CHAPTER XII.

CURING A SICK VOICE.

We all remember the gentleman in one of Moliere’s plays who was astounded to learn that he had been talking prose all his life. This verdant reminiscence has an almost universal application.

For instance, Umberto Sorrentino, the gifted Italian tenor, has, for a number of years, relieved the “tight,” inflexible throat, which is the bane of vocalists and speakers, by grasping his tongue firmly in a handkerchief, pulling it as hard as could be comfortably borne, and wriggling it slowly from side to side. This, he says, eases up throat tension, and frees the voice. It also has a tendency to abort a beginning cold.

He was led to adopt this practice from observing the beneficial effects of massage of the throat in stimulating and otherwise improving the circulation and releasing the muscles from the bound condition, which invariably (in his case) foreruns a cold. He reasoned that if external massage was beneficial, internal massage should be even more so; hence, the “wriggle.”

Also, Miss Mabel Garrison, one of the new lyric sopranos of the Metropolitan Opera House, has won the appreciation and gratitude of various members of the company, by curing stiff, inelastic sore throats through pressures made upon the vocalists’ tongues.

There is a hint in these significant facts that no singer, lawyer, actor, clergyman, mother of a family, or business man can afford to ignore. For almost everyone suffers occasionally from defects somewhere in the delicate mechanism that shapes air currents into beautiful sounds, and molds breath into speech.

Although they probably are not aware of this, both Signor Sorrentino and Miss Garrison are employing zone therapy in relieving these vocal ills. For they are exerting pressures on the first and second zones, the region which governs the function of the vocal chords, the pharynx, larynx, and the respiratory passages.

And while their results have been very remarkable, and eminently satisfactory to themselves and their fellow artists, they would be even more striking were the pressures made more “direct.”

In other words, if, instead of squeezing and making strong traction on the tongue, or of using a depressor on this member, they were to do these things and, in addition, apply firm pressure on the floor of the mouth, beneath the tongue, with a cotton-tipped metal probe (see Fig. 6), dipped in spirits of camphor or alcohol (to increase the “impulse”), their results would be far more certain and satisfactory.

In all cases of hoarseness, huskiness, or in loss of voice due to irritation or strain--as in clergyman’s sore throat--these practices almost invariably give relief. I remember a case of a soprano whose upper register was completely lost through long-continued strain. The floor of her mouth--directly under the tongue, and up to the roots of the lower incisor teeth, was “prodded” intermittently for a period of fifteen minutes, with the metal probe. The cotton on the tip of the probe was dipped in some pungent agent, for the purpose, as before stated, of increasing the nerve “response.”

Marked improvement followed the first treatment. She was, however, cautioned not to attempt to use the voice, except for a moment or two after treatments--to observe the effect.

The singer also carried out “home treatments,” consisting in five-minute firm applications of a tongue depressor (see Fig. 17) on the center of the tongue. This was done every four hours. In addition, she squeezed the sides of her thumbs. This action, especially if accompanied by digging the finger nails into the inner side of the thumb--which area is distinctly in the vocal chord zone--has a specific effect upon the vocal chords. Within three days this lady had completely recovered, and was able to return to her company.

Zone therapy has, in innumerable instances, restored speaking voices that were as lost as the Lost Hope. Indeed, it is of common occurrence to have a clergyman, a lawyer, or a business man who has become aphonic (voiceless) from long dictation, or some other vocal strain, come to the specialist in zone therapy, unable to speak above a whisper, and within a half hour go his way rejoicing--practically as “good as new”.

This, by application of the probe on the floor of the mouth, pressures on the tongue, and sometimes pressures on the thumb and fingers, any and all of which procedures can be successfully used by any intelligent man or woman in the relief of their own troubles, or in curing these troubles in their family.

Respecting the finger pressures, it must be borne in mind that it is necessary to work on the particular zone involved. For instance, it would be useless to make pressures over the thumb joints if the cause of the throat trouble should happen to be a congested tonsil. The third, fourth and fifth fingers would have to be invoked for relief in this zone.

It is, however, perfectly remarkable what these finger pressures alone will accomplish. One of the earlier experimental cases was a patient who had been speaking on and off all day at a Sunday School Convention held in a grove. This grove must have been an ideal spot for a nice open air meeting. But the leafy bowers, the sylvan glades, and the bossy dells were not built for acoustic purposes.

The consequence was that, when the shades of night were falling fast our hero was “all in”. He couldn’t speak above a whisper. He had such contraction of the muscles that he couldn’t even open his jaws--let alone communicate intelligent information through them.

This was his condition when he presented himself the following noon petitioning relief. He had had nothing to eat since late lunch the day before, although, whether he knew it or not, he had had enough then to last him a week.

Of course, as he could not open his mouth it was not possible to treat him by pressures on the floor of the mouth, and on the tongue. So he was provided with an aluminum comb, and shown how to make pressures on the back of his hand, extending up from the thumb to the wrist, and over to the fourth finger, and left to his own devices for twenty-five minutes.

At the expiration of this time he had relaxed the tension of his jaw muscles and relieved the irritation in his throat to such an extent that he went out and had a comfortable lunch. Returning to the specialist’s office, pressures were made with a padded probe (see Fig. 9) on the wall of the pharynx--the probe being introduced through the nostril.

Also, he was given instrumentation on the floor of the mouth, underneath the tongue, and a conscientious treatment with a tongue depressor. This weapon he took home and used, carrying out also the combing of the back of the hands. Three days afterwards he sang in the choir as well as ever.

Deep massage with the fingers on the muscles of the throat, and a “plucking” of the voice box are also helpful procedures. Where the irritation or the inflammation is not extensive it might be well to include them as routine measures in most throat troubles. Where there is active congestion they are, of course, not only useless, but actually harmful.

A very frequent cause of vocal ills, and a condition most generally associated with a congested throat, is a “stuffy” nose. Also, it is quite impossible to get a perfect vocal resonance if the membranes of the nose are swollen and congested with “cold” or catarrh.

The tongue and finger pressures do much to relieve these conditions, but perhaps the surest and quickest method of curing them is to “pencil” the nose with a probe, using the uncovered steel for this purpose. And, I may here remark, that the patient’s own saliva is one of the best and least irritating lubricants for this probe work in the nose.

The steel should be left in each nostril several minutes, and gently moved back and forth from time to time, for the tonic “penciling” or “ironing” effect. The curative influence of this on chronic nasal catarrh or other pathological conditions of the nose is sometimes quite remarkable.

Also, it might be well here to add that atomizers are useless, except temporarily--as after exposure to a horde of sneezers or coughers. In this event, an alkaline antiseptic may be of value.

But the constant washing away of the natural secretion of the mucous membrane, or the perpetual coating over of the air passages with a film of oil--which prevents the natural secretion from being natural--is distinctly injurious. For it tends to provoke, perpetrate and perpetuate all forms of catarrh, and none should use them--except under physician’s instruction--and then for a short time only. Stimulate normal function with a probe or sound, used at night before retiring, and in the morning on arising, and cure the condition instead of making it chronic.

It wouldn’t be difficult to get affirmative evidence to the fact that a sick voice is one of the sickest and most disheartening things that can befall one who must depend upon it for a living. But, with a little patience, and an intelligent application of the principles of zone therapy, it is a “cinch”.