Science and singing / by Lennox Browne.

  • Lennox Browne
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Science and singing / by Lennox Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    18/40 (page 18)
    vacuum formed by tbe loss of oxygen. But a portion of the oxygen has been occupied in combining with another gas, the product of combustion, namely, the hydrogen, with the result of forming the watery vapour which has dimmed the bell-glass. Therefore, the coloured water does not rise to quite the full extent of one fifth. If, now that the candle is gone out, we carefully introduce another one lighted under the bell-glass, the flame is immediately extinguished, because the air has lost all its oxygen and the gas now there is carbonic acid gas—a gas poisonous to life and destructive to illumina- tion. Beside this question of the gases, of course there are a great many actual particles of an injurious nature constantly floating in the atmosphere—a great deal of dust more or less poisonous. Such dust is probably to be found in its worst form in a ball-room on account of the agitation of particles of a chemical character falling from the dresses and artificial flowers of ladies. It is important to consider the effect of poisonous air on the singer or actor. We sometimes, for the reason I have explained, feel very sleepy and very oppressed in a hot room, in the opera, theatre, or church. I fear that we do not always consider that those who are endeavouring to entertain us or instruct us may also be suffering, because they are actually using muscular force under the unfavourable circumstances of a poisonous atmosphere. Mr. Behnke tells me that one evening sometime ago he was giving a laryngoscopic demonstra- tion of his voice in a room oppressively hot, in consequence of gas- light, and he entirely lost his voice; he went into a back room, Avhere there was no light, and where, consequently, the air was purer and cooler, and in a very few minutes he recovered his voice entirely. Some months since, I met a very distinguished actress coming out of a theatre, after an afternoon performance of a Shakesperian play ; she was an instance of what members of her profession invariably do whenever they are not playing themselves—they take the oppor- tunity of going to see their neighbours, it may be to gain a lesson how to do better, or for other reasons more gratifying to their self-love. At any rate, this lady, who is more than any one I know always willing to learn, was there, I doubt not, for purposes both of enjoyment and instruction. Her daily habit is to dine about three o’clock, to rest from about five o’clock to six or half-past six, and she is engaged to play nightly a very arduous part from eight to eleven. I asked, “ Are you going home to rest ? ” She replied, “No; I am going out to dine with friends, and thence to the