Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), July 19, 1845, vol. 2, no. 2, p. ???, col. ?

[page 28, column 2, continued:]

Orthophony: or Vocal Culture in Elocution; a Manual of Elementary Exercises, adapted to Dr. Rush's “Philosophy of the Human Voice,” and designed as an Introduction to “ Russell's American Elocutionist.” By James E. Murdoch. Instructor in Orthophony and Vocal Gymnastics; and William Russell, author of “Lessons in Enunciation,” etc. With an Appendix containing directions for the cultivation of pure tone, by G. I. Webb, Professor in the Boston Academy of Music. Boston: William D. Ticknor & Co.

“The design of the exercises presented in this manual,” say the authors in a well-written Preface, “is to furnish the groundwork of practical elocution, and whatever explanations are needed for the training of the organs, and the cultivation of the voice.” We have looked through the work with great interest, and believe it to be the best American treatise on the subject discussed. There are some passages, (relating chiefly to metre), with which we totally disagree, and of which we may take an opportunity of speaking more fully hereafter — but in general the book appears to us remarkably accurate and valuable. The elocutionary abilities of Mr. Murdoch arc of a high order. We rejoice to learn that be is about returning to the stage.