But of greatest interest is her
remarkable control over the muscles which regulate the division
and modification of the resonant cavities, the laryngeal,
pharyngeal, oral, and nasal, and upon this depends the quality of
her voice. The uvula is bifurcated, and the two divisions
sometimes act independently. The epiglottis during the production
of the highest notes rises upward and backward against the
posterior pharyngeal wall in such a way as almost entirely to
separate the pharyngeal cavities, at the same time that it gives
an unusual conformation to those resonant chambers."
Complete absence of the eyes is a very rare anomaly. Wordsworth
describes a baby of seven weeks, otherwise well formed and
healthy, which had congenital absence of both eyes. The parents
of this child were in every respect healthy. There are some cases
of monstrosities with closed, adherent eyelids and absence of
eyes. Holmes reports a case of congenital absence of both eyes,
the child otherwise being strong and perfect. The child died of
cholera infantum. He also reports a case very similar in a female
child of American parents. In a girl of eight, of German parents,
he reports deficiency of the external walls of each orbit, in
addition to great deformity of the side of the head.
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