the voice of every bird of prey, so exactly as to deceive the very kinds it attempts to mock.

It must be manifest, from the preceding observations, that the imitative, like the natural voice, has its seat in the cartilages, and other moveable pieces, which form the larynx; for the great body of the windpipe only gives measure to the sound, and renders it more or less copious in proportion to its volume. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that a similar sort of imitative power should be sometimes cultivated with success in the human larynx; and that we should occasionally meet with persons, who, from long and dexterous practice, are able to copy the notes of almost all the singing-birds of the woods, or the sounds of other animals, and even to personate the different voices of orators and other public speakers. This leads us to notice a very singular and mysterious subject of investigation

VENTRILOQUISM.

Several ingenious explanations have been given of this art of imitation, though none, hitherto published, are altogether satisfactory. The term is derived from the origin of the imitative voice being supposed to be in the stomach or belly. We shall put our readers in possession of the best accounts of this singular faculty which we have met with.

M. RICHERAND'S ACCOUNT OF FITZ-JAMES.

"There was," says Richerand, "at the Café de la Grotte, in the Palais Royal, a man who could carry on a dialogue so naturally, that you would think you were listening to the conversation of two people, at some distance from one another, and quite different in voice and tone. I have observed that he was not inspiring when he spoke from his belly, but that less air came from his mouth and nostrils than in his ordinary speaking. Every time that he did so, he found a swelling in the region of the stomach; sometimes he felt wind moving lower down, and could not go on long together without fatigue.

"At first, I conjectured that in this man a great part of the air driven out by expiration did not issue from the mouth and the nasal passages, but that, being swallowed and carried down into the stomach, it struck against some part of the intestines, and produced a real echo: but having since observed, with the greatest care, this curious phenomenon in M. Fitz-James, who exhibits it in the highest perfection, I have satisfied myself that the name of ventriloquism no way suits it, since its whole mechanism consists in a slow, gradual, attenuated expiration, whether for that purpose the artist employ the power of the will upon the

muscles of the sides of the chest, or whether he hold the epiglottis slightly lowered, by means of the root of the tongue, of which he scarcely brings the point beyond the dental arches.

"This long expiration I always found to be preceded by a strong inspiration; and by this means he introduced into his lungs a large quantity of air, of which he afterwards husbanded the use. The repletion of the stomach accordingly was a great hindrance to the performance of M. Fitz-James, by preventing the descent of the midriff or diaphragm, which the chest would require, to dilate itself for the full quantity of air the lungs should receive. By accelerating or retarding the expiration, he could imitate different voices; made it seem that the speakers in a dialogue, which he carried on by himself, stood at different distances; and produced a complete illusion. No one could surpass M. Fitz-James in the art of deceiving, in this respect, the most wary and suspicious observer. He could set his organ to five or six different tones, pass rapidly from one to the other, as he did when he represented a very eager discussion in a popular society of the people, imitated the sound of a bell, and carried on singly a conversation in which one might think that several persons of different ages and sexes were taking parts. But what completed the illusion, and especially distinguished the art of

the ventriloquist from that of the mimic, who can only counterfeit, consisted in the power of so modulating his voice, that one was deceived as to the distance of the speaker, in such sort that one voice came from the street, another from a neighbouring apartment, and a third from one who appeared to have clambered up to the roof of the house. It is easy," says Richerand, "to discern the value of such a talent in the days of the oracles.”

Whether a sound be before or behind the ear, seems to be determined as much by the affection produced in the face and head, as on the ear itself; for that we feel sound on our face and other parts, is highly probable from the ingenious experiments of Mr. Gough. The ticking of a watch placed between the teeth, for example, is distinctly heard by the sound vibrating through the bones of the face and head. It is quite certain that the sound of the voice comes through the bones of the head, as well as through the mouth and the nasal passages; for when a person calls out of a room with his mouth, through a hole in the closed door, those within hear his voice, but it has a strange muffled sound, as if part of its volume were intercepted. Now this sound, Mr. Gough thinks, could not come directly from the mouth when it is without the

room. But may it not, we would ask, be transmitted through the door? Surely wood is not impermeable to sound: nay, is it not a better conductor of sound than bones covered with soft muscles?

According to similar principles, Mr. Gough describes what is called ventriloquism, to be an acquired method of intercepting the direct sound of the performer's voice, and causing only its echo to be perceived. Every body, of course, if this be the case, could be a ventriloquist, if he could in this manner intercept his direct voice. By very careful attention, we may easily recognise the echo of our own voice, as distinct from its direct sound when uttered in a room or other confined place, though this reflected sound is seldom attended to, because it is drowned by the direct one being much louder. The reflected sound, however, is always produced.

Mr. Gough's explanation, however, will not account for the perfect quiescence of the mouth and cheeks of the performer, while employing his feigned voices; besides, an adept in the art, like Fitz-James, or like the present M. Alexandre, is totally indifferent to the room in which he practises, and will readily allow another to choose a room for him. It will apply only to performances like those of Mathews, who, it may be