OUR VOCAL ORGANS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 447, 13 March 1912, Page 7

OUR VOCAL ORGANS.

WHY THE MALE AND THE FEMALE VOICES ARE DIFFERENT The difference in the tone of the voices of men and women arises chiefly from the variation in the length of the vocal cord ; the longer the cord the more slowly it vibrates. The length of the vocal cords in men and women differ as follows : In the case of a man their length, when, at rest, is generally about 73-100ths of an inch, and when they are stretched to the greatest extent about 93-100ths of an inch. In the case of woman their length varies from 51-100ths to G3-100ths of an inch. It will, therefore, he seen how it if that a deeper note, or one in which there are a smaller number of vibrations per second, proceeds from the vocal cords of a man than from those 01 a woman. One of the deepest notes sounded by a bass voice is produced by n<: more than eighty double vibration! in a second, while a soprano voice can give forth a note in which there are 992 such vibrations. The different quality of the notes depends also to some extent on the character of the walls of the larynx. In women and children these are more flexible and smoother than in men. The male voice owes its greater roughness to the greater hardness and firmness of the cartilages of the male larynx, approaching old age nearly to ossification.