Examination
of many of these cases proves that the vibration is greatest
here. It is certain that ventriloquists have existed for many
centuries. It is quite possible that some of the old Pagan
oracles were simply the deceptions of priests by means of
ventriloquism.
Dupont, Surgeon-in-chief of the French Army about a century
since, examined minutely an individual professing to be a
ventriloquist. With a stuffed fox on his lap near his
epigastrium, he imitated a conversation with the fox. By lying on
his belly, and calling to some one supposed to be below the
surface of the ground, he would imitate an answer seeming to come
from the depths of the earth. With his belly on the ground he not
only made the illusion more complete, but in this way he
smothered "the epigastric voice."
He was always noticed to place the inanimate objects with which
he held conversations near his umbilicus.
Ventriloquists must not be confounded with persons who by means
of skilful mechanisms, creatures with movable fauces, etc.,
imitate ventriloquism. The latter class are in no sense of the
word true ventriloquists, but simulate the anomaly by quickly
changing the tones of their voice in rapid succession, and thus
seem to make their puppets talk in many different voices.
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