positive and direct. That
these operations must be very _carefully_ conducted in connection with
_vital_ parts goes without saying. The action of muscles participating
in the production of vocal utterance, however, or in the act of
breathing, except the muscles of the heart, can be suppressed without
danger. I am thus in a position to modify extirpation of parts to any
extent, almost, I desire. I can add to and detract therefrom at will,
and can shift the act of extirpation from the anterior part of a vessel
to its posterior, or from its superior to its inferior, or vice versa,
now making one side rigid, then the other, now one end, and then the
other; or take hold of its centre and leave the other parts free,
or suppress its circumference and leave the centre free. There is
scarcely a limit to the action of my will in handling my subject. All
this while, my feelings, my intelligence, my mind, take in every phase
of these proceedings, and enable me to give a correct account of the
results I have been observing.
This discovery--for a discovery it must be, as I can find no account of
any similar proceeding ever having been carried on--should, and I hope
will, put an end to vivisection, when it is resorted to for the purpose
of learning anything whatever in respect to the action and the process
of life. By this proceeding I have more or less successfully observed
the acts of breathing, of vocal utterance, motion and locomotion,
hearing, seeing, and thinking.
I beg leave to here insert without comment the following clipping from
the press:
The following extracts are from a lecture on "Vivisection in
Relation to Medical Science," delivered by Edward Berdoe, M.
R. C. S., etc., at Cambridge. Lovers of animals may be glad to
know how the medical fraternity amuse themselves:
"You may open the abdomens of living cats, guinea-pigs, and
rabbits, and apply irritating chemicals to their exposed
intestines, causing what you are pleased to term 'peculiar
rhythmic movements' and 'circus movements,' but what the
unlearned would call violent spasms and convulsions, as was
done by Dr. Batten and Mr. Bokenham, at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, last year. You may dissect out the kidneys of living
dogs and cats which you have first paralyzed by curare--the
'hellish oorali' of Lord Tennyson's poem, so called because
the animal's sufferings are intensified by its use, and it is
unable to move a limb, or to bite, scratch, howl, or otherwise
interfere with the operator's comfort. You may do this, as
was done by Dr. John Rose Bradford, at University College,
London. You may infect ninety cats with cholera poison, and
bake numbers of them alive, as did Dr. Lander Brunton. You may
inoculate the eyes of rabbits and guinea-pigs with the material
of tubercle, fix glass balls filled with croton oil--a horribly
irritating drug--and stitch them into the muscles of the backs
of rabbits, then crush them amongst their tissues, as did
Dr. Watson Cheyne, at King's College, London. You may slice,
plough, burn, and pick away the brains of monkeys and dogs, as
did Dr. Ferrier. You may slowly starve to death animals whose
vagi nerves have been cut and stimulated by electricity, as
was done by Dr. Gaskell, of this University, in 1878. You may
cut out the spleens and livers from living rabbits, pigeons,
and ducks, as was done by Dr. William Hunter, of St. John's
College, Cambridge, in 1888, or do a thousand other acts which
in a coster-monger or a farm laborer would be termed and dealt
with as acts of atrocious cruelty, punishable by imprisonment.
But you have not learned the cure for a single malady which
afflicts the human body."
THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TONGUE
There is another mode of proceeding by which satisfactory results can
be obtained, and which was the only one I resorted to in the beginning
and for many years afterwards; namely, the watching of the movements of
the tongue.
The muscle of the tongue, for vocal utterance, is the most important in
our organization. It appears to me, in fact, as if in its tip there
were a concentration of all the threads which control our existence;
and that it is, therefore, representative of an epitome of our entire
being. As all sciences, in a general, though in some instances
perhaps somewhat remote, sense, centre in the science of life, so
do the controlling elements in our composition centre in the tip of
the tongue. If it were possible to analyze it spiritually as well as
physically, we would obtain a compendium of knowledge far in advance of
any there is in existence in the world at the present time. Still, it
must be admitted that this would, to some extent, depend upon _whose_
tongue's tip was submitted to such analyzation. The fact of the tip of
the tongue being removed by surgical operation without serious effect
upon the mental condition of the individual does not greatly affect my
assertion. In that case the concentration must have taken place at the
tongue's new tip or end.
The tongue's tip, with as infallible correctness as the magnetic needle
points towards the north pole, indicates the exact spot whence sounds
come, or should come, to appear on the surface in a clear and undefiled
manner. The tongue's tip, for English vowel sounds, does not touch
any part of the oral cavity. It is constantly changing its position,
however, and for every vowel sound, or shade of a vowel sound, points
in the direction of or _approaches_ the spot whence a sound comes,
or should come. To ascertain such spot with exactitude, it is but
necessary to _extend_ the tongue's tip until it reaches the wall of the
oral cavity during or, still better, immediately after the utterance
of a vocal sound. Upon reaching that spot the tongue may continue in
the same position of contact and the sound can still be uttered with
entire purity. Change this point of contact, however, but in the least,
and such sound will at once cease to come to the surface. Yet, while
_apparently_ a sound comes from the direction in which the tip of the
tongue points, this is not really the case. In pointing in a given
direction, the tongue opens up the channels of the œsophagus and the
trachea in a special manner for the proper emission of a given sound,
beneath as well as above, and to the left as well as to the right of
its radix. In changing the tongue's position but in the least, these
channels will open in a different direction, which may then be the
proper medium for the emission of another sound, but not for the one
under consideration.
The general mode in which the radix of the tongue turns upon its axis
is the direct and fundamental cause productive of the various languages
of the world; such general mode necessitating special movements of
the tongue for the production of the sounds of any special language.
Regarding the proper emission of consonant sounds every one knows that
the same depends upon the particular spot of contact of the tongue's
tip with parts of the oral cavity. As a matter of fact, such point
of contact also opens, the same as with vowel sounds, the tubes of
the trachea and œsophagus at the tongue's radix in the proper manner
for the emission of a given stream of air for the production of such
consonant sounds.