voice in animals and men, we refer the reader to Blumenbach's Manual of Comparative Anatomy (translated by W. Lawrence, revised by Coulson, London, 1827). Respecting the sounds of human language, by the various combinations of which such a variety of words is produced, we will add a few remarks. Besides the lungs, the windpipe, &c., the finely-arched roof of the mouth, and the pliability of the lips (enabling us to give a great variety of forms to the mouth, which are almost the sole means of giving their peculiar character to the different vowels), are of the greatest importance. Under the articles on the separate letters the reader will find an account of the way in which the sounds represented by them respectively are produced. "The modifications of voice, easily made (says Mr. Arnott, in his Elements of Physics), and easily distinguishable by the ear, and, therefore, fit elements of language, are about fifty in number; but no single language contains more than about half of them. They are divisible into two very distinct and nearly equal classes, called vowels (q. v.) and consonants." (q. v.) In the article Consonant, the natural division of words is shown to cease with syllables: they are one sound, and the division into vowels and consonants, ingenious and useful as it is, does not, in fact, exist to the degree which we usually take for granted, from the circumstance of considering them as totally distinct from early childhood. Consonants are, generally speaking, only the beginning or end of vowels; i. e. the mouth must in some way be opened to produce a vowel sound, and closed to conclude the vowel sounds; and this mode of opening or closing gives rise to that which we call a consonant. The circumstance that consonants cannot be pronounced without the aid of vowels, shows, that the strict division into vowels and consonants is one which nature has not made. Mr. Arnott says (p. 488 of the American ed.): "To explain the second lass of the modifications of sound, called consonants, we remark, that while any continued or vowel sound is passing through the mouth, if it be interrupted, whether by a complete closure of the mouth, or only by an approximation of parts, the effect on the ear of a listener is so exceedingly different, according to the situation in the mouth where the interruption occurs, and to the manner in which it occurs, that many most distinct modifications thence arise. Thus any continued sound, as a, if arrested by a closure of the mouth at the external confine or lips, is heard to terminate with the modification expressed by the letter p; that is, the syllable ap has been pronounced: but if, under similar circumstances, the closure be made at the back of the mouth, by the tongue rising against the palate, we hear the modification expressed by the letter k, and the syllable ak has been pronounced: and if the closure be made in the middle of the mouth, by the tip of the tongue rising against the roof, the sound expressed by t is produced, and the syllable at is heard: and so of others. It is to be remarked, also, that the ear is equally sensible of the peculiarities, whether the closure precedes the continued sound or follows it; that is to say, whether the syllables pronounced are ap, at, ak, or pa, ta, ka. The modifications of which we are now speaking appear, then, not to be really sounds, but only manners of beginning and ending sounds; and it is because they can thus be perceived only in connexion with vocal sounds, that they are called consonants."-We refer the reader to Mr. Ar nott's work, for further remarks on the pronunciation of the various vowels and consonants, and add here only his table of articulations, in which, if we consider the perpendicular line on the left as the opening of the mouth, and the line on the right as the back part of the mouth, the four divisions indicate the places where the letters are pronounced. See the articles on the letters and on writing Gustural. The effect of the sexual functions on the voice is well known; but the mode in which this effect takes place is not explained. This influence is observable even in birds, which delight us with their amorous melodies at the season of pairing; in woman, whose voice acquires its metallic tone and its fulness at the age of puberty; and particularly in man, who does not possess, till that period, the "voices" peculiar to him, the bass or tenor, and in whom the change of voice, as every one knows, is prevented by previous emasculation. But also many other causes, affecting especially the nervous system, produce considerable changes in the voice, which afford important symptoms in diseases. Thus it may be want ing altogether in a diseased state (this is called aphonia), or it may be changed morbidly (paraphonia, cacophonia). In the latter case, it is either too strong or too weak, too deep (vox clangosa, if it is at the same time too strong, and raucitas gravis, if it is at the same time too weak), or too high (oxyphonia, which again is divided into vox cucuriens or rudens, which is at the same time too strong, and raucitas acuta, at the same time too weak). Most of these affections appear as symptoms, but are seldom considered as a primary disease. They often enable the physician to draw conclusions respecting the true character of the disease. The entire loss of voice originates from cramp, weakness or paralysis. If it is caused by paralysis, it is almost always a fatal symptom. If it is connected with an excitable constitution, it indicates violent congestions and approaching apoplexy; occurring after delivery, it indicates convulsions; in the croup, suffocation and mortification. An unnaturally strong voice is very common in madness. The vox clangosa, sounding as if the person was speaking in an empty pot, is, in dangerous diseases, a very serious symptom. The hoarseness, in which the voice is too deep, indicates great dan ger in bilious fever, scarlatina, consumption, and dropsy of the chest. It is not a symptom of disease when caused merely by the arrival of the age of puberty, by catarrh, or by dust which has been inspired. The vox cucuriens, seu rudens, seu pipiens (sounding similar to the crowing of a cock, or the braying of an ass) is pathognomic in the hooping cough and croup, and is also sometimes found in dropsy in the head and small-pox, and is a bad symptom. The raucitas acuta originates partly from the same causes as the raucitas gravis. With hysteri cal persons it indicates an approach ing fit. Voice, in music. A good musical voice depends chiefly upon the soundness and power of the organs of utterance and of hearing, and the necessary musical disposition, and is distinguished by clearness of intonation, ease, strength, duration, equality, harmoniousness and fulness of the sounds; whilst natural defects or diseases in those organs (for instance, narrowness of the chest, weak lungs) give rise to imperfections in the voice. As weakness of lungs necessarily affects the voice, so frequent singing developes and strengthens the lungs, which are strong enough to support it; and instruction in singing is, therefore, in a medical respect, of great importance. The rarity of consumption in most parts of Germany, compared to other countries, is ascribed by some, in a great measure, to the general instruction and frequent practice in singing. Practice in singing for several generations must undoubtedly have a decided influence in giving strength to the lungs, which may also be much promoted by gymnastic exercises that expand the chest. A fine voice requires a long, regular and strong breath. Some faults in singing, however, originate from a bad use of a good voice; as the singing through the nose, teeth, &c. A voice which has by nature the requisite properties, acquires compass and strength, correctness and pliability, by exercise. Thorough methodical practice in singing should not, in most cases, be begun before the ninth or tenth year, though the ear ought to be early exercised. The variety of voices is as great as that of individuals. In respect to depth and height, there are four principal classes of voices: discant, alto, tenor and bass. Discant, or soprano, moreover, is distinguished from lower, or mezzo soprano, tenor from counter tenor, and between tenor and bass comes the proper baritono. A good bass voice generally extends from F or G, below G gamut, to C or D, above the bass-clef note; the baritono from about G gamut to F, above the bass-clef note; the tenor from C, above G gamut, to G, the treble-clef note, or A above it; the counter-tenor from E or F, above G gamut, to B or C, above the treble-clef note; the mezzo soprano from A or B, above the bass-clef note, to E or F, above the treble-clef note; and the soprano from C, above the bass-clef note, to A, B or C, in alt, and something higher. Female voices are, by nature, treble and alto; those of boys, even if VOIGTLAND (in law Latin, Terra Advocatorum); in a wider sense, all that part of Germany which formerly belonged to the imperial bailiffs (in German, Voigte, Latin, advocati), the ancestors of the present princes and counts of Reuss. It comprised the Saxon circle of Voigtland, the bailiwic of Weida and Ziegenrück, in the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar, the territories of the princes and counts of Reuss, the district of Hof, now included in the Bavarian circle of the Upper Maine, and the Saxe-Altenburg bailiwic of Ronneburg. From the eleventh century there were imperial officers, in the above described region, who bore the name of bailiffs (advocati, voigte) of the holy Roman empire, and who managed the affairs of the emperor. In a narrower sense, the term is applied particularly to a circle of Saxony, consisting of a part of the former Voigtland. It has 102,891 inhabitants on 680 square miles, and is also called the circle of Neustadt. The chief town is Plauen. It contains some mountainous and woody districts, and in some parts is well adapted for pasturage and tillage. The most remarkable peculiarity is the pearl-fishery in the river Elster (see Pearl), which is sometimes very productive, and has yielded some pearls of much beauty. 15 tation, insipid pleasantries, and far-fetched allusions. VOLATILE OILS. (See Essential Oils.) VOLATILITY, in chemistry; the quality of a substance, to evaporate in a certain degree of heat: it is the opposite to fixidity. It is very probable, that all substances are capable of being volatilized, and that we should be able to dissolve every one of them by fire, but for the want of a sufficient degree of heat. VOLCANOES. The volcano and the earthquake might, perhaps, with no impropriety, have been treated of together, since both are undoubtedly effects of the same subterranean process; but we have preferred to devote to each a separate article, as the phenomena on the earth's surface, to which they give rise, are con siderably different. The present article will, however, embrace several particu lars relating to earthquakes, which were omitted in the article under that title, on account of their close connexion with the subject of volcanoes. There are certain regions to which volcanic eruptions, and the movements of great earthquakes, are confined: over the whole of vast tracts active volcanic vents are distributed at intervals, and most commonly arranged in a linear direction. Throughout the intermediate spaces there is abundant evidence that the subterranean fire is continually at work; for the ground is convulsed, from time to time, by earthquakes: gaseous vapors, especially carbonic acid gas, are disengaged plentifully from the soil; springs often issue at a very high temperature, and their waters are very VOITURE, Vincent, a celebrated French commonly impregnated with the same wit, was born at Amiens, in 1598. His mineral matters which are discharged by agreeable manners and conversation in- volcanoes during eruptions. Of these troduced him to good company; and he great regions, that of the Andes is one was a visitor at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, of the best defined. Commencing southand was also well received at court, and ward, at least in Chile, at the forty-sixth by Gaston, duke of Orleans, who made degree of south latitude, it proceeds northhim his master of the ceremonies. In ward to the twenty-seventh degree, form 1634, he was admitted into the French ing an uninterrupted line of volcanoes. academy, and was subsequently sent on a The Chilean volcanoes rise up through mission to Spain, where he composed granitic mountains. Villarica, one of the some verses in such pure and natural principal, continues burning without inSpanish, that every body ascribed them termission, and is so high, that it may be to Lope de Vega. He also visited Rome distinguished at the distance of 150 miles. and England, and died in 1648. Voiture A year never passes in this province withwas one of the first persons in France dis- out some slight shocks of earthquakes; tinguished by the title of bel esprit. He and about once in a century, or oftener wrote verses in French, Spanish and Ital- tremendous convulsions occur, by which ian. The former are occasionally easy and the land has been shaken from one exsprightly, but have much strained wit and tremity to the other, and continuous tracts, affected sentiment. His letters place him together with the bed of the Pacific, have high in the class of epistolary writers, been raised permanently from one to though they often degenerate into affec- twenty feet above their former level Hot springs are numerous in this district, and mineral waters of various kinds. Pursuing our course northward, we find in Peru only one active volcano as yet known; but the province is so subject to earthquakes, that scarcely a week passes without a shock; and many of these have been so violent as to create great changes of the surface. Farther north, we find, in the middle of Quito, where the Andes attain their greatest elevation, Tunguragua, Cotopaxi, Antisana and Pichincha, the three former of which not unfrequently emit flames. From the first of these, a deluge of mud descended in 1797, and filled valleys, 1000 feet wide, to the depth of 600 feet, forming barriers, whereby rivers were dammed up, and lakes occasioned. Earthquakes have, in the same province, caused great revolutions in the physical features of the surface. There are three volcanoes farther north, in the province of Pasto, and three others in that of Popayan. In the provinces of Guatimala and Nicaragua, which lie between the isthmus of Panama and Mexico, there are no less than twenty-one active volcanoes. This great volcanic chain, after having pursued its course for several thousand miles from south to north, turns off in a side direction in Mexico, and is prolonged in a great plateau, between the eighteenth and twenty-second degrees of north latitude. The plateau in question owes its present form to the circumstance of an ancient system of valleys, in a chain of primary mountains, having been filled up, to the depth of many thousand feet, with various volcanic products. Five active volcanoes traverse Mexico from west to east; viz. Tuxtla, Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Jorullo and Colima. Jorullo, which is in the centre of the great plateau, is no less than forty leagues from the ocean, which shows that the proximity of the sea is not a necessary condition, although certainly a very general characteristic, of the position of active volcanoes. The extraordinary eruption of this mountain in 1759 will be described in the sequel. To the north of Mexico there are three, or, according to some, five volcanoes, in the peninsula of California. In the year 1812, violent earthquakes convulsed the valley of the Mississippi at New Madrid, for the space of three hundred miles in length. As this happened exactly at the same time as the_great_earthquake of Caraccas, it is probable that these two points are parts of one continuous volcanic region; for he wnole circumference of the interven ing Caribbean sea must be considered as a theatre of earthquakes and volcanoes. On the north lies the island of Jamaica, which, with a tract of the contiguous sea, has often experienced tremendous shocks; and these are frequent along a line extending from Jamaica to St. Domingo and Porto Rico. On the south of the same basin, the shores and mountains of Colombia are perpetually convulsed On the west is the volcanic chain of Guatimala and Mexico, and on the east, the West Indian isles, where, in St. Vincent's and Guadaloupe, are active vents. Thus it will be seen that volcanoes and earthquakes occur, uninterruptedly, from Chile to the north of Mexico; and it seems probable, that they will hereafter be found to extend, at least, from cape Horn to California. In regard to the eastern limits of the region, they lie deep beneath the waves of the Pacific, and must therefore continue unknown to us. On the west, they do not appear, except where they include the West Indian islands, to be prolonged to a great distance; for there seem to be no indications of volcanic disturbances in Guiana, Brazil and Buenos Ayres. On an equal, if not a still grander scale, is another continuous line of volcanic action, which commences on the north, with the Aleutian isles in Russian America, and extends first in an easterly direction for nearly two hundred miles, and southward, without interruption, throughout a space of between sixty and seventy degrees of latitude, to the Moluccas, and then branches off in different directions both towards the east and north-west. The northern extremity of this volcanic region is the peninsula of Alaska, in about the fifty-fifth degree of latitude. Thence the line is continued, through the Aleutian or Fox islands, to Kamtschatka, in the southern extremity of which there are seven active volcanoes, which, in some eruptions, have scattered ashes to immense distances. The Kurile chain of isles constitutes the prolongation of the range in a southern direction; the line is then continued to the south-west in the great island of Jesso, where there are active vents. Between the Japanese and Philippine islands, the communication is preserved by several small insular vents. The line is then prolonged through Sanguir, and the north-eastern extremity of Celebes, to the Moluccas. Here a great transverse line may be said to run from east to west. On the west, it passes through the whole of Java, where there are thirty-eight large volcanic mountains. In the volcanoes of Sumatra, the same linear arrangement is preserved. In another direction, the volcanic range is prolonged through Borneo, Celebes, Banda, New Guinea; and farther eastward in New Britain, New Ireland, and various parts of the Polynesian archipelago. The Pacific ocean, indeed, seems, in equatorial latitudes, to be one vast theatre of igneous action; and its innumerable archipelagoes, such as the New Hebrides, Friendly islands, and Georgian islands, are all composed either of coralline limestones or volcanic rocks, with active vents here and there interspersed. In the old world, the volcanic region extends from east to west for the distance of about 1000 miles, from the Caspian sea to the Azores, including within its limits the greater part of the Mediterranean and its most prominent peninsulas. From south to north, it reaches from about the thirty-fifth to the fortyfifth degree of latitude. Its northern boundaries are Caucasus, the Black sea, the mountains of Thrace, Transylvania and Hungary, the Austrian, Tyrolian and Swiss Alps,-the Cevennes and Pyrenees, with the mountains which branch off from the Pyrenees westward, to the north side of the Tagus. Its western limits are the ocean; but it is impossible to determine how far it may be prolonged in that direction; neither can we assign with precision its extreme eastern limit, since the country beyond the Caspian and sea of Aral is scarcely known. The southern boundaries of the region include the most northern parts of Africa, and part of the desert of Arabia. We may trace, through the whole of the area comprehended within these extensive limits, numerous points of volcanic eruptions, hot springs, gaseous emanations, and other signs of igneous agency; while few tracts of any extent have been entirely exempt from earthquakes throughout the last 3000 years. Besides the continuous spaces of subterranean disturbance, of which the outline has been given above, there are other disconnected volcanic groups, of which the geographical extent is, as yet, imperfectly known. Among these may be mentioned Iceland, which belongs, perhaps, to the same region as the volcano in Jan Mayen's island. With these, also, part of the nearest coast of Greenland, which is sometimes shaken by earthquakes, may be connected. The island of Bourbon belongs to another the atre of volcanic action, of which Madagascar probably forms a part, if the al leged existence of burning volcanoes in that island shall be substantiated. Respecting the volcanic system of Southern Europe, it may be observed, that there is a central tract, where the greatest earthquakes prevail, in which rocks are shattered and cities laid in ruins. On each side of this line of greatest commotion, there are parallel bands of country where the shocks are less violent. At a still greater distance, as in Northern Italy, there are spaces where the shocks are much rarer and more feeble. Beyond these limits, again, all countries are liable to slight tremors at distant intervals of time, when some great crisis of subterranean movement agitates an adjoining volcanic region; but these may be considered as mere vibrations, propagated mechanically through the external crust of the globe, as sounds travel almost to indefinite distances through the air. Shocks of this kind have been felt in England, Scotland, Northern France and Germany, particularly during the Lisbon earthquake. We shall now give some account of a few of the principal volcanic vents, dispersed through the great regions before described, and consider the composition and arrangement of their lavas and ejected matter. From the first colonization of Southern Italy by the Greeks, Vesuvius afforded no other indication of its volcanic character than such as the naturalist might infer from the analogy of its structure to other volcanoes. These were recognised by Strabo. The ancient cone was of a very regular form, terminating, not, as at present, in two peaks, but with a flattish summit, where the remains of an ancient crater, nearly filled up, had left a slight depression, covered in its interior by wild vines, and with a sterile plain at the bottom. On the exterior, the sides of the mountains were covered with fertile fields, richly cultivated, and at its base were the populous cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. But the scene of repose was at length doomed to cease, and the volcanic fire was recalled to the main channel, which, at some former, unknown period, had given passage to repeated streams of melted lava, sand and scoriæ. The first symptom of the revival of the energies of this volcano was the occurrence of an earthquake, A. D. 63, which did considerable injury to the cities in its vicinity. From that time to the year 79, slight shocks were frequent; and in the month of August of that year, they became more numerous and violent, tiii |