use of the falsetto, and whatever views may be held as
to the desirability of the tenor using this register, so far as art is
concerned, there can be no question whatever that physiologically it
is easy, and one of the means by which relief may be sought from the
high tension caused by carrying up the lower register.

The author, after a special investigation of this and other questions
connected with the registers, came to the conclusion that the falsetto
in males and the head voice in females are produced by a similar
mechanism. In the high falsetto the vocal bands do not vibrate
throughout their whole breadth, and there must be, for a successful
result, in every case a feeling of ease, due to the relaxation of
certain mechanisms in use up to that point and the employment of new
ones.

[Illustration: FIGS. 52. These figures are meant to convey through the
eye some of the main truths regarding the nature of registers and
breaks. The figure on the left applies to the case of one with three
registers in the voice, and with the breaks only very moderately
marked; the illustration on the right applies to the same person after
training, when the breaks have become indistinct, almost
imperceptible. For teaching purposes the author is accustomed to use a
similar diagram, but in shades of the same color, the difference being
rendered less obvious by intermediate shades _between_ the register
shades in the right-hand figure.]

The author now offers, with all respect, but confidence, a few
criticisms on the eminent investigators whose conclusions and methods
he has been discussing.

Madame Seiler was the writer who, as has been already said, brought
more numerous and higher qualifications of a scientific and practical
kind to the investigation of this subject than any other person.
However, the study of physics, involving as it does the use of methods
of extreme precision, tends to beget habits of mind which are not in
all respects the best for the consideration of biological problems.
Madame Seiler and her master, the physicist Helmholtz, regarded the
vocal mechanism very much in the same light as they did their
laboratory apparatus. Only in this way can the author explain some of
Madame Seiler's positions; but on this assumption one can understand
why she should make five registers, and consider them all, apparently,
of equal importance. This latter, together with the tendency generally
to present her views in too rigid a