e so exceedingly minute as to be capable of
being differently interpreted by different observers. I have
consequently come to the conclusion that they cannot be accepted as
indicating changes of mechanism unless corroborated and amplified by
other signs.

In order to place the whole subject before the reader in a comprehensive
form, I cannot do better than quote the elaborate description which
Madame Emma Seiler gives of the registers in "The Human Voice in
Singing" (Philadelphia, 1875). Madame Seiler, to whom Mr. Lunn is
pleased to refer, on p. 65 of his treatise, as an "ignorant person,"
assisted Professor Helmholtz, of Heidelberg, in his essay upon the
Formation of the Vowel-tones and the Registers of the Female Voice. He
says he thus had "an opportunity of knowing the delicacy of her musical
ear, and her ability to master the more difficult and abstract parts of
the theory of music." The Professor further speaks of her as "a very
careful, skilled, and learned teacher." Professor Du Bois-Reymond, of
Berlin, also describes her as "a lady of truly remarkable attainments."
With such recommendations I make no apology for quoting at length from
Madame Seiler's writings; and it will be readily understood that
whenever I differ from her, I do so with some diffidence, and only after
careful conviction of the accuracy of my own independent observations.

[Illustration]

I shall substitute the terms hitherto used in these pages for others
employed by Madame Seiler, and I have added a diagram of the
registers, which may assist the reader in forming a clear idea of the
subject.

THE THICK REGISTER.

"When the vowel A, as in 'man,' was sung, I could, after long-continued
practice, plainly see how the pyramids quickly rose with their summits
in their mucous membranous case and approached to mutual contact. In
like manner the vocal ligaments approached each other so closely that
scarcely any space between them was observable. The pocket ligaments
formed the ellipse described by Garcia in the upper part of the
glottis."

The word "glottis" really signifies the vibrating element in the
voicebox. I suppose, therefore, that by "the upper part of the glottis"
Madame Seiler here means the "part above the glottis."

"When, in using the laryngoscope upon myself, I slowly sang the
ascending scale, this movement of the vocal ligaments and pyramids was
repeated at every tone. They separated and appeared to retreat, in order
to clo