NOT PRESERVED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 24

NOT PRESERVED

Melba's expressed wish that her larynx and vocal cords (or "voicebox") should be preserved and prer aented to the British Museum has not been carried out, as no special provision to this effect was found in her wilL says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph." But whether the preservation of the •vocal organs would have been of value ■bo medical science is a matter of doubt. The famous songstress frequently had her throat examined by specialists, who agreed that slie possessed wonderfully flexile vocal cords, while the air-cham-ber above them was exceptionally roomy and strongly built. But a fine singing voice depends on far more than these conditions. The resonance of all the air-cavities above the cords must be perfect—this includes the back of ; the throat,, the nasal passages, and the roof of the mouth; like the sound-box of a violin, these make all the difference . to the kinging voice. The resonance of the lining tissue, cartilage, and bone of these passages in Melba's case must nave been (during life) absolutely perfect. But on preservation this accord between the sound-production and the Cavities would.not be shown. Every musician who has played a toed instrument knows that now_ and again by a lucky chance he obtains a Teed which by consonance with the •wood of the pipe gives a perfect quality of 'tone. Tho human voice is really a reed instrument, and Melba was born ■with this ideal consonance between reeds (vocal cords) and the lining of the airrpassages. This was Fortune's gift. But it was intangible; an inherent quality, and not a mechanical arrangement which can be demonstrated in a museum exhibit.

MELBA'S VOCAL CORDS

Among famous personages who have recently bequeathed portions of their bodies to medical science are Lenin and Anatole France. Both desired that their brains should be preserved and examined after death. But here again science is confronted by intangibilities. Physiologists cannot point to the materal structures in the brain which correspond to leadership or genius. It is not mere sizo, or amount of grey mattor. France's brain was small and below average weight. Tho largest brain on record is that of an idiot. Lenin's brain was sent to Professor Vogt at tho Kaiser Wilholm Institute for Brain Eeseareh (Berlin) for microscopical examination. Florence Nightingale, the famous pioneer of modern nursing practice, willed her body for dissection, a practice which has been frequently followed since by many professional men and women, including Professor H. H. Turner, the well-known English astronomer, last year. No doubt this is merely a gesture, to signify indifference as to what is done with the body after death —if science can bo helped with the gift, so much the better. Occasionally a kind of warped vanity prompts such bequests. But, to be perfectly candid, Death is the great leveller, and the remains of the great possess no anatomical advantage over those of the lowly; a young, healthy tramp is as good (or better) in these circumstances than a king. The queerest object in bequeathing a brain was that of Mrs. Helen Gardiner, the well-known feminist —"to prove women mentally equal to men." Her brain was pronounced" in/"wealth of cortex" (grey matter) equal to the best male specimen in the famous Wilder Collection.