Part 9

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.

Every imaginable opprobrious epithet has been by singers bestowed upon the tongue. "This obstreperous muscle which is always in the way," says one. "This troublesome member will persist in going up when you want it to remain down"; "intractable," "contrary," "obstinate," "wilful," "ungovernable," "stubborn." All these expressions have been used by writers on the voice in connection with the tongue, simply because it would not yield to unreasonable and unnatural demands made upon it; the tongue, being a free agent, persisting in its natural rights--as much so as any independent democratic citizen persists in his.

My observations having been made in connection with a foreign language, I had a better opportunity for watching my tongue's movements than I would have had had I attempted to watch them in connection with my native tongue; the movements of the tongue in connection with the latter being so rapid and involuntary that it becomes exceedingly difficult to make any observations at all. It was like having this foreign (English) tongue exist independently alongside of my own, my intelligence watching it, and guiding it, now here, now there, until it would touch the right spot for the right English sound. Knowing what the right sound was and should be, I never stopped until the same came to the surface.

In trying to find my way in this foreign (English) territory of the oral cavity, I might compare my English tongue to the stick in the hands of a blind man, who uses it in place of his eyes to ascertain his whereabouts, so as to enable him to proceed on his way in the right direction. With my "stick" I felt in every direction, till I found I could steer clear of obstacles straight into the channel of the sound I had been seeking. From my German post of observation I was thus enabled to watch the movements of my English tongue in its efforts to find itself "at home" in this foreign territory, while I was at the same time guiding it from one point therein to another.

I want to call especial attention to and reiterate the fact that the exact point whence a sound proceeds, or seems to proceed, can, by extending the tongue's tip, be quite as well (if not better) ascertained, after the utterance of a sound, as during such utterance; that is immediately after the tongue has ceased to vibrate for such sound.

The difference in the movements of the tongue for various languages is one of the most interesting observations to be made in connection with these studies. The German language being the exact opposite, the antipode, to the English, after comprehending the movements of the tongue for the latter, its own movements, that is, the movements of the tongue for German sounds, were not difficult for me to ascertain.

It is an anomaly to apply the works of German writers on the voice to the study of the English language, or to that of any other than the German language; or to apply books written from an English standpoint to the study of any language except the English--the movements of the tongue, and, in sympathy therewith, of countless other muscles, being different for every language.

Whatever the movements of the tongue are for the spoken language, they are of an inverse order for song. I anticipate in making the following statement, namely, that while speech is of an order which is rapid, direct, anterior, exterior, spontaneous, impulsive, and material, song is of an order which is slow, indirect, posterior, interior, premeditated, contemplative, and spiritual. I will also add this: that, while speech is of the oral cavity, song is of the pharynx. In making these remarks and others in anticipation, I do so intentionally and for a purpose; not so much in expectation that they will be at once and fully understood, as with a view of setting others thinking on these subjects until I can reach them in due course of time; or, if I should never be able to reach them, that the principle, at least, underlying the same, which if the opportunity had been granted me would have been fully sustained, shall not be lost. The reader will notice that I am hurrying over the ground as rapidly as I consistently can, even from my--under the best of circumstances--superficial standpoint, leaving wide gaps to be filled in by others in the course of time.

SIMPLE SOUNDS

Speaking of sounds in making experiments in connection with the movements of the tongue, it is of the first importance that these sounds should be simple and not vocal or compound. They must be sounds of the same order as we utter in whispering, or such sounds as we are apt to use when learning to speak a foreign tongue. They are the inharmonious sounds of the deaf, and those which distinguish the speech of a foreigner from that of the native-born.

The recognition of these sounds as the negative parts of speech has been one of my main accomplishments, and has been of the greatest assistance to me in my investigations.