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Updated: June 13, 2025
T. I don't suppose you ever dissected the arytenoid cartilages of the epiglottis, did you?" "Why, no," said I, "I am no surgeon." "Pardon me," said Judson Tate, "but every man should know enough of anatomy and therapeutics to safeguard his own health.
No one can ever forget the sight presented by the left cord in its helpless condition: the arytenoid, tipped with its cartilage of Santorini, extending far over the median line of the glottis and drawing after it the right vocal cord in a vain endeavor to put it in position where it can aid its injured mate.
On the upper edge of the cricoid cartilage are perched a pair of very singular cartilages, pyramidal in shape, called the arytenoid, which are of great importance in the production of the voice.
The cartilages are the epiglottis, thyroid, cricoid, arytenoid, the two small, unimportant cornicula laryngis, or cartilages of Santorini, surmounting the arytenoids, and the two cuneiform, or cartilages of Wrisberg, in the folds of mucous membrane on each side of the arytenoids. The muscles are attached to the main cartilages.
Muscles and connective tissue pass from the thyroid to the cricoid cartilage at all places, save one on each side, where the downward projections of the thyroid form hinge joints with the cricoid. These joints permit of motion of either cartilage upon the other. At the summit of the cricoid cartilage, on each side, is a small piece of triangular shape, called the arytenoid cartilage.
They have the general appearance of ridge-like projections from the sides of the larynx, but at their edges they are sharp and smooth. The open space between the cords is called the glottis. When sound is not being produced, the glottis is open and has a triangular form, due to the spreading apart of the arytenoid cartilages and the attached cords.
The vibration is small in amount, but very rapid. Other muscles are connected with the arytenoid cartilages which serve to seperate the vocal cords and to widely open the glottis. The force of the outgoing current of air determines the extent of the movement of the cords, and thus the loudness of the sound will increase with greater force of expiration.
It is utterly idle to tell the vocal student that as the pitch of the voice rises the arytenoid cartilages rotate, bringing their forward surfaces together, and so shortening the effective length of the vocal cords. Whatever the vocal cords are required to do is performed through an instinctive obedience to the demands of the mental ear.
With the singer one form is common, viz.: paralysis of the left adductor muscles, or those which inspire the arytenoid cartilage in drawing the left vocal cord forward to meet its fellow for the production of tone.
A special set of muscles draws the arytenoid cartilages toward each other, thereby bringing their edges very near and parallel to each other in the passage. At the same time other muscles act on the thyroid and cricoid cartilages to separate them at the top and give the cords the necessary tension.
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