Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1880 — Curiosities of the Voice. [ARTICLE]

Curiosities of the Voice.

Dr. Deleon ay,-in a t>sper read recently before the FrenqAAcodqmy of Medicine,Km some details bn the history end its of the human voice, which he obtained after much patient research. According to the doctor, the primitive inhabitants ot Europe were all tenors; their descendants of the present day are bari tones, and their grandsons will have semibaas voices. Looking at different races,, he calls attention to the fact that inferior races, such as the negroes, etc., have higher voices than white men. The voice has also a tendency to deepen with age—the tenor of sixteen becoming the baritone at twenty-five, and bass at thirty-five. Fair complexioned people have higher voices than the dark skinned, the former being usually sopranos or tenors, the .lattereoutralfos orbasras. “Tenors,” says the doctor, “are slenderly built and tfailfi; basses are stoutly made and corpulent.” This may be the rule, but cne is inclined to think there are more exceptions to it than are necessary to prove the rale. The same remark applies to the assertion that thoughtful, intelligent men have always a t deeptoned voice; whereas tnflers and frivolous persons have soft, weak voices. The tones ot the voice are perceptibly higher, ke points out, before than alter a meal, which is the reason why tenors dine early in order that their voices may not suffer. Prudent singers | eschewed strong drinks and spirituous liquors, especially tenors, but the basses can eat and drink generally with impunity. “Tne south,” says the doctor, “furnishes the tenors and the north the bassesln proof of which he adds that the majority of French tenors come from the South of Franoe, whilst the baaees belong to the northern department.