MELBA'S THROAT AND SCIENCE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 March 1931, Page 2

MELBA'S THROAT AND SCIENCE

Melba's once expressed wish that her larynx and vocal cords (or voice box") should be preserved and pre seated to the British Museum has not been carried out, as no special provision to this effect was found m he But Vl whether the preservation of the vocal organs would have been[ value to medical science is a mattei 0f The Ub famous songstress frequently had her throat examined by specialist who agreed that she possessed vocal the air-chamber above them was ex centionally roomy and strongly built. But a U singing voice depends on far more than these conditions. The resonance of all the air-cavi-ties above me cords must be perfect Shis includes the back of the throat. the nasal passages and the roof ot the mouth; like the sound-box of a olirXeie make all the difference o° he singing voice. The 'esom«ce of the lining tissue, cartilage and b o ne of these passages m Melbas case must have been (during lite) absolutely perfect. But o*.preservation this accord between the sound production and the cavities would not be shown.

An instrument Every musician who lias played a reed instrument knows that now and again by a lucky chance he obtains f "ed which by consonance with »he wood of the pipe gives, a perfect UiUty of tone. The human voiceis rp-llv a reed instrument, and Meioa was born with this ideal consonance between reeds (vocal cords) and me lining of the air-passages, lhis was JSrtine'B gift. But it was an inherent quality, and not a me Xanical arrangement can be demonstrated in a museum wjutat \mong famous personages v,ho have recently bequeathed portions of heir bodie/to medical science are Lenin and Anatoie Iranee Both desired that their brains should De Preserved and examined after death. But here again science is confronted ! v intangibilities. Physiologists caniot point" to the material structures the brain which correspond to eldership or genius. It is not mere size or amount of grey matter France's brain was small and below average weight. The largest brain o, record is that-.of an idiot .Lentobrain was sent to Prof. Vogt at the ££r Wilheim Institute for Brain Research (Berlin) for microscopical examination. For Science Florence Nightingale, the famous pioneer of modern nursing practice willed her body for dissection, a practice which bae been frequently followed since by many professional men and women, including Prof. H. H Turner, tire well-known bngUsli astronomer, last year. No doubt this is merely a gesture, to sign t> indifference as to what is done with the body after deatfT-if science can be 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 bequeathin, 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.

STRANGE BEQUESTS BY FAMOUS PEOPLE