are and analytical
attention to detail that were devoted to the formulation of the metric
system. To mechanical rules less than one page is devoted. Respiration
is the only subject to receive more than a few lines. A system of
breathing with flat abdomen and high chest is outlined, and the student
is instructed to practise breathing exercises daily. Five lines are
contained in the chapter headed "De l'emission du son," and these five
lines are simply a warning against throaty and nasal _quality_. The
pupil is told to stand erect, and to open the mouth properly. But a
foot-note is given to the rule for the position of the mouth which shows
how thoroughly the mechanical rule was subordinated to considerations of
tone quality. "As there is no rule without exceptions, we think it
useful to observe at what opening of the mouth the pupil produces the
most agreeable, sonorous, and pure quality of tone in order to have him
always open the mouth in that manner." In the main the Methode outlines
a purely empirical system of instruction, based on the guidance of the
voice by the ear. There can be no question that the idea of mechanical
management of the voice was introduced later than 1803.

Citations might be made to show the gradual advance of the mechanical
idea from two interesting works, _Die Kunst des Gesanges_, by Adolph B.
Marx, Berlin, 1826, and _Die grosse italienische Gesangschule_, by H. F.
Mannstein, Dresden, 1834. But this is not necessary. It is enough to say
that Scientific Voice Culture was not generally thought to be identical
with mechanical vocal management until later than 1855.

Manuel Garcia was the first vocal teacher to undertake to found a
practical method of instruction on the mechanical principles of the
vocal action. When only twenty-seven years old, in 1832, Garcia
determined to reform the practices of Voice Culture by furnishing an
improved method of instruction. (_Grove's Dictionary._) His first
definite pronouncement of this purpose is contained in the preface to
his _Ecole de Garcia_, 1847. "As all the effects of song are, in the
last analysis, the product of the vocal organs, I have submitted the
study to physiological considerations." This statement of Garcia's idea
of scientific instruction strikes us as a commonplace. But that serves
only to prove how thoroughly the world has since been converted to the
idea of mechanical Voice Culture. At that time it was generally believed
to be a distinct