by Aristotle
24 · Why is it that, although the young of all other animals and infants have [25] shriller voices than the full-grown of their species, calves have deeper voices than full-grown oxen? Is it because in each species the young resembles the female of the same kind? Now among cattle cows have deeper voices than bulls, and the calves resemble the former rather than the latter; but in all other species the males have deeper voices.
[30] 25 · Why is it that when the orchestra of a theatre is spread with straw, the chorus makes less sound? Is it because, owing to the unevenness of the surface, the voice does not find the ground smooth when it strikes upon it and is therefore less uniform, and so is less in bulk, because it is not continuous? Similarly light too shines more on smooth surfaces, because it is not cut off by anything which intercepts it.
[902a1] 26 · Why does salt make a noise when it is thrown on fire? Is it because salt has a little moisture in it which is evaporated by the heat and violently bursting forth rends the salt? Now anything which is rent makes a noise.
27 · Why is it that some children, before they reach the age at which it is [5] time for them to express themselves clearly, find voice and say something distinctly, and then go on as before until the usual age for speaking arrives? Some regard such incidents as portents; and before now cases have been reported of children who spoke immediately after birth. Is it because generally the majority of children at [10] birth6 follow the usual course of nature (and so the phenomenon in question occurs only in a few), and their faculties keep pace with one another; and so they hear and find voice and understand what they hear and speak and express themselves clearly all at the same time? Sometimes, however, these things do not go together, but some children understand before the faculty by which they converse is set free for use, [15] while in others the opposite happens. The latter, then, would not converse intelligently (for they merely repeat what they hear); but when the time comes at which they can both speak and understand, they make a natural use of both functions. But in those in whose souls perception through hearing has been perfected before the organ7 by which the voice is first set in motion and speech is [20] formed, the full power and freeing of the organ of speech sometimes comes to pass when they already understand a great deal. This is especially likely to happen after sleep—the reason being that sleep makes the body and the faculties more sluggish by giving them a rest—or, if not after sleep, after some other similar change has taken place. We can do many things of this sort which require some short-lived [25] opportunity—after which the conditions are no longer suitable—when the organ of speech is in this state of freedom; and when there has been obviously present to their sensation something by which thought was stirred, in virtue of having heard it the child returns to it and utters it. Now tunes and phrases often occur to us without our choosing, but if we originally utter them by choice, we afterwards speak or sing [30] them without choosing and cannot get rid of them from our lips. So too when this happens in children, the part relapses again into its natural condition, until the time comes for it to become strong and to be separately constituted. [35]
28 · Why do some objects, chests for example, suddenly make a noise and move, when nothing perceptible sets them in motion? Yet that which causes motion is stronger than that which is moved. The same question arises in connexion with corruption and old age; for everything which is said to be ‘destroyed by time’ is destroyed by something imperceptible. Is it similar to dripping water and stones [902b1] lifted by the growth of plants, namely, that it is not the final effort but its continuity which raises or moves the object? This continuity of effort is imperceptible, but it results in a movement which is perceptible. So too that which is contained within [5] perceptible spaces of time moves and can be divided into imperceptible portions, but these cause motion and corruption by their sum and their continuity? Now continuity is not in the present time but in the period of time terminated by the present.
29 · Why does one hear less well when one is yawning? Is it because a [10] quantity of breath emitted in the yawn finds its way also into the ears from inside, so that the motion which it sets up in the neighbourhood of the ears makes a distinct impression on the perception, especially after sleep? Now sound is air or a certain condition of it. The sound then from outside enters the ear, and that from within [15] comes into collision with it, and the movement thus caused checks the progress of the sound from without.
30 · Why do children hesitate more in their speech than grown men? Is it because, just as when we are children, we always have less control over our hands and feet and at a still earlier age cannot walk at all, so the young cannot control [20] their tongue? Now when they are quite small, they cannot speak at all but can only make sounds like the animals, because they lack control. This is the cause not only of hesitancy in speech but also of lisping and stammering. Lisping is due to the inability to master a letter—not any letter but some particular one; stammering is due to the dropping out of some particular letter or syllable; hesitancy is due to the [25] inability to join one syllable to another sufficiently quickly. All three are due to want of power; for the tongue is not an efficient servant of the intelligence. The same thing occurs in those who are drunken and in the old; but always to a less extent than in children.
[30] 31 · Why is it that the voice trembles in those who are nervous or afraid? Is it because the heart is shaken by the passing out of the heat? For this happens in both conditions, being an effect both of nervousness and of fear. When the heart is shaken, the impact is not one but many, like that from strings which are not [35] properly stretched.
32 · Why is it that those who are nervous have deep voices, but those who are afraid speak shrilly? Is it because in those who are afraid the region about the heart is chilled, because the heat passes downwards, and so they set only a little air in motion? For the force which sets the air in motion is derived from heat. In those [903a1] who are nervous the heat travels upwards, as happens in those who are ashamed; for it is through shame that nervousness is felt. In those who are ashamed the heat travels upwards to the face, as is shown by the fact that they tend to blush. The heat therefore dissolves and thickens the air with which they speak, and such air can only [5] be propelled slowly; and in the voice that which is slow is deep.
33 · Why are sounds more audible in the night than in the day? Is it for the reason that Anaxagoras gives, namely, that in the day-time the air, heated by the [10] sun, hisses and roars, but at night it is still because the heat has ceased, and that when there is no noise hearing is easier? Or is it because one hears more easily through a comparative void than through a plenum? Now in the day the air is dense, being full of light and of the sun’s rays; but at night it is rarer, for then the fire and the rays, which are bodies, have gone out of it. Or is it because in the [15] day-time the various bodies around us distract our intelligence, and so it is less able to distinguish8 what it hears? Also because we do all that we have to do preferably in the day rather than at night, our intelligence9 too is busy then; and the perception apart from intelligence does, if one may say so, only an imperceptible amount of [20] work—as the saying is, ‘It is the mind which sees, the mind which hears’. But at night when our sight has no work to do and our intelligence is more at liberty, the channel of hearing, being wider open, is just as receptive of sounds and better able to report them to the intelligence, because the latter is neither busy nor distracted by [25] the sight, as it is in the day-time.
34 · Why is it that persons without generative power, such as boys, women, men grown old, and eunuchs, have shrill voices, while adult men have deeper voices? Is it because of the weakness of the organ which sets the air in motion? For that which is weak sets only a little in motion; and a little air travels quickly, and [30] that which travels quickly is shrill. Or is it because the first passage through which the air passes is narrow in those who are without generative power, so that that which expels the air from it has little force, and the air, being small in vo
lume, travels quickly through the larynx above, which is wide? But in the adult and fully developed men this passage is wide (just as also is that leading to the testicles), and [35] so the quantity of the air expelled is also greater; and so passing through more slowly it makes a deeper sound.
35 · Why is it that those who hesitate in their speech cannot speak softly? Is it because they are hindered from using their voice by some impediment? Since, [903b1] then, there is not equal force exerted and similar movement set up when there is some impediment to the movement and when there is none, a violent effort is required. Now the voice is a movement, and those who use more force speak louder; and so, since they have to force the hindrance out of the way, those who hesitate in [5] their speech must necessarily speak louder.
36 · Why do those who hesitate in their speech become worse when they are nervous, but better under the influence of drunkenness? Is it because their condition is a state resembling apoplexy of some interior part of the body which they cannot move and which by its coldness hinders their speech? Wine then, being naturally [10] hot, tends to get rid of the coldness, but nervousness creates coldness; for it is a form of fear, and fear is a chilling condition.
37 · Why is it easier to hear sounds from outside in a house than those from inside a house outside it? Is it because the sound from inside becomes dispersed because it travels over an immense space, so that each component part of the sound [15] is not sufficiently strong to make itself heard, or at any rate is less audible? On the other hand, a voice from without entering within into a smaller space and into stagnant air arrives in a close mass, and so being greater in bulk is more audible.
38 · Why are those who hesitate in their speech melancholic? Is it because [20] melancholy is due to their responding too quickly to appearances? Now this is characteristic of those who hesitate in their speech; for the impulse to speak outstrips their power to do so, the mind responding too quickly to that which has appeared to it. The same thing occurs in those who lisp; for in them the organs employed in speech are too slow.10 This is shown by the fact that men under the [25] influence of wine become lispers, since then they respond most to the appearances and not so much to the mind.
39 · Why do leeks contribute to loudness of the voice (for we find that this is so even with partridges)? Is it because, whereas boiled garlic makes the throat smooth, leeks contain a certain amount of adhesive matter, and this cleanses the larynx?
[30] 40 · Why is it that in all other creatures the sounds made are shriller when more violence is used, but man speaks more shrilly when he is weak? Is it because then he sets less air in motion, and this passes along quickly and its speed makes the sound shrill?
41 · Why can one hear better when one holds one’s breath than when one [35] exhales? This is why people when hunting tell one another not to breathe. Is it because the power of perception rises into the upper parts of the body when the veins are distended? For it sinks when one is asleep; and so those who are sleeping exhale [904a1] rather than inhale, and lose the sense of hearing. Or does the blood rise upwards when one exhales, so that the lower parts of the body become void, and one can hear better in a void? Or is it because breathing is a noise, and when it takes place in the act of exhaling it impedes the hearing?
42 · Why do small quantities of salt make a noise and explode more quickly, [5] but large quantities more violently? Is it because in the former case the particles burst quickly because they are small (for the fire does not have far to penetrate), but in the latter case slowly, since a large mass is more difficult to burst than a small? A small quantity makes a small noise because the impact is small, whereas a large [10] quantity makes a loud noise because the impact is greater; and sound is an impact. The stronger an object is, the greater is the explosion if it is struck; for it is less yielding.
43 · Why is it that if the same quantity of salt is thrown on to a large fire, it makes less noise than if thrown on a small fire, or else makes no noise at all? Is it because it is burnt up before it can burst? For it burns because the moisture is used up, and it makes a noise because it bursts. [15]
44 · Why does one hear less well when one is yawning? Is it because the action of yawning cuts off the breath internally and the breath so cut off accumulates in the region of the ears? This is shown by the fact that there is a noise in the ears when one yawns. Now the breath thus cut off hinders the hearing. Further one also makes a noise when one yawns, and this tends to impede the hearing. Also the organs of hearing must necessarily become compressed by the [20] distension of the mouth in yawning.
45 · Why is it that though the voice, since it is a kind of stream, is naturally inclined to travel upwards, yet it is more audible below from above than above from below? Is it because the voice is a kind of air mingled with moisture, and this air [25] being weighed down by the moisture is carried downwards instead of upwards, since it is the natural characteristic of moisture to be carried downwards? For this reason one hears better when one is below. Or is such a result characteristic only of the voice of a living creature (for it contains moisture), while the phenomenon which we are discussing is found also in other sounds? Just as the sight then, if it be allowed to [30] fall from a higher to a lower object, makes an upwards reflexion and vice versa, so the voice, which has a natural tendency to rise, coming into collision with the air which bars its progress, cannot overpower the air, which is greater in mass and [35] heavier, but the air which is set in motion by the voice, being refracted, is carried in a contrary direction and downwards, and so, being scattered in a downward direction, it is more audible below. Somewhat similar is that which happens in an echo, which is due to the refraction of the voice in a contrary direction.
46 · Why are the voices of drunken persons more broken than those of the [904b1] sober? Is it because their voice breaks easily owing to their state of repletion? This can be illustrated by the fact that chorus-men and actors practise not after a meal but on an empty stomach. Now since a person in a state of drunkenness is in a [5] condition of greater repletion, his voice is naturally more broken.
47 · Why can one hear shriller voices at a greater distance? Is it because shrillness in the voice is rapidity, and what is carried forcibly along moves more rapidly, and what is carried violently along is carried farther? [10]
48 · Why can we hear better if we hold the breath? Is it because breathing makes a noise? It is only natural therefore that we should hear better when the noise is less; for the noise is less when we hold the breath.
49 · Why is it that light cannot penetrate through dense objects, whereas [15] sound can do so, although light is rarer and travels11 farther and quicker than sound? Is it because light travels in a straight line, and so, if anything blocks its direct course, it is completely cut off, but sound, because it is a breath, can also [20] travel in a line that is not direct? So we can hear those who make sounds from any direction and not only those who are in a straight line with our ears.
50 · Why is the sound of laughing deep, whereas that of weeping is shrill? Is it because a voice which comes from those who are in a state of tension is shrill, and that which is shrill is weak? Now both these characteristics are found rather in [25] those who are weeping; for they are in a state of greater tension and they are weaker.
51 · Why is it that the voice, being air which has assumed a certain form and is carried along,12 often loses its form by dissolution, but an echo, which is formed by such air striking on something hard, does not become dissolved, but we hear it [30] distinctly? Is it because in an echo refraction takes place, not dispersion? It starts then as a complete whole and continues to be so. Also, the effect produced upon it is due to a similar agency; for it is refracted from the air in the hollow, not from the hollow itself.
52 · Why is it that when one person makes a sound and a number of persons [35] make the same sound simultaneously, the sound produced is not equal nor does it reach correspondingly farther?13 Is it because each of them thrusts forward
his own portion of air and they do not all impel the same air, except to a very small extent? The result is much the same as when a number of persons throw stones but each throws a different stone, or at any rate most of them do so. Neither in the latter case [905a1] will any missile travel far (or at any rate not correspondingly farther), nor in the former case will the voice reach farther. For this great voice is that of many, not of one; so at a short distance it appears correspondingly greater (just as a number of missiles reaches the same spot), but at a great distance this is no longer so.
[5] 53 · Why do those who are nervous have deep voices, but those who are afraid speak shrilly, though a feeling of shame is a kind of fear? Or are the two conditions really very different? For those who feel shame blush (and nervousness is a kind of shame), whereas those who are afraid turn pale. It is clear then that in those who are afraid the heat fails in the upper part of the body, so that the breath, [10] being weak, sets only a little air in motion; and that which is small in bulk travels quickly, and in the voice quickness is shrillness. But in those who feel shame the heat in the region of the breast travels upwards, as is shown by the fact that they blush. Now a strong force sets a great mass of air in motion, and a great mass travels [15] slowly, and in the voice slowness is deepness.