4 OCTOBER 1884, Page 24

Voice, Song, and Speech. By Lennox Browne and Emil Behnke.

(Sampson Low and Co.)—This work, which, although not published till the early part of the present year, has already reached a third edition, presents a happy combination of the professional knowledge of a singer and of a practical teacher. Most of it is, of course, of a tech- nical kind ; but it will interest the general reader, who, if not a speaker himself, is sure to be interested in the success of some that are. Besides other things that are of no small importance, there are some edifying diagrams displaying the changes of structure, displacement of organs, tic., caused by tight-lacing. The stomach's position and shape are entirely changed. The lungs are incredibly diminished in - extent and power. A lady whose breathing capacity, judged from her height, should have been 145 inches, could with difficulty exhale 100; but on her corset being removed, she reached 140. Another, whose proper proportion was 120, could with difficulty reach 75; she, applying the same remedy, got to 118. The mischief is happily, it would seem, remediable, at least in youth.