Ilya Grusinov

Ilya Grusinov was a Russian anatomist. In 1812 he discovered that the actual source for a deep and pleasant vocal sound is the membrane, which is a posterior wall of trachea and bronchi.

Grusinov made his discovery while anatomizing dead bodies during and after the war, and first described the audible properties of the membrane. Blowing air through, he found it to produce the sound, very similar to human voice. He described this best himself: "Anatomizing the dead bodies, by inflating the windpipe and stretching the membranous posterior wall of trachea, I have managed to produce a perfect vocal sound without engaging the vocal cords..." "Human voice is formed in the chest - in the bottom end of the windpipe (trachea), by means of the posterior membrane, attached to the cartilaginous cells..."